Upsets at U.S. open

Press, 2 September 1977, Page 28

Upsets at U.S. open

NZPA Forest Hills The $U5462,400 U.S. tennis open served up a little of everything yesterday : on the first day of play, United Press International reported. There was the quiet, almost too quiet, return of a ' mild-mannered Ilie Nastase, who vowed angrily a year 1 ago never to come back, and , the 6-1, 6-0 defeat of the 39- [ year-old Spanish legend ' Manuel Santana at the hands of the streaking Guillermo Vilas, now undefeated in 40 straight clay court matches. ' There was the 6-3, 6-2 upset of the sixth-seeded Raul Ramirez, of Mexico by 19-year-old Ricardo Ycaza, of Ecuador, and the 7-6, 7-6 loss by the thirteenth-seeded Briton, Mark Cox, to Butch Walts of the U.S.

At night, there was the two-time former champion Ken Rosewall, of Australia, winning 6-0, 6-4 while deflating the upset hopes of the young American Tim Gullikson, and the somewhat noisy 6-1, 6-3 victory of the local favourite, the 18-y ear-old Wimbledon semi-finalist John McEnroe, over Eliot Teacher.

But conspicuously missing from the scene on opening day were the top seed, Bjorn Borg, of Sweden, and the s e c o n d-seeded defending champion, Jimmy Connors. Borg was taking ultrasound treatments and resting his sprained shoulder and Connors was having his aching back muscles massaged. Phil Dent, one of the most

prominent Australians in the competition, breezed past the American Keith Richardson 6-4, 6-4, and the New Zealander Onny Parun, who had to puli out last year when he injured his back in the first game against Nastase, did better this year, knocking out Javier Solder, of Spain, 6-2, 6-4. However, Parun’s fellow New Zealander, Russell Simpson, did not fare so well, losing 6-1, 4-6, 4-6, to Rick Fagel (U.S.). Andrew Pattison (Rhodesia) beat Paul McNamee (Australia), 6-4, 6-0, and Fred Stolle (Australia) beat Vijay Amritraj (India), 3-6, 7-6, 7-5.