Lawn Tennis ITALY GAINS 2-1 LEAD

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29271, 1 August 1960, Page 13

Lawn Tennis ITALY GAINS 2-1 LEAD

Davis Cup Zone Final

(N-Z. Press Association—Copyright) BAASTAD, July 30. N. Pietrangeli and O. Sirola gave Italy a 2-1 lead in their Davis Cup European zone final tie with Sweden at Baastad today. They beat the Swedish pair. J. E. Lundquist and U. Schmidt, 14-16, 5-7, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 in the doubles. Sweden and Italy shared die opening two singles on the first day. Lundquist beat Sirola, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, and Pietrangeli beat Schmidt, 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, .6-4. It was only in the third Set of a rather mediocre match that Lundquist began to master Sirola. The Italian led 3-0 in the first set, but narrowly lost it, after 3-3, and 4-4. Sirola scoring well at the net, came back to take the second set in the tenth game. Then the Swede became more aggressive and seldom allowed Sirbla to get to the net. Hitting with power and precision, Pietrangeli romped away with the first set against Schmidt. The Swede came more into the match and-was within a point of a 5-3 lead in the second but the Italian took three games in a row for the set.

Pientrangeli appeared set for a comfortable win when 3-1 in the third, but Schmidt fought back spiritedly to win the set. In the fourth, Schmidt held on until 3-all but then yielded his service for Pietrangeli to serve out the match in the tenth game.