At Hallowed Wimbledon, It Takes a Champion to Know a Champion

Gene Mako, a Los Angeles art dealer who twice won the Wimbledon doubles with Don Budge, was strolling past one of the All England Club’s grass courts the other day when he noticed a young black woman warming up for a match.

“Who’s that kid?” he asked Bud Collins of NBC.

“Lori McNeil,” he was told.

“She any good?” Mako asked.

“Not bad, not bad,” he was told.

“Well, she’s going to be good,” Mako said. “You can tell just from the way she moves.”

Good judge, good call. Three Americans moved Monday to the Wimbledon women’s singles quarterfinals: Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert Lloyd and Lori McNeil.

Relatively unknown and unnoticed, McNeil, 22, of Houston, not only has stayed alive in the tournament, she has not even dropped a set. This is someone who had never even won a match here before.

McNeil is the San Diego-born daughter of Charlie McNeil, who used to play defensive back for the San Diego Chargers. Unseeded and ranked 78th in the world, she has earned a shot at No. 3 seed Hana Mandlikova by beating American Betsy Nagelsen (who had eliminated Pam Shriver), 7-5, 6-1, for her fourth straight straight-set match.

McNeil attended high school in Houston with Zina Garrison, who made the semifinals here last year. Althea Gibson, the 1957-58 women’s champion, and Arthur Ashe, the 1975 men’s champion, are the only black players who have done better than these young Texans.

“I’m still not satisfied,” McNeil said Monday. “I can play better. But then again, I never dreamed I’d do so well. When I got here, I didn’t even look at the draw to see who I’d play.”

McNeil and Garrison both came out of John Wilkerson’s public-parks program in Houston. McNeil was undecided whether to turn pro upon finishing high school, as Garrison did, until, following her parents’ wishes, she enrolled at Oklahoma State.

In 1983, she decided to take a break from school and join the pro tour at the Virginia Slims of Bakersfield event, where she reached the semifinals. Since then, she has been struggling.

“I’ve had a habit of blowing up after good starts,” McNeil said. “I’m hoping to put that behind me.”

Pretty good place to start.