This day in sports: Billie Jean King wins her first of six Wimbledon singles titles
Billie Jean King won the first of her six women’s singles titles at Wimbledon on this date in 1966 when she beat Maria Bueno of Brazil 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
King took control midway through the third set after she solved Bueno’s high-kicking second serve. From there, she dropped only four more points to win the last three games of the match.
The 23-year old Long Beach star, who endeared herself to Wimbledon fans as the girl who chattered to herself on the court, said afterward:
“This is what I can do by keeping my mouth shut. I’m really concentrating now, as I never have before.”
On what would have been Mookie Betts bobblehead night, the Dodgers were scheduled to finish a four-game series with the Cincinnati Reds at Dodger Stadium on Thursday. The Angels and the Tampa Bay Rays would have closed out a four-game affair with a day game at St. Petersburg, Fla. Both contests were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the biggest moments in sports from May 30, including John McEnroe falling in the third round of the 1980 French Open in a four-hour-plus match.
A look at memorable games and outstanding sports performances on this date:
1921 — The Jack Dempsey-Georges Carpentier heavyweight championship fight at Rickard’s Orchard in Jersey City, N.J., is the first $1-million gate in boxing history. The amount breaks the old mark of $452,522 set in 1919 when Dempsey fought Jess Willard. The receipts total $1,789,238 with ringside seats selling at $50 each. In front of 80,183 fans, Dempsey, the western mining camp saloon fighter, knocks out Carpentier, the French war hero, at 1:16 of the fourth round.
1927 — No. 1-seed Helen Wills is the first American woman to win at Wimbledon since May Sutton did it in 1907. Wills beats Lili de Alvar 6-2, 6-4 for the singles title. She would go on to win seven more singles championships at Wimbledon, which is not surpassed until Martina Navratilova wins her ninth in 1990.
1933 — In the first game of a doubleheader at the Polo Grounds, Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants pitches 18 innings to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 1-0. He gives up six hits, strikes out 12 and walks none in the four-hour, three-minute marathon. In the second game, the Cardinals are blanked again 1-0 when Roy Parmelee out-pitches Dizzy Dean. Johnny Vergez’s home run in the fourth inning is the difference.
1963 — Juan Marichal, 25, of the San Francisco Giants beats Warren Spahn, 42, and the Milwaukee Braves 1-0 in 16 innings when Willie Mays hits a home run to left field with one out to end the game at Candlestick Park. Mays throws out first baseman Norm Larker at the plate trying to score from second base in the fourth inning.
1967 — Catherine Lacoste, 22, of France is the first foreigner and first amateur to win the U.S. Women’s Open when she takes the championship at the Cascades Course of the Homestead Golf Club in Hot Springs, Va. Although she shoots a final-round 79 for a 10-over-par 294 total, she still wins by two shots over Susie Maxwell and Beth Stone.
1989 — Jockey Steve Cauthen is the first rider in history to sweep the world’s four major derbies when he wins the Irish Derby aboard Old Vic. Cauthen had previously won the Kentucky Derby on Affirmed (1978), the Epsom Derby with Slip Anchor (1985) and Reference Point (1987) and the French Derby on Old Vic (1989). Old Vic receives England’s Horse of the Year honors.
1994 — Colombian defender Andres Escobar, 27, is killed outside a bar in his hometown of Medellin in what is speculated as retaliation by the Mafia or enraged soccer fans for his deflecting a ball into Colombia’s goal during a 2-1 loss to the United States in the group stage of the World Cup. In 1995, Humberto Munoz Castro, a driver-bodyguard for an unnamed “business executive,” is arrested and convicted for Escobar’s murder.
A look at some of the biggest moments in sports history to have occurred on June 10, including Ben Hogan forcing a playoff in the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion G.C.
2005 — Rookie Danica Patrick, driving for Rahal Letterman Racing, wins her first IndyCar series pole at Kansas Speedway to become the second woman to qualify for the No. 1 position on the racing grid. Sarah Fisher was the first female pole-sitter in 2002 at Kentucky Speedway. Patrick, 23, would go on to win two more poles—at Kentucky, and at Chicagoland Speedway — to tie Tomas Schekeler’s for most poles in a rookie season.
2017 — Jeff Horn shocks Manny Pacquiao when he wins a controversial unanimous decision at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia. Horn takes the World Boxing Organization welterweight title when all three judges award him the bout. American Waleska Roldan’s score of 117-111 attracts the most criticism, while Chris Flores of the United States and Ramon Cerdan of Argentina each make it closer at 115-113. Twelve of 15 media outlets score in favor of Pacquiao while only two side with Horn.
SOURCES: The Times, Associated Press
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