Fairlie’s Great Win In Davis Cup

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31346, 17 April 1967, Page 3

Fairlie’s Great Win In Davis Cup

(From JANICE POWER. N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent)

MEXICO CITY. Not even. O. Parun’s crushing defeat could mar the New Zealand team’s joy over the magnificence of B. E. Fairlie’s win against the top-ranked Mexican, R. Osuna, on the first day of the Mexico versus New Zealand Davis Cup tie on Saturday.

The 18 - year - old Fairlie played the best game of his career to beat Osuna, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Fairiie’s win enabled New Zealand, against all expectations, to share the first two singles. Parun was outplayed by M. Lara, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1. Mexico had confidently decided to field a team without Osuna, but after watching the New Zealanders practising at the Chapultepec Sports Club, the selectors made a last-minute decision to recall Osuna from Caracas. Nobody gave Fairlie much chance of winning.

“Never mind,” New Zealand’s non-playing coach, Mr S. Painter, told his team. “It’s a compliment” When Fairlie won against all odds, Mr Painter was overjoyed, “I’m the happiest New Zealander alive,” he told Mexican radio listeners in a live broadcast as Fairlie left the court.

Fairlie said: “I feel great. But when they called that ball out in the fourth set, I felt terrible. Trying to breathe at this altitude was tough towards the end, too.”

Fairlie overcame a poor beginning to take the first set. Down 0-3, he steadied his service and fought back till the score vas four-all.

The next two games were all his and he took the set with two beautiful crosscourt shots from the baseline. But in the second set it looked as though his fine play would go for nothing. Points that should have been Fairlie’s were lost as he misjudged a winning shot and put it into the net or behind the baseline. The set went to Osuna, 6-2.

But Fairlie darted the third set determined to play every point as if it were the last. He soon forced Osuna into errors and took the set, 6-3. In the fourth set came an incident that nearly meant the end. Obviously tiring, Fairlie was putting everything he had into winning the set and avoiding a killing fifth set. He hit a magnificent shot right into the corner to put himself ahead, 5-4. But even as the crowd clapped, and the players prepared to change ends, the line umpire signalled the ball out. Fairlie, like everybody else at the courts was astonished. He took it sportingly but was obviously unsettled by the incident and from almost cer-

tain victory he saw the set slip from his grasp, 4-6. In the fifth set, against mounting tiredness and a vociferously partisan Mexican crowd, Fairlie was sheer determination. Up 3-1, he saw his lead wiped out but with a strong service, accurate forehand and brilliant backhand, he fought for every point. Gradually he pulled ahead and, after holding match point twice, he hit the winning shot. The Mexicans, who had cheered for their own boy all the way, gave Fairlie a standing ovation as the 18-year-old walked beaming from the court.

But while the New Zealanders were still flushed with victory, Parun—who turned 20 on Saturday—was trounced by Lara. If Fairlie could do nothing wrong, it seemed Parun could do nothing right. He dropped his first game after being up 40-15, and his ccufidence dropped fatally. When ball after ball kept going into the net, he tried lobbing—and the cool, accurate Lara smashed them ail away. It was an awful birthday, but at least Parun was not planning to celebrate it until Monday, when the matches end. By that time he could have something to celebrate.