Forest Hills shorn of top players

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32701, 2 September 1971, Page 24

Forest Hills shorn of top players

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK. Shorn of its two Australian defending champions, and minus several other top-ranking players, the United States open tennis championships began yesterday at Forest Hills, with J. Newcombe (Australia) and Mrs B. J. King strong favourites to take the men’s and women’s singles titles. Last year’s champions, K. Rosewall and Mrs M. Court, are by-passing the $160,000 event—Rosewall having re-

turned to Australia for a rest, and Mrs Court because she is expecting a child. Britain’s Miss V. Wade, seeded No. 3, withdrew on Tuesday after breaking an ankle in the Eastern grass court championships at South Orange on Saturday. Missing, too, will be six of the World Championship Tennis (W.C.T.) troupe—R. Laver, C. Drysdale, A. Gimeno, A. Roche, R. Emerson, and F. Stolle.

Roche, plagued by a shoulder injury, has returned to Australia, while the others are resting between W.C.T. tournaments.

The United States open tournament, which next to Wimbledon is considered the world’s greatest tournament,

has also been by-passed by Miss E. Goolagong, who beat Mrs Court in the Wimbledon final this summer. With Rosewall and Laver out of the picture, Newcombe, points leader in the present W.C.T. standings and Wimbledon title-holder, ranks as the player to beat in the men’s field of 128. But the top-seeded Newcombe faces a hard first-round match today, having drawn J. Kodes (Czechoslovakia), winner of the French Open over the last two years. S. Smith, seeded No. 2, and his fellow American, A. Ashe, the No. 3 seed, look to have easy opening matches, but the fourth-seeded T. Okker (Netherlands) could have difficulty against Sweden’s top player, O. Bengtson.

Of the other eight seeds, only the American, M. Riessen, appears to have an easy task. Sixth-seeded C. Richey will play a fellow American Davis Cup team-mate, C. Pasarell. C. Graebner, seeded No. 7, will meet F. McMillan (South Africa) and eighthseeded I. Nastase (Rumania) will play L. Mayo (Mexico). Tn the women’s field of 64, Mrs King, the leading moneywinner among the women professionals, should have little trouble with Miss T. Fretz (United States) in het opening match. In other matches, Miss R. Casals, seeded No. 2, will play B. Stove (Netherlands). Miss K. Melville (Australia), originally seeded fourth behind Miss Wade, will play A. Bakker (Netherlands) and

Miss F. Durr (France), seeded behind Miss Melville, will meet Miss Denise Triolo (United States). Mrs J. Dalton (Australia), seeded fifth, was drawn to play Mrs L. Bowrey (Australia), but Mrs Bowrey returned to Australia at the week-end after the death ot her father. The men’s winner will receive SUS2O,OOO, while the women’s champion will get a purse of $7500. Despite the absence of so many leading players, advance sales were reported to be 12 per cent ahead of last year.

Furthermore, for the first time at Forest Hills, all boxes have been sold in advance of the tournament.