Cup cheers begin again in Aust.

Press, 3 October 1983, Page 40

Cup cheers begin again in Aust.

NZPA Sydney The “kid from Cockaleechie,” John Fitzgerald, became the toast of the nation yesterday when he put Australia into its first Davis Cup final in six years by beating Yannick Noah of France at White City. Fitzgerald, from the small country town of Cockaleechie in the South Australian outback, stormed to a 13-11, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Noah to give Australia an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the semi-final clash with France. Australia will now meet Sweden in the Cup final, expected to be held in Melbourne in December. Australia has not made a Davis Cup final since beating Italy at White City in 1977.

The huge centre-court crowd broke into thunderous applause when Noah netted a cross-court return in the tenth game of the fourth set, which put Australia into the final.

Fitzgerald, who beat Henri Leconte in the second singles rubber on Friday,

took three hours and 17 minutes to down Noah.

The young Australian, playing only his fourth Cup singles for Australia, survived one set point in the twelfth game to take the first set 13-11, after 100 minutes of tight play. Inexplicably, Fitzgerald’s game seemed to fall apart in the second set, and he lost 4-6 in only 37 minutes.

The Australian was frustrated on numerous occasions and with the tension getting to him first yelled at a section of the crowd in the northern stand to be quiet.

But in the third and fourth sets it was the Fitzgerald of old who wrapped the match up with some fine stroke play, encouraged by a vociferous crowd. An elated Fitzgerald was surrounded by his teammates, Paul McNamee, Pat Cash, and Mark Edmondson, who surged onto the centre court.

Fitzgerald grabbed a large green and gold flag similar to that seen in Newport after Australia IPs America’s Cup win, and raised it above his head to thunderous applause.

“This is the greatest game of my life and easily the most satisfying,” he said.

Fitzgerald paid tribute to Noah saying the Frenchman was under “tremendous strain.”

In the second reverse singles, Cash beat Leconte, 3-6, 9-7, 8-6. The match was shortened to three sets be-

cause the rubber had already been decided. John McEnroe broke a tennis record when he and Peter Fleming won the doubles for the United States in the Davis Cup tie against Ireland in Dublin, reported NZPA-Reuter.

The Americans beat Matt Doyle and Sean Sorenson 62, 6-3, 6-4 to give their team a 2-1 lead.

It was McEnroe’s thirtyninth victory in the competition, beating the American record set by the former Wimbledon champion, Vic Seixas, between 1951 and 1957.

About 30 laid-off Dunlop rubber workers protested outside Dublin’s main exhibition centre as McEnroe, who is on their former employers’ payroll, played his doubles match. About 700 workers lost their jobs when Dunlop Rubber closed a factory at Cork.

Dissatisfied with compensation offered by the company, trade union leaders say McEnroe has a ?3M contract to promote Dunlop’s sports equipment and “we consider McEnroe is being paid with our money.” In Tokyo, Japan won the last two singles in the finals of the Eastern zone competition.

But, India, led by its playing-captain, Vijay Amritraj, gained the right to compete in the 1984 16nation Davis Cup championship rounds by capturing the two opening singles and the doubles.