Davis Cup

The U. S. last week played England at Wimbledon in the challenge round for the Davis Cup, lost the first two matches, won the third. With the score 2-to-1 for England, the U. S. team could win this No. 1 tennis trophy only by repeating what it had done the week before against Australia.

The score was also two matches to one in favor of Australia when towheaded Sidney B. Wood Jr. went out to play Australia's Jack Crawford. Inspired tennis won two sets for Wood, 6-3, 9-7 before rain postponed play for the day (TIME, July 30). Next afternoon, Wood's touch deserted him and Crawford, deliberate, steady, workmanlike, evened the score, 6-4, 6-4. Wood finally found his game in the last set, won it and the match, 6-2.

It took towering Frank Shields just an hour to deal with Australia's eccentric 18-year-old Vivian McGrath, who plays shots off his left side with two hands and who had unexpectedly beaten Wood the first day of play. The score was 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. Shields's victory put the U. S. in the challenge round against England for the Cup.

If Wood could beat England's World Champion Frederick J. Perry or if Shields could beat England's No. 2 dapper little Henry Wilfred ("Bunny") Austin, the U. S. had a fine chance to win the Davis Cup for the first time in eight years. In the other three matches, it was agreed that George Lott and Lester Stoefen could scarcely fail to demolish any doubles team England could put on the court; that Wood would probably beat Austin; and that Perry would certainly beat Shields. The draw scheduled both crucial singles matches for the first day of the series.

In the opening match, Shields, serving wildly, lost the first game. Austin, sleek-haired, wearing -L-3 flannel shorts, worked the score to 4-all, then broke Shields's serve, took the set, 6-4. Flustered by an opponent who refused to be stampeded by cannonball serves and occasional blistering volleys, Shields tried to pull his game together, managed to lead, 4-2, in the second set. Thereafter the match was all Austin's, 6-4, 6-1.

Against Perry, Wood was wild in the first set, made no effort to prevent Perry from winning it, 6-1. Whisking his well-timed backhand down the sidelines, he won the next two, 6-4, 7-5. After the rest period, Perry evened the match, 6-0, while Wood gathered his forces for the fifth set. The moment that settled the match for last week's spectators at Wimbledon, the moment which will be remembered as the climax of a tournament that lasted for 13 months and in which 27 countries entered teams, came in the fifth set. Perry had led, 5-1. Wood then pulled up to 3-5 on his own serve. At 30-all, he still had a fair chance to even the series. He sent two shots in succession into the bottom of the net, walked forward to shake hands.

Two days later, Lott & Stoefen had more trouble than they expected beating Harold George Newcombe Lee and George Patrick Hughes, 7-5, 6-0, 4-6, 9-7. The forlorn chance that the U. S. might repeat its performance of the week before disappeared next day when Perry beat Shields, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 15-13. In the last match of the series Austin beat Wood, 6-4, 6-0, 6-8, 6-3.

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