Tennis seeds tumble

Press, 27 December 1979, Page 26

Tennis seeds tumble

NZPA Melbourne Two seeds were sent hurtling out of the $400,000 Marlboro Australian Open at Kodyong, Melbourne yesterday,' within five minutes of 1 each other. I Peter Feigl, of Austria, seeded eighth, and Queens- ■ land’s Ross Case, seeded 1 fourteenth, both lost their i first-round matches. They joined the No. 5 seed, Balazs Taroczy, of Hungary, and the No. 7 seed. Tim Wilkiscfn, of the i U.S. as the tournament seeding list began to shrink. Case, one of the most agile players in tennis was bundled out by former Australian Open champion, Mark Edmondson, of New i South Wales.

Edmondson fought back from an opening set deficit to win 6-7. 6-3, 6-1, 6-1. Feigl also lost in four sets, to Paul Kronk, of Queensland, who won 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3. Apart from the first set where the scrambling Case held a slender edge, he never looked like winning. The hard-hitting Edmondson overpowered the Queenslander in the last three sets. Case, who has been troubled by an arm injury, noticeably weakened and his normal pace around the court slackened. Edmondson, aged 25, who; shocked the tennis world in] 1976 when he beat John I [Newcombe to win the title,! I said that it had not been!

like their previous close matches. “Usually we play very close matches. He doesn’t hit the ball too hard so that gives me the chance to I ock Off a few and I make enough errors to let him into the match. “All in all it makes for good tennis,” he said. Edmondson said that he was still unhappy with his serves. His serving action has given groundsmen headaches because he drags a foot along the ground. “Sometimes people say to ;me: ‘Look at the mess you [are making of the court, and II am conscious of that and J try to alter my style,” EdImondson said.