Soggy Days at Swimbledon

But when the sun came out, Bjorn and Evonne shone

They were the finest tennis players in the world gathered to contest the most coveted prize in the sport. But for the two weeks of the 94th Wimbledon Championships, they resembled nothing so much as disappointed children kept in at recess, staring wistfully from clubhouse windows as the glowering skies dumped near record rains and even a hailstorm on the hallowed courts of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

It was one of the wettest, most frustrating Wimbledons in memory. "Swimbledon," one London paper called it. A cartoonist depicted an umpire, safe in his chair, directing a lifeboat across a submerged Centre Court: "Miss Navratilova went down just about there!" Men's Finalist John McEnroe asked plaintively: "I wonder when it's going to snow?"

Though the sun did not shine much, a couple of players did. Bjorn Borg, 24, rolled to his fifth straight title, setting a record of 35 consecutive match victories in Wimbledon play. Evonne Goolagong Cawley, 28, the most graceful player to take Centre Court in a generation, outclassed Chris Evert Lloyd to capture her second Wimbledon title.

It was a sentimentalist's women's final. Evert Lloyd first won Wimbledon at 19, later added one more title. Goolagong was 19 when she won the title in 1971, enchanting English fans with her fluid strokes and gliding style. Both are married women now, and they came to the tournament as underdogs, only to play brilliantly. Evert Lloyd deposed the reigning champion, Martina Navratilova, 23, and Goolagong stopped the rising star, Tracy Austin, 17, to meet for the crown. But it was Goolagong, playing tennis as though it were a sonata, not a sport, who carried the day. She won the first set 6 games to 1, then held off a gritty comeback by Evert Lloyd to win the final set in a tie breaker, 7-6.

For the men's final, the rain held off as Borg and America's McEnroe hooked up in an epic five-set, four-hour confrontation. McEnroe, 21, reached Centre Court by knocking off Jimmy Connors in a stormy semifinal the previous day. Against Borg, however, he was the picture of decorum--and skill--as he fought back brilliantly. After sleepwalking through the first set and losing 6-1, Borg won the next two and in the fourth set was only a point away from winning the championship no fewer than seven times. But McEnroe held him off again and again, finally winning an extraordinary 18-16 tie breaker that will be remembered as one of the most dramatic in Wimbledon history. In the fifth set neither man was able to break the other's serve until Borg did so in the 14th game for an 8-6 victory and a record fifth consecutive Wimbledon title. "It was my hardest and best championship," he said after the match. And then he promised to be back next year for a go at No. 6.

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