The
Website of Maria Bueno, Tennis Champion
|
|
|
|
The Crowning Glory (1960 to 1964)
By now a major celebrity, Maria was in great demand, particularly socially. She gained a certain reputation for making entrances when she arrived late for the International Club dinner and upstaged His Royal Highness Duke of Edinburgh, beside whom she had been seated as guests of honour.
Despite singles losses in Australia (due to cramps in the excessive heat), Paris
and the US (after the final was postponed nearly a week by Hurricane Donna), she
went on to win the Grand Slam in doubles, capturing the titles in Australia,
France, Wimbledon and Forest Hills with different partners - Christine Truman at
Kooyong and Darlene Hard at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and Forest Hills. It was the turn of her country to go mad. They issued a special air mail stamp bearing the words ‘campeonato mundial de tenis feminino’. On her return home she was crowned with a tiara, seated next to Brazil’s President Juscelino Kubitschek in a helicopter and taken on a triumphant flight a few yards above the heads of a crowd of several hundreds of thousands of frantically cheering partisans. The Jockey Club gave her a car, the Tiete Club two magnificent leather bound scrap books filled with newspaper cuttings of her exploits and they also erected a 60 feet statue of her near the entrance.
Maria first attracted the attention of Ted Tinling, the couturier who dressed all the stars at that time, in Paris on her first trip to Europe in 1958. He described her as “his greatest challenge. So compelling was the Latin magnetism that failure could not come from her. If we did not succeed together : No alibis - it would be my fault entirely.” It seems Ted was set to clothe Maria at Wimbledon but when he arrived he discovered she was going to wear clothing from the same company as used by Althea Gibson. A row apparently ensued at the exclusive Lady Crossfield’s garden party on the eve of Wimbledon but all was resolved and a successful association began that was to last a decade. Always
somewhat controversial, Maria and her dresses were trend-setters in the world of
fashion. The introduction
of shocking Italian Pink caused another stir when it appeared at Wimbledon in 1962 in the
lining of Maria’s all-white dress, a shocking contrast to the grey day under
which her semi-final against Vera Sukova was played on the Centre Court. The crowd gasped as Maria served, offering a brief and tantalising glimpse of the new colour. Only when she changed ends and served again did those on the far side understand what had caused the amusement. Sadly, Maria lost the match and a controversy arose over the distractions created by fashion.
To the unpracticed eyes of certain enraged committee members it appeared Tinling had deliberately chosen the club colours of green and mauve to adorn the most shapely bottom in The Championships.” The next year, Wimbledon introduced a stricter predominantly white clothing rule. Sadly, not everything was to go smoothly for Maria. At the height of her career she was troubled by illness and injury. In 1961 she arrived in Paris feverish and feeling tired. The trouble was not immediately diagnosed and she was allowed to go on exercising for a couple of hours a day.
Her recovery was to prove slow but nevertheless certain and by February 1962, Maria had her sights set, once again, on Wimbledon. It was an anxious and worrying time for her as she struggled to regain her fitness and form. Major titles were to prove elusive that year, with Maria losing to Margaret Smith in the Italian finals after a thrilling match that showed her to be capable of her best, then falling to the clever Czech housewife, Vera Sukova at Wimbledon and again to Margaret at Forest Hills, both at the semi-final stages. A year later, however, Maria won again at Forest Hills, beating Margaret 7-5 6-4 to prove she really was back at her very best. In both 1962 and 1963 she finished second in the world top ten ranking behind only Margaret Smith. 1964 was a procession of triumph, with the Wimbledon and American singles titles offsetting a loss to Margaret in the French final and in December she was rewarded with the world’s number one ranking again, a status she had not enjoyed since 1959 and 1960.
It was truly a personal triumph. |
|
Click on the logo to visit our website
|
In
1960, Maria Bueno made a triumphant return to Wimbledon and retained her title
when she beat South Africa’s Sandra Reynolds 8-6 6-0 in the final.
