Pat Cash to play in Auck. event

Press, 23 July 1987, Page 48

Pat Cash to play in Auck. event

By

JOHN BROOKS

New Zealand’s No. 1 tennis player, Kelly Evernden, is among a select group of competitors chosen to challenge the newest Australian sporting hero, Pat Cash, in an indoor tournament in Auckland in October. The event will be known as the Carragreen International Challenge, the venue is the Chase Stadium in Kohimarama — which is being considered for Davis Cup ties — and the format calls for six players contesting a round-robin series over four days. Cash, who defied the odds to beat Ivan Lendl in the Wimbledon men’s singles final from the unhelpful spot of eleventh seed, is a confirmed starter for the event, which offers total prizemoney of $lOO,OOO, with a winner’s purse of

$40,000. The Carragreen Challenge is the first major tournament played indoors in New Zealand since the 1974 Benson and Hedges event in Cowles Stadium, won by the American, Roscoe Tanner. This time there will be two Americans in the field, Scott Davis and David Pate, as well as Cash, Evernden, and the. smooth-stroking Indian, Ramesh Krishnan. The sixth player will be named after the U.S. Open. All five selected so far are ranked in the world’s top 53, with Cash the best at No. 7. A portable Supreme court will be flown across the Tasman for the event from the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. The New Zealand Lawn Tennis ■■ Association has sanctioned the challenge as 'the. national indoor championship.