DAVIS CUP FINAL COULD BE VERY CLOSE CONTEST

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28984, 27 August 1959, Page 17

DAVIS CUP FINAL COULD BE VERY CLOSE CONTEST

TN April a former American A Davis Cup captain. Bill Talbert, said he did not believe that Australia would reach this year’s challenge round against the United States. “I think they'll reach the end of the line in midJuly, when they meet Mexico in Mexico City.” About the same time Australian sports writers were also expressing a lack of confidence in their team. One said that the challenge round this year could cease to be an Australian preserve for the first time since 1939.

In spite of such predictions—and they were not over-rash; Australia was so weakened that there was plenty of basis for them —tomorrow at the West Side Tennis Club. Forest Hills, New York. Australia will begin the challeng? . round with Sixth Contest This will be Australia's sixth Davis -Cup contest this year and a significant aspect, in the light of the earlier gloomy predictions, is that the five ties have all been won by good margins—only three matches have been lost in the 25 played, two singles by Rod Laver and one by Roy Emerson. As expected, Mexico proved the biggest hurdle for, although Australia won by 4 matches to 1, the sets margin was only 12 to 9; apart from Laver’s lost single all the other singles took five sets to win. Since then, Canada has been beaten,. 5-0, Cuba. 5-0, Italy, 4-1 (Emerson lost to Nicola Pietrangeli) and India, 4-1 (Laver lost to the consistent Ramanthan Krishnan). Sets over the five contests have worked out at 67 for and 21 against. As usual, on the eve of the famous challenge round the “confidence statements have been made. “We can win back the Davis Cup if our boys hold their present form,” says Harry Hopman. “Nobody is going to beat Olmedo. He is the established bona fide amateur champion of the world," says the 71-year-old United States captain, Mr Perry Jones, who «has been preparing for this week-end since April. Singles Indications are that Neale Fraser and Laver, two left-hand-ers, will represent Australia in the singles, with Fraser and Roy Emerson in the doubles. For the United States it will probably be Alex Olmedo and Barry Mackay in the singles and Olmedo and Earl Buchholz in the doubles. Any assessment based on performances and meetings among these players since America sensationally won the cup in Australia last December make this weekend’s contest look very even. Olmedo must be called the best •mateur in the world after his

brilliant play in winning the cup. then the Australian title (he beat Fraser in the final), then the United States indoor title and then Wimbledon. But “nobody is going to beat Olmedo” is a boast that has little to support it. He has been beaten since April by a little-known Californian, by Khrishnan twice and by the South Africans, I. Vermaak and A. Segal. Three of the defeats have been since Wimbledon. But a big feature of Olmedo’s play seems to be that he produces his best when the contest is one which he considers really important. The Australians and Americans Were in the same field in the Queen’s Club championships just before Wimbledon when in the quarter-finals, Fraser beat Buchholz and Olmedo beat Mark, but Krishnan finished things off by beating both Olmedo and Fraser. Eliminated At Wimbledon Buchholz was put out in the third round by Gardner Mulloy, in the quarter-finals Mackay beat Fraser, in the semifinals, Laver beat Mackay and Olmedo beat Emerson, and Olmedo beat Laver in the final. Of the main singles players— Fraser. Laver, Olmedo and Mackay—Fraser seems to have been playing most consistently since Wimbledon. He has won six out of six Davis Cup singles and he has lost only three sets —two to the Mexican, A. Palafox and one to O. Sirola. of Italy. Reports say that although he still has a backhand weakness, his power, especially in service, has been most impressive. Doubles Team In the doubles. Australia seems to have a definite advantage. Fraser and Emerson, who won at Wimbledon where Laver and Mark were also in the final, have teamed in four of the five Davis

Cup ties with great success. They have dropped only one set —to Pietrangeli and Sirola who beat them in the French final. This week they have won the United States doubles title beating Olmedo and Buchholz, the expected American cup pair in the final.

Both sides will have a difficult task to find a weakness and in the forty-eighth contest for the cup since the competition was begun in 1900 it may be the extra effort of one individual that swings the balance, as has happened several times in the past.