Wimbledon Re-Lived: 1973 - The Boycott

The Tennis Podcast

David Law

Wimbledon, Sports, Tennis, Sports & Recreation

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2021

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this Wimbledon edition of Tennis Re-Lived we tell the story of the 1973 boycott year, when more than 80 men withdrew from the tournament to protest the suspension of Yugoslavia’s number one player Nikola Pilic, opening the door for Jan Kodes to win the title.

Journalist Richard Evans talks us through the political background which led to the boycott, Cliff Drysdale, who was ATP President at the time, explains why the players felt they had to unite, and Billie Jean King reveals why the women weren’t involved.

Turning our attention to the actual tennis, what must it have been like to be one of the 50 lucky losers in the draw? In what way did Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors become unexpected stars of the event? And how did Kodes end up lifting the trophy?

Finally, we consider the current political climate in tennis and ponder whether a boycott could be on the cards once again as the PTPA grows.

The Tennis Podcast is presented by Catherine Whitaker and David Law, and features Matt Roberts. It is produced weekly year-round, and daily during the Grand Slam tournaments. It is crowdfunded by listeners each December.

Some resources:

When SW19 turned to the picket line, by Frank Keating - https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2003/jun/23/tennis.wimbledon200311

The Rankings that changed Tennis, by James Buddell - https://www.atptour.com/en/news/heritage-1973-atp-rankings-celebration-part-i

Boycott or not, Jan Kodes’ 1973 Wimbledon triumph was for real, by Steve Flink - https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/player-boycott-or-not-jan-kodes-1973-wimbledon-triumph-was-for-real

A BLOOMIN’ WINNER, by Joe Jares - https://vault.si.com/vault/1973/07/16/a-bloomin-winner

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, this is Billie Jean King. This is Mary and Bartoli. I'm Matt Svillander. This is Mary Carillo.
0:05.3	I'm Stan Ravinka. I'm Lighten Hutt. This is Yannick Noah and you're listening to the tennis podcast.
0:21.3	Hello folks and welcome to the first of our 2021 Wimbledon Relived editions where today we're
0:29.6	going to take you back to 1973, a time when David Law was somewhere in between I Twinkle and
0:41.1	enormous presence in the world. Yes, that's right. I was born... Oh, a couple of months after the
0:51.2	the Wimbledon that we're going to discuss. Yes. Where you're a big baby, David.
0:56.0	Was I a big baby? I was normal sized, I think, as it goes. In fact, that sort of stayed the same until I was
1:03.6	about 17 and then things got ridiculous and I don't quite know. They describe babies as long
1:09.1	rather than tall, don't they? Remember and in the early days of the Ricky Gervais XFM podcast
1:18.2	at Carl Polkinton is quizzing Stephen Merchant on whether he was a tall baby.
1:24.2	We were tall baby. Mr and Mrs Merchant, you've given birth to a basketball player.
1:30.4	Yes, my feet were commented on and that immediately on birth.
1:36.4	So it's 1973 which many most some of you might instantly recognise as the Wimbledon boycott year.
1:45.6	It's also the year that Billie Jean King won the second of her triple crowns, the singles,
1:53.5	doubles and mixed doubles title which is extraordinary in itself but we've picked 1973 because
2:02.0	it is the boycott year. The title was won by Jan Kodersh and the men's side. We'll do a little
2:08.8	scene set for you shall we? Now that you know David Law's status in the world, obviously Matt and I
2:13.9	were irrelevances at this point. So we'll tell you what the rest of the world was up to in 1973.
2:23.6	What was Bruce Springsteen up to in 1973, Matt? This is the important point.
2:28.4	He was just getting started in 1973. His debut album, Greetings from As We Part, because released
2:35.7	now yeah, big year, big year. Law and Springsteen unleashed onto the world in one year.
2:46.1	What a thought. What was it? Richard Nixon was sworn in for a second term, didn't go brilliantly.
	...

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