With Rafael Nadal withdrawing from next week’s USA vs. Spain Davis Cup quarterfinal in Austin, Texas to rest following Wimbledon, it is interesting to note that 80 years ago this week, a player withdrew from Wimbledon – the final no less – to rest up for Davis Cup.
As documented in the new posthumously-published memoir of Sidney Wood called THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS, Frank Shields, the grandfather of actress and model Brooke Shields, withdrew from the 1931 Wimbledon men’s singles final against Wood, his best friend, roommate, doubles partner and U.S. Davis Cup teammate. Shields was forced to withdraw from the final – on orders from the U.S. Tennis Association – to rest his knee that he injured in closing out his semifinal win over Jean Borotra so that he would be fit for the U.S. Davis Cup match with Great Britain shortly after Wimbledon.
Shields closed out one of the most dramatic matches ever played on Centre Court at Wimbledon on July 1, 1931, after badly injuring his knee late in the fourth set. Playing virtually on one leg, he incredibly hit five unreturnable serves, leading two sets to one and serving at 4-3, 40-30 in the fourth set, to advance into the final.
On July 3, 1931 – the day before the scheduled men’s singles final – the Wimbledon walk-over was announced. Wrote Wood in THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS, “Frank wanted to play, and could have played. But the U.S. Davis Cup committee wouldn’t let him. Can you imagine that happening today, expecting a guy to give up a shot at the Wimbledon title just to be ready for a Davis Cup match? But we were amateurs then, and the USTA had the power of life and death over us. Frank and I thought it was a terrible affront to Wimbledon to leave them without a men’s final, but that’s the way it was.”
In THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS, Wood then details the “Private Understanding Playoff” between he and Shields and how the Wimbledon trophy was locked in a safe deposit box for three years until the two would play their next grass-court tournament final.
Wrote Wood, “It wasn’t Frank’s fault that he had to default. He didn’t really want to default. I know that obviously I wanted to play, at the same time I figured well, if Frank were to default, I’m the Wimbledon Champion and we’ll play it off some other time, which is exactly what we did..”
Wood, who passed away in 2009 at the age of 97, can be called the greatest story teller tennis ever had, as he also relates in the book fascinating anecdotes and stories that involve some of greatest titans of tennis and such legendary Hollywood personalities as Grace Kelly, Errol Flynn, Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx, Gary Cooper among others. Wood also critiques all the best players and all the best strokes for every top player through the years – from Bill Tilden, Rene Lacoste and Don Budge all the way to the modern era of the game.
THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS ($15.95, New Chapter Press, is available here on Amazon.com.
Wood was born on November 1, 1911 in Black Rock, Conn., and was a long-time resident of New York, N.Y., Southampton, N.Y., and Palm Beach, Fla. When he won the Wimbledon title in 1931 at age 19, he was the youngest man to win the singles title at the All England Club – 17-year-old Boris Becker breaking his record in 1985. He still holds the record of being the youngest player to compete at Wimbledon at age 15 in 1927. He was a singles finalist at the 1935 U.S. Championships and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1964.
David Wood is the youngest son of Sidney Wood and served as a contributor to the book.