Double Fault

For a year or more lawn tennis enthusiasts have argued over the possibility of Donald Budge, world's No. 1 amateur, beating Ellsworth Vines, world's No. 1 professional. They had never met in a formal tennis match (Budge was still playing with the juniors in 1933 when Vines turned pro).

Vines backers stoutly maintained that their man has the best forehand in the world, that he had beaten Fred Perry, his successor and Budge's predecessor as world's No. 1 amateur, in a night-after-night series of professional matches last year. Budge backers were equally vociferous in proclaiming that their man has the best backhand in the world, that he had won every match he wanted to win since Fred Perry beat him at Forest Hills in 1936, that he is the only tennist in history to win in one year all four major amateur championships: Australian, French, English, U. S. Like urchins arguing on a street corner, the Vinesmen usually ended the rally by jeering that Budge was at the top because he had never met any real opposition.

Last week in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden, the Budge backhand finally met the Vines forehand. It was the opening match of a 70-city Budge v. Vines professional tour, and 17,000 tennis enthusiasts gladly paid up to $7.70 a seat to see it: They breathlessly watched Budge serve his first ball--his first stroke under lights, indoors, for pay. The ball landed three feet beyond the baseline.

Sixty minutes later 17,000 polite tennis fans looked at one another in astonishment. If they had been prizefight fans they would have yelled: "We wuz robbed." The great spectacle the tennis world had been anticipating for more than a year had been about as exciting as a ladies' Sunday morning doubles match at the club. Budge, playing below his best, had made Vines, the veteran, look like a chump, had trounced him, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

Convinced now that Budge could beat Vines, tennis enthusiasts started to argue anew: Could Budge beat Vines in the 70-match series? At week's end they were all even with two victories apiece.

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