Evening star., 1938-07-15
PRODUCES CLASS
PLUS EFFICIENCY
Welsh's Loss of Title in
y Match With Surface Is .
Logical Outcome.
BY BILL DISMER, Jr.

Logical Outcome.
BY BILL DISMER, Jr.
Washingtonians may be loathe to
60 over to Baltimore today and to-
morrow to see the wind-up of the
Maryland State tennis tournament,
now that the possibility Of q Barney
Welsh Gil Hunt match has been elimi-
nAted, but they should 60 If for no
other reason than to see the final
stages Of high-class tournament and
how 1t should be conducted.
Baltimore netmen may not be in
the same class with Washington's-
based on Hotchkiss Cup results and
Middle Atlantic rankings-but As a
sponsor Of tournaments the Baltimore
Country Clubs handling of the current
event makes any Washington tourna-
ment resemble strictly bush-league
stun.
Not only did Baltimore go out and
get half q dozen nationally ranking
players to enter its. tournament,
paying their expenses, Of course, but
the set-up they provided for the play
ers smacked Of any major tournament
in the country. Naturally blessed with
. dozen grass courts-one Of local net
dom's crying needs-oficials Of the
Baltimore club are offering spectators
sach facilities for watching the
matches that few will object to paying
Sl.l0 general admission to see the
semi-final and nnal rounds.
Have Full Set Of Linesmen.
0randstands, or circus seats II you
want to be technical. were set up to
seat nearly 1000 fans, with boxes of
six chairs offered at slightly higher
stipend. Matches are started on
schedule time (do you hear that, you
Washingtpnians?) and whole set Of
linesmen makes the umpire's task
simple BY q whole set Of linesmen we |
mean 10, each side of the court having |
one on each sideline, one on the base
line, one on the center service line |
and one on the lateral service line. |
This condition, mind you. existed for
the quarter final matches yesterday.
Often it is . task to get as many as
six to serve as linesmen here. even in
q final match, and then some have to |
be begged to assist.
There's no trifling either. As q
refreshing contrast to the Washing
ton practice of "excusing" players
from playing when scheduled was an
incident which occurred in the Hunt
Bob Harman match yesterday. Shortly
after the third set started q light
rain began to fall and play was sus-
pended for . few moments. As the
rain ceased, Hunt came back on the
court, but Harman failed to appear
Immediately. An ofncial thereupon
stepped on the court and In Q tone
pitched high enough to reach Harman
wherever he was on the club grounds
announced: "Mr. Harman will be on
the court IN two minutes Or be de-~f
faulted." There was no doubt that the
ofdcial was serious.
Throws Welsh on Stride.
As to the matches themselves and
Defending Champion Welsh's failure
to match strides with Hunt, the Rock
vile Rambler has no excuses. In Hal
Surface. Welsh simply was up against
better player. good enough to be
seventh in the national rankings and
smart enough not to let Welsh play
his normal game. Whether Surface
can match power drives with Welsh
isn't known yet, as the Kansan pro-
ceeded to chop. chop and chop some
more throughout the match.
Surfaces chop and backspin were
ideal for the grassy surface on which
the ball seemed to stand still for q
moment as If to ridicule the des-
perately chasing Welsh before fall
ing back toward the net out Of Welsh's
reach. Welsh appeared irritated at
the behavior of the ball early in the
match and after the 'steenth time 1t
landed from chop. Barney stopped,
put his hands on his hip and hollered
to Surface: Is that chop or back
spin or both?"
Hunt Given a Battle.
As a result, his 6-3, 60 defeat by
the seeded No. star was much less
spectacular than Hunts three-set con-
quest Of hard-driving and hard-flght-
ing Bob Harman. Sporting an even
better game on grass than Welsh
showed, Hunt had match point in the
ninth game Of the second set. but the
Californian rallied to send the match
into three sets and Oil had to be
satisfied with q 60, 50, 60 de-
cision. For the most part Hunt made
It look easy, sending Harman all over
the court on his well-directed strokes,
but toward the end the Westerner
was threatening with a hard-driving
game and daring shots.
Gardner Mulloy's l0-8, 4-6, 6-3
elimination of John McDiarmid. thir-
teenth nationally ranking player, lift
ed many eyebrows and sent the Flori-
dan into the semifinals against Sur
face today while Elwood Cookies 6-3,
rs conquest of Frank Kovacs estab-
Nshed him rs Hunts opponent.
Both today's and tomorrow's matches
are scheduled to start ut o'clock.
Surface and Cooke were the only semi
hnalists who hadn't lost . set before
atartinp plav this afternoon.