Davis Cup

In August 1914, as German troops were slogging through Belgium, the eyes of the sport world focused for a moment on a tennis court at Forest Hills, N. Y. There, in what was probably the most dramatic tennis match ever played, Australasian Tennists Norman Brookes and Anthony Wilding, on the eve of joining their British regiments, captured the Davis Cup from U. S. Tennists R. Norris Williams, Maurice McLoughlin and Tom Bundy.

Last week, with Norman Brookes (now Sir Norman because of "distinguished service to the Empire") looking on,* a new generation of Davis Cuppers from Down Under challenged a new generation of U. S. Davis Cuppers in a war-clouded spectacle that promised to be as dramatic as the one 25 years ago. In the stands at the Merion Cricket Club at Haverford, Pa., grave-faced tennis fans gathered for the opening matches of the threeday, best-of-five series, wondered if this was to be the last Davis Cup contest they would ever see. German troops were already slogging through Poland, another World War was only a few hours away.

But the Merion courts last week saw no such titanic struggle as the never-to-be-forgotten Brookes-McLoughlin match of 1914, in which the American beat the Australian 17-15 in the first set. What last week's matches lacked in suspense, however, they made up for in surprise.

The Australians were 3-to-1 favorites to regain the Cup they had lost in 1920. Ambidextrous, 20-year-old John Bromwich (Australia's top-ranking player) and stocky, 26-year-old Adrian K. Quist (Australia's No. 2) have been considered the world's best amateur tennists since California's Donald Budge turned professional last winter and Germany's Baron von Cramm retired to the sidelines.

The U. S. singles players, 21-year-old Bobby Riggs and 23-year-old Frankie Parker--despite the fact that Riggs won the All-England championship at Wimbledon this year and Parker clinched the Davis Cup for the U. S. two years ago --were considered the weakest Davis Cup players the U. S. had had in a generation. For the doubles--to face seasoned Quist and Bromwich--U. S. Davis Cup Captain Walter Pate selected 20-year-old Joe Hunt and 18-year-old Jack Kramer. It was a last-minute, panic choice. Gene Mako, who had teamed brilliantly with Don Budge in three previous Cup matches, had proved to be a chump with any other partner, and Bobby Riggs & Elwood Cooke (who were good enough to win the Wimbledon Doubles championship this summer) were trounced by Quist & Bromwich in the U. S. Doubles fortnight ago.

Riggs was expected to win one singles match last week--most likely against Quist, whom he had defeated in the Davis Cup Challenge Round last year. Beyond this lonely hope, few tennis experts expected much from the U. S. team. But at the end of the first day's matches, the experts realized that they had sold Riggs and Parker short.

Against Bromwich, who beat him in the challenge round last year, Riggs displayed a brilliance he had never before shown. His whirlwind attack, baffling service, cunning change of pace so confounded his touted opponent that Bromwich lost the match in straight sets, 6-4, 6-0, 7-5 (the second set took only eleven minutes). Against Quist, Parker pulled an even bigger surprise. Equipped with little more than a powerful backhand, grim determination and deadly accuracy, the onetime U. S. No. 2 player (ranked 8th this year), tantalized the better-equipped Australian, matched him stroke for stroke for two and a half hours, finally won in a dazzling, last-minute rally, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5.

Next day, during the doubles, it looked as if even the U. S. kids, Hunt & Kramer, might outplay the disheartened Australians. With only ten days' experience as partners, Hunt, an Annapolis midshipman with a big serve, and Kramer, a University of California freshman with Vines-like strokes and a slam-banging overhead, took the first set, 7-5. Then Quist & Bromwich began to pull together, outsmarted the youngsters, took the match, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5, 6-2.

The last day's matches showed the experts justified. After Riggs had lost to Quist in a five-set battle, Bromwich took Parker in straight sets, and the Davis Cup was Australia's. In spite of this defeat, U. S. tennis fans could be certain that no Australian would even threaten to win this year's U. S. Singles championship. For the following day Sir Norman was to take his team back home to join the army.

Who Won

>Private Alfred L. Wolters, U. S. Marine Corps: the Wimbledon Cup* match (long range, free rifle championship), one of the major events of the annual 100-event National Rifle and Pistol Matches; defeating 1,937 U. S. marksmen and setting a new world's record with 27 consecutive Vs (perfect bull's-eyes) from 1,000 yards, prone; at Camp Perry, Ohio. Previous record: 19.

>Frank Fuller Jr.: the $27,000 Bendix Transcontinental (Burbank, Calif, to Bendix, N. J.) air race. Time: 8 hrs., 58 min., 8.46 sec. Art Chester: the $20.000 Greve Trophy speed race: at an average 263 m.p.h.; after Contestant Leland Williams crashed fatally; at the 19th annual National Air Races, at Cleveland.

*Wilding was killed during air combat in France. Brookes who saw service in Mesopotamia, survived to become the patron saint of Australian tennis. *Presented in 1875 by Princess Louise, Queen Victoria's daughter, to a U. S. rifle team which, while on a goodwill tour, was competing in the British matches at Wimbledon, London suburb since more famed for its tennis matches.

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