Players for top tennis

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33665, 15 October 1974, Page 38

Players for top tennis

A leading .American. Cliff Richey. will now be the top attraction of the Benson and Hedges international tennis tournament at Cowles Stadium next week.

A cablegram confirming Richey’s entry was received last evening by the president of the Canterbury Lawn I Tennis Associat ion (Mr i R. B. Brown). I Two other top players (scheduled to play in the tournament, A. Metreveli (Russia) and R. Case (Australia), have withdrawn, and Richey is one of the replacements. j The cablegram confirmed that three other well-known players will be at the $25,000 tournament. They are R. Ruffles and P. Dent (both Australia) and R. Segura, a veteran from Ecuador. Richey, aged 27, was ranked seventh in the world

lin 1972, and is the younger ■brother of the top-ranked American woman Mr* Nancy Gunter. He was ranked fifth on the United States men's ladder in 1973. and was the national clay court champion in 1966 and '970. •VICTIMS’ I In 1971 Ruffles won the Auckland open and has j beaten such players as A ■Ashe, S. Smith and K. Rose Wall in the last three years. Dent was runner-up to J. Connors (United States) in the Australian Open this year. He joined the World Championship Tennis circuit in 1971, but missed the following year through injury after a car accident. “We have better players i now than we originally ithought,” Mr Brown said last might. i Last year’s New Zealand i Davis Cup squad will play in 'the tournament. It comprised B. E. Fairlie, O. Parun, and J. and R. Simpson. I It will be the first time Fairlie has played in New Zealand for two years when he steps on to the artificial court in Cowles Stadium next week. The tournament starts on Monday and ends the following Sunday.