A Carnation for Victor

Kurt Nielsen is a broad-shouldered, 22-year-old Danish tennis player who gets comparatively little chance to play on grass; the outdoor season in Denmark is too short. Wimbledon's tennis fathers knew him by reputation: a dangerous player in the indoor game, sometimes lamentably given to clowning, kicking the ball and glowering at umpires. But they saw no reason to seed him among the top ten at Wimbledon this year. Last week they sat watching nervously as Denmark's Nielsen made his bid to become the first unseeded player in history to win the Wimbledon title. He kept them on edge to the last day.

For one thing, Kurt Nielsen wore his best court manners; there was no clowning or glowering. "One should sing as the birds one is with," he explained. Then, in a succession of upsets, he knocked three top-seeded stars out of the tournament. In each case, his victim had a physical alibi: the U.S.'s Gardnar Mulloy (No. 5) a leg cramp, Australia's Ken Rosewall (No. 1) a queasy stomach, Czech-born Jaroslav Drobny (No. 4) a wrenched leg muscle. Nonetheless, there Nielsen was: a Wimbledon finalist, and the first unseeded one since 1930.*

Denmark vibrated with pride, and the Danish state radio flew over a special broadcaster. The night before the finals, Kurt drank a victory toast (champagne) to himself and asked cheerfully: "What have I got to lose?" The celebration ended on Wimbledon's center court next day, when the youthful Nielsen faced the U.S.'s second-seeded Vic Seixas, a robust 29-year-old playing the best tennis of his nomadic life (TIME, March 30).

Seixas promptly broke Nielsen's big serve, then took full command. Displaying a champion's full repertory of shots—hard-hit passing drives, volleys and smashes—Vic swept on, 9-7, 6-3, 6-4, to win his first major title (and the sixth Wimbledon taken by an American since the postwar renewal in 1946). The wife of a Danish embassy official handed Kurt Nielsen a bunch of red and white carnations (Danish colors). Kurt pulled one out and handed it to Vic Seixas. The U.S.'s new Wimbledon champion made Denmark's unseeded finalist a deep bow, while 16,000 fans roared their approval.

In the women's final, San Diego's hard-driving Maureen ("Little Mo") Connolly won her second Wimbledon title in a row, 8-6, 7-5, in a brilliant baseline match with Doris Hart of Coral Gables, Fla. It was the eighth all-American women's finals in eight years.