Cement Courts Would Give U.S. Big Advantage

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30339, 15 January 1964, Page 17

Cement Courts Would Give U.S. Big Advantage

T'HE United States Davis Cup player, Eugene Scott, who is visiting New Zealand for the national championships, thinks the cup will remain in America for several years. But when he gave this view at Central Park, Wellington, this week, he had a condition—“as long as McKinley does not turn professional. “There is some talk about the challenge round being played on cement. If that was the case we would have a big advantage and could hold it for 25 years. We have 20 players in the United States who are 20 points better on cement.’’ Aged 26, Scott is a welcome addition to the championship field. His smiling face on the court hides a serious nature which makes him attach more importance to his studies than to his tennis.

A graduate of Yale, he is now about to enter his last year as a law student at the University of Virginia. He had to develop his tennis the hard way because Yale is not one of the universifies which has athletic scholarships. However, Scott admitted, it was possible to attend universities, especially in the west, primarily for tennis and secondarily for study. He said there was a great opportunity for the

New Zealander, lan Crookenden, to take advantage of all the facilities at the University of California, Los Angeles, to be housed, clothed and fed, to improve his tennis but at the same time

to get a good education,as well. Scott himself has improved his tennis. Eighth on the United States men’s list last year, he has just risen to fourth. He had wins

over both Australian Davis Cup singles players, R. Emerson and J. Newcombe, and he had two good tournament wins—the Eastern grass court title at Orange when he beat M. Riessen and A. Ashe, and the Nassau Bowl, Long Island, when he beat A. Fox and the Englishman, R. Taylor. Scott this week attributed his rise in ranking to his greater confidence against younger United States opponents. He did not have their stroking ability but he “thought a bit more.” After playing in the American team's first Davis Cup match, against Iran, Scott played in India and Australia. He said he had learnt that to be consistent was not enough and that he had to hit file ball harder. In the early rounds of the national tournament he was certainly putting this lesson into practise. Scott agreed American players were not able to travel to the overseas tournaments as much as the Americans were ait universities and could not afford it. Also there was a United States Lawn Tennis Association rule which made them return home a week after Wimbledon. Although he intends to return home soon after the New Zealand tournament, Scott Would like to play one or two exhibition matches somewhere else in New Zealand, perhaps against L. A. Gerrard.