Evening star., 1938-11-11
Team for Next Year
Rated Weakest in
Yankee History
Australia or Germany
Due for Trophy-Don
Forced to Change
BY GAYLE TALBOT,
Associated Press Sports Write


NEW YORK, Nov. 1.-THE Davis
Cup is a gone gosling with the de-
cision of Donald Bulge to take the
$4,000 and launch his professional
tennis career against Ellsworth
Vines here on January 3.
Bulge won the big trophy from
the British almost single-handed
year ago, and his mighty play en-
abled this country to turn back Aus
tralia's fine challenge last August
on the moth-eaten courts of the
Germantown Cricket Club.
Now the garish bowl can be Grated
up and prepared for shipment either
to Australia or Germany, depending
upon whether Baron Won Cramm,
the German ace, is forgiven the
misstep that sent him to Jail last
winter.
If Won Cramm is chosen on the
German team, and his months in
prison did not break his spirit or
rust his game. he and Henner
Henkel should be good enough to
whip any combination that either
Australia or this country can put on
the court. Otherwise, it looks to be
Australia
L. S. Team Weakest Ever.
When Bulge signed the papers,
Uncle Sam was left with a prospec-
tive Davis Cup team of Bobby Riggs
and Gene Mako and varied assort-
ment of mediocre probables. 1t is
the weakest lineup this Nation has
had since the Davis Cup matches
first were contested.
Its caliber is reflected perhaps
best in the fact that Mako, never
singles player of note, was able to
reach the final of the national
championships against Bulge, where
he was slaughtered Riggs was
beaten by Gilbert Hunt, who does
not even belong to the top flight
of tennis.
Australia will be back with Jack
Bromwich and Adrian Quist, and
with Bulge out of the way they
should have little difficulty winning
three out of five matches from any
combination the United States can
put together. Won Cramm and
Henkel would figure to win at least
as decisively.
The scandal of the Forest Hills
tournament was the failure of this
country's younger players to make a
respectable showing. Time was when
there always we're a half dozen kids
from California alone who created
some excitement and showed PROM
Use. But there is nothing that looks
to be a future Vines or Bulge in
the current crop.
Bulge an Unwilling Pro.
Out on the coast they think they
have a coming great in Welby Van
Horn. In the nationals he appeared
more like youth with a hard
service and a neglected backhand,
though in mitigation it should be
added that he was playing against
Bulge at the time.
Realization that his departure
would mean almost certain loss Of
the cup undoubtedly weighed on
Bulge. Only the absolute neces-
sity of making some big money
quickly to assist his family finally
caused him to make the leap. He
said. wistfully, that he wished he
could play amateur tennis the rest
of his life.
He knows from certain bitter eX-
periences of Vines and Fred Perry
that his life will not be such a
pleasant one from now on. AS a
professional, he will not sit around
on the verandas of exclusive clubs,
slipping lemonade and chatting with
the clubs most beautiful daughters.
Instead, he will become weary
hopping swiftly from one dimly-lit
armory and auditorium to another,
and many of his friends of recent
years won't even know he is in
town. This hasn't bothered Vines
particularly, because he never cared
about society," anyway. But it has
disillusioned Perry and some Of the
others,