OUTBURST BY KRAMER

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27446, 4 September 1954, Page 2

OUTBURST BY KRAMER

INCIDENT DURING CHAMPIONSHIPS

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) FOREST HILLS (New York), Sept. 2. Jack Kramer, the former tennis champion, was the centre of an untoward incident here today, after he had publicly criticised a linesman for not foot-faulting Neale Fraser, the young Australian player. Kramer, now a promoter of professional tours, and a coach of promising young American players, “blew his top" while standing among 20 or 30 persons watching the finish of Fraser’s match against Bernard Bartzen, ninth-seeded American. Fraser won 14-12 in the fourth set of a match postponed by darkness from last evening. The group of spectators, of which Kramer was a member, was standing by a fence of the grandstand court. As the match ended, Kramer loudly and emphatically said: "Fraser shouldn't have won. He was swinging his foot over the line all the time when he served. He should have been foot-faulted. It was a shame that Bartzen was beaten in that way." Kramer’s outburst about Fraser came after he had accused the linesman of footfaulting Bartzen on a second service in today's fifth game. This point through a double-fault gave Fraser the breakthrough.

Kramer, visibly angry, apparently addressed his remarks to the linesman responsible for watching for footfaults in half of Fraser’s service games—from the end of the court where Kramer was standing. The linesman retorted sharply: “He did not footfault. His foot did not swing over the line before his racquet hit the ball—only afterwards.” Kramer and the linesman continued to exchange words for a minute or two. Then Kramer, still heard by persons following him, continued to expostulate angrtly as he walked along a passageway leading away from the court until he disappeared into the stand for officials. Fraser won the match 7-9, 6-2, 9-7, 14-12, the last six games being played today.