Egyptian giant-killer knocks down his second seed

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33577, 4 July 1974, Page 26

Egyptian giant-killer knocks down his second seed

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON.

The Egyptian, Ismail El Shafei, has become public enemy No. 1 of the men’s seeded players in this year’s Wimbledon championships. He disposed of his second ranked player in successive days when defeating the twelfth-seeded M. Orantes (Spain) yesterday. t '

El Shafei, who had accounted for the New Zealander, 0. Parun, in the first round, allowed the teen-age Swede, B. Borg, only six games when beating him in the third round.

He has moved into the quarter-finals, where another outstanding player awaits him today—the third-seeded S. R. Smith (United States). The elimination of Orantes was only one of four major upsets yesterday. The second seed, I. Nastase (Rumania), went down to a little-known American, R. Stockton, and Miss R. Casals (United States), fourth seed in the

women’s singles, was outplayed by Miss L. Boshoff (South Africa). Miss Casals suffered a second reverse when she and Mrs B. J. King met their first doubles defeat at Wimbledon, losing to the Australian pair, Misses H. Gourlay and K. Krantzcke. Troubled times The fitful brilliance of Nastase was no match for the rugged, all-court game of the 23-year-old Stockton, from Dallas, who won 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 9-8. There were early signs that Nastase might be in trouble. Although he won the first set, he was down 1-4 to start with and needed all

his ingenuity to regain the initiative. In the second and third sets, single service breaks were enough to put Stockton ahead, and the match entered what was to prove a thrilling fourth set. It contained just about everything, including a comic break when, at 3-3, the rain which threatened all day and twice interrupted play started to fall again. Use of umbrella Nastase ambled over to the crowd, took an umbrella from a woman spectator, and holding it in one hand and his racquet in the other, prepared to take the American’s serve.

“Come along, please,” admonished the umpire. "Stockton to serve.” Both players held their service games to make the score 4-4, then Stockton, with some superb ground strokes and cross-court volleys, broke Nastase’s for 5-4. The young American now braced himself to serve for the match. He lost the first point, hammered down an ace for the second, but then volleyed out of court and double-faulted to allow Nastase back into the contention at 5-5.

“Not interested” However, the Rumanian could not break service

again, and Stockton clinched victory when he took the tiebreaker, 7-5.

Stockton summed up Nastase’s performance and attitude afterwards: “I don’t think he played particularly well. He just did not appear interested. "He lost his concentration i early and never really got it back. It is hard to believe l you cannot be interested at Wimbledon, but he wasn’t.” The winner of 25 succes- ■ sive singles matches at one ■ stage last year, the former ' American junior champion ! said of Nastase and the urn- ■ brella incident: "I wasn’t go- •

ing to clown around and lose my concentration.

“I’ve seen too many guys start laughing at him and then lose theirs. So I turned and looked the other way until he was ready.” Kodes hits back In contrast to Nastase, who has always had a tendency to buckle under pressure, the defending men’s champion, J. Kodes (Czechoslovakia), the sixth seed, played at his obdurate best to beat T. Gorman (United States). Kodes was two sets down and had four match points against him before overcoming the eleventh-seeded Gorman, 6-8, 2-6, 6-3, 9-7, 6-4. The line-up for the quarterfinals are.— Men: Rosewall v. J. D. Newcombe (Australia); El Shafei v. Smith; Kodes v. J. Connors (United States); A. Metrevelli (Russia) v. Stockton.

Women: Mrs King v. Miss O. Morozova (Russia); Miss Boshoff v. Miss V. Wade (Britain); Miss K. Melville (Australia) v. Miss E. Goolagong (Australia); Mrs H. Mastoff (West Germany) v. Miss C. Evert (United States).