Double Negative

Another Australian victory in the 1956 Davis Cup challenge round was as good as won. The decisive volley was a pair of announcements last week by Australia's top singles players, Lewis Hoad and Kenneth Rosewall, declaring that they would stay in amateur tennis and rejecting the $45,000-a-year professional contracts offered them by U.S. Promoter Jack Kramer. Since U.S. Singles Champion Tony Trabert, the only U.S. player in the Australians' class, has already signed a pro contract (TIME, Oct. 24), a successful U.S. challenge for the Davis Cup next year looks hopeless.

The Aussies' double negative was also a heavy blow to Promoter Kramer, who was counting on the Hoad-Rosewall-Trabert matches to be the feature attractions on a forthcoming world tennis tour. Said Kramer: "This hits me like a ton of bricks." Kramer claimed that he had definite promises from both Australians to turn pro when they left the U.S. last month. But back home in Australia they came under heavy pressure to change their minds. Lew Hoad, who earns $4,500 as a part-time racket salesman for the Dunlop Sports Co., Ltd., was promised unspecified "opportunities of advancement." Slazengers Proprietary Ltd., the sporting goods firm that employs Ken Rosewall, offered him a new five-year contract. The Carnation Milk Co. promised Rosewall an additional job to bring his earnings up to $5,600 a year.

U.S. National Women's Tennis Champion Doris Hart, 30, announced last week that she would turn professional to take a job as a tennis teacher at the Flamingo Hotel in Miami Beach. Said Champion Hart: "I'm tired of traveling, and I want to give the younger players the kind of help I never got."

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