Tennis Channel is celebrating it's Wimbledon coverage this year by airing a "Classic" match each night this week. Last night's offering was the 1973 Ladies Championship between Billie Jean King and Chris Evert. And watching it, you'd have to say their almost genteel rhythm looks nothing like the tennis played today by Venus, Serena and Maria. Beyond that, a lot of other things that harken back to how much simpler a Major was viewed back then. Much less pomp and pageantry.

*The first jaw dropping thing I saw was when they walked onto the court and gave their bouquets away to handlers, Chris Evert laid her purse down against the umpire's chair-stand! Can you imagine that? Bring your purse court-side to a Wimbledon Final?! Makes you wonder what the locker room condition or security was back then, huh?

*The reason she had to lay her purse there was simple: there were no chairs for the players!! Each woman carried out two racquets onto the court, and they only had head coverings with the Wilson logo. No gargantuan racquet bag, no other luggage holding who-only-knows-what. Just two racquets!! Nowadays there's not only a chair for the player, but also a chair for all the luggage they schlep onto court with them .

*There was no coin toss. Wanna know how it was determined who'd decide on serving & receiving? Just like they do on any court anywhere in the world: the flip of the racquet logo at the base of the handle!! They both used Wilson Wood Racquets - and one called "up", and the "W" was facing down. So Evert served first, based on that!!

*Evert served with two balls in her hand every time she stepped up, much like Graf used to in her early career. But what's funny is that if she made her first serve, at some point early in the rally Evert would release the other ball from her hand and it rolled behind her. It just lay there back there behind the base line until the point was over! It's amazing she never once fell because of inadvertently stepping on the ball she put there. And none of the ball boys ventured out to grab it, either.

*The trophy ceremony was much different then. The Duchess of Kent never even went to the court; the Duke conducted the presentation. Billie Jean was called out first as the Champion, given the Rosewater Dish which she gleefully started waving around. Evert was called out afterward, and given what looked like a small box you'd have a wristwatch in. Nothing like the runner-up silver plate you get today.

Evert was clearly overwhelmed at being in her first Wimbledon Final at age 18, despite having reached the Wimbledon Semis a year earlier (losing to Goolagong). Chris got blitzed 6-0 in the opening set. King was the defending champ, not only did she beat Evert to win the 1973 Singles, she also won that years Ladies Doubles Title with Betty Stove and the Mixed Doubles Title with Owen Davidson!! So while Secretariat was waltzing to the Triple Crown on the track that same spring, King did her own Triple Crown version at the 1973 Championships!!

Their 2nd Set was more competitive, and it was a real lesson too. Neither one was hitting with anything close to the power we see today in either serves, volleys or ground strokes. Yet they still managed to do pretty well holding their own serve until 5-all, when King scored the decisive break (they traded a break early, but you'd expect that when World #2 and World #4 meet up). There may have been one or two that escape me, but I don't recall one ace being hit. Holding serve back then was a lot more about the ensuing rally and not the serve itself - even on the fast grass of Wimbledon. King was feeding a lot of junk to Evert, slicing of both sides, and Chris had a lot of trouble early figuring out how to fight it. So in the 2nd Set Chris started moon-balling King and it worked well in patches, forcing Billie Jean back to the base line and forced her also to cough up a lot more errors. So no matter how fast or slow they play the game, the basics of how to win are exactly the same & just as relevant today as they were a generation ago.

Being a Chris Evert fan since I was 12, I was interested in seeing this match since I neevr saw it on tv. I think because it wasn't telvised. Anyway, the thing that caught my eye right away was what you mentioned about Chris dropping the ball after getting her 1st serve in. I knew she had done it, but never saw it. Do you think anybody would get away with that today, especially when they complain about grunting now???? That was distracting for me because I was watching the ball to see if Chris would trip on it.
It was pretty interesting to watch though. You do see more strategy from the players and how a point develops other than seeing them bang out a point like they do today.

Thats why I call the tennis of those days "country club" tennis. Its the kind of tennis I see the housewives play at the club in their little tennis dresses. Very relaxed and no noise...looking like its warmup. Nowadays the ball is going so fast and the power and grunting is amazing. So crazy how the game has definitely changed.

Voicemale...I was watching and had all the same thoughts, especially about no chairs for changeovers and holding two balls. It was also fun to see to origins of the killer instinct that Evert developed. Obviosuly she didn't win but after getting bageled in the first set she had King pretty nervous in the second set. So many of today's prodigees would have rolled over and played deadif they'd been bageled in the first set of their first appearance in a Slam final.

I know. Much less pounding on the body back then, which is why Billie Jean was able to win Wimbledon again at age 32 in 1975. So there's a trade off - back then more women lasted longer. In fact King beat Tracy Austin at Wimbledon in 1982 at age 38!

Mostly I think, though, it's a Chicken-Egg thing regarding the differences of then and now. Players are much fitter and faster today for sure. But they have to be because the equipment that started with Graphite in the early 80's and the string revolution of the late 90's forced that upon everyone. The equipment generated more power, more spin, and crazy angles that kept drawing people further and further off the court. You had to be stronger, fitter and faster than ever just to keep up. But conversely, if Venus, Serena, Maria, et.al., had to play today with wood racquets strung with nothing but gut, well, we wouldn't be seeing the games they now have. They's still be who they are and would adjust (like all champions do), but with much less velocity. That's why I was thinking as I saw it yesterday - everyone still had to hold their serve and the best players often did so without anything like the equipment of today.

I wish they'd have shown the 1970 Ladies Final between King & Margaret Court. That one went 14-12 and 11-9 in favor of Court. But to watch those two and their sheer athleticism, and power (considering they were hitting with wood sticks) was amazing to see, especially Court. She trained with all the Aussie men of the time (Laver, Rosewall, Newcombe, etc.) and it showed. She was a Force, for sure. So much a Force that King nicknamed Court "The Arm".

Evert herself said that in her later career she was a better player than she was when she dominated. And it's true. She was stronger, fitter and faster at the end of her career; she had to be to stay relevant.

That would have been interesting to see. Wonder how one of Borg's final wins from 76-78 would look. Probably an amazing amount of serve and volley at the W.

Chris had a killer instinct from 1970 when she beat Margaret Court during Court's slam year. And then at 16 reaching the semis of the USO in 1971, having survived match points against one opponent, if not 2. 1973 was Chris' first Wimbledon final. But she had made the final of the French a month prior to this Wimbledon. She lost to Margaret Court, her last loss at the French until 1981.