New Britain herald., 1930-09-03
B0R07RA ID MEET
 STIFF OPPOSITION
Rounding Basque" Matched With Berkeley Bell in Tourney

New York. Sept. [P> - If Jean Borotra wins the United States ten- his championship next week he will deserve it. By the luck of the draw. which was made today. the Bound ing Basque" will face tougher op- position than any of the other lead ing contenders for the title.
 Instead of meeting a pushover or two at first by way of tuning up his strokes, the acrobatic gasoline pump salesman from France will run into Berkeley Bell, a determined and dangerous little fighter from Austin, Texas, in the first round and if successful is expected to meet Fritz Mercur of Bethlehem, Pa, in the second.
 Bell and Mercur, on their play last year, ranked ninth and sixth re- spectively in the United States but were omitted from the list of 12 seeded players for the forthcoming tournament because the committee felt their records in recent play were not good enough.
 Bell, however, forced Henri Cochet to five sets at Wimbledon and yes- terday was one of the two outstand- ing players in the east-west series at Forest Hills. Mercur has beaten Tilden and is one of the best players in the country when on his game.
 The prospect of meeting Borotra in the first round did not disturb Bell who was present out of curi- osity when his name was drawn by one of the newspa permen who aided in the ceremony. He has an idea Borotra should be easier to beat in the first round than later. Bell and Borotra never have met. Both play a dashing, sensational type of tennis.
 By way of contrast to Borotra' S assignment, Bill Tilden, in quest of his eighth national singles title, will open against C. Lincoln Halberstadt serious opposition until he reaches the fourth round when his opponent, in the light of the seeding. should be young Ellsworth Vines of Pasa- dena, Cal, or Lyttleton Rogers, 6 foot. ' inch giant from Ireland.
 Tilden was placed first on the American seeded list with Winner Allison of Austin, second; George Lott, Chicago, third; and two youngsters, Sidney Wood of New York and Cliff sutter of New Or leans, fourth and fifth respectively After them came John Doeg, Santa Monica. Calf, 6; Gregory Mangin, Newark, N. J., [; John Van Ryn, East Orange, N. J., 8; Ellsworth Vines, g; Frank Hunter, New Ro- chelle, N. Y, 10; Frank Shields. New York, Il; and Bryan Grant Atlanta, 12.
 Besides Bell and Mercur a third member of the current first 10" is missing from this list-Wilbur F. Coen, of Kansas City.
 Borotra headed the foreign seed ed group followed by three English players-H. G. N. Lee, John Olkff and Frederick Perry. The others were Lyttleton Rogers, B. Marcel Rainville, Montreal, 6; Ted Ayory, England, z; l.. A. Godfree, Eng land, &; Jimmy Nuthall. brother of Betty Nuthall, g; Herman Uppman, Cuba, 10; and C. W. Leslie, Mon treal, II.
 Borotra was drawn in the top half in which the outstanding seed ed players were Sutter, Grant, Wood, Shields, Mangin and Allison. In the lower half with Tilden were Vines, Rogers. Van Ryn, Lott, Hun ter and Doeg.
 There were 95 entrants in all in cluding John Hennessey, former Davis cup player from Indianapolis; and Alain Gerbault, veteran French player and lone Ochan navigator. The first round is to be played on Saturday with the Bell-Borotra match as the main attraction. play resuming on Monday and lasting through September 13.
 The national veterans singles for men over AS will run concurrently with C. M Charest, one-armed player from Washington, D. C., de- lending his title against 56 rivals.