Strong Hopes For Davis Cup

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31318, 14 March 1967, Page 19

Strong Hopes For Davis Cup

(N.Z.P.A. -Reuter—Copyright) LOS ANGELES. Mr G. Mac Call, who has been renamed nonplaying captain of the 1967 United States Davis Cup team, has expressed confidence that America will make a strong bid to regain the cup from Australia.

Mr MacCall’s appointment to his third term as captain was announced by Mr R. Kelleher, president of the United States Lawn Tennis Association. “Much was learned in the last two years and I feel very confident that our days as 'clay pigeons’ are over, and that we are on our way to Australia,” said Mr Mac Call. Under Mr Mac Call, the United States failed to reach the Davis Cup final in 1965 and 1966, being eliminated in inter-zone play by Spain and Brazil, respectively.

Both of these defeats were on clay courts, hence Mr MacCall’s reference to “clay pigeons.”

The 1967 United States team of A.'Ashe, C. Graebner, C. Passarell, M. Riessen and C. Richey was confident that it could go all the way this year, said Mr Mac Call. Ashe, who recently began a two-year term in the Army, had his week-ends free to play. “Ashe will definitely get the competition he needs to stay in shape," Mr Mac Call said of the Negro star. “His availability for Davis Cup ties will not be known until he reports for duty at West Point in May.” The first Davis Cup match for the United States will be against the Caribbean team in Trinidad on April 28, 29 and 30.

Should the Americans win, as expected, they will next

meet Mexico in Mexico City on May 26, 27 and 28. Ashe, the highest-ranking player of his county in amateur tennis competition, and the first Negro to be named to the Davis Cup team, has his sights set on helping to bring the cup back from Australia, the “New York Times” reported.

Visions of being crowned at Wimbledon and Forest Hills also dance through his head, said the newspaper. ft may take as long as three years, says Ashe, for him to attain his peak, partly because his service in the Army “will slow me down.” Winning the Davis Cup was not a long-term project, he said.

ft could happen this year if the United States faces Australia in the challenge round, even though D. Ralston, America’s top player for three years, has been lost to professional tennis.

“We respect Emerson, Newcombe and Roche for the fine players they are, but we don’t fear them,” said Ashe. His Complaint

“I sometimes wonder,” he grumbled, “whether the United States Lawn Tennis Association wants to win the cup back, after what has been happening to us.” What has been happening is that five times in the last seven years the United States has been knocked out of the cup matches before the challenge round by nations that had never beaten the United States before. All of the defeats were suffered on clay or a comparably slow fast-drying surface, and that is the cause of Ashe’s complaint. “How,” he wants to know, “are we going to beat these guys—Mandarino, Koch, Santana—on the slow courts they practically live on when we play in only two or three clay tournaments a year? “When Wimbledon ends in early July we are required to be back home within a week so that there Will be somebody to play in our own grass tournaments. Our clay court season is a joke." Ashe would like to have members of the Davis Cup team given permission to compete on clay abroad after Wimbledon when the winning nation in the European zone has the choice of naming the site for the inter-zone 'matches.