Evening star., 1940-09-08
Navy Star Halls
PLAY in Protest
OF Foe Antics
Joe Will Bottle Riggs
In SemifinoI Today;
Netwomen Sparkle
BY GAYLE TALBOT,
Associated Press Sports Writer.


NEW YORK, Sept. IA crowd of
$4,000 tennis zealots was treated to-
day to the inspiring spectacle OF two
of the Nations prime young players
sitting down on the Forest Hills Sta
dium turf and refusing to continue
play for some time.
One of them, Joe Hunt, the mid
shipman from Annapolis, was sore,
while Frank Koyacs, the amiable
eccentric from Oakland, Calf, was
glad of it. Between them they
managed to put on perhaps the most
unusual show ever seen in big.league
tennis and to enliven an otherwise
unexciting program of quarter-fnal
matches in the national champion
ships.
Hunt had won the first two sets,
6f and 81, while Kovacs clowned
all over the joint and had himself a
bushel of fun. Hunt gradually got
neckfull of things as the match
proceeded and when the third game
of the third set came around he
suddenly popped.
Wrangle Last Five Minutes.
The gallery was laughing at
Kovacs' silly antics. Hunt, a very
annoyed young sailor. demanded of
the umpire, lie Van Richards, that
the crowd stop giggling at Kovacs.
When Richards declined to speak
sternly either to Kovacs or the
crowd. Hunt sat right down on the
base line and refused to accept
service.
Kovacs seemed to think that was
very funny. so he sat down, too. DR..
S. Ellsworth Davenport. jr.. the
tournament referee, walked out
ominously from the marquee and
sat down himself, though not on
the grass. There followed crucial
and electric five minutes in the
history of old Forest Hills.
They went then and wrangled for
a while longer around the umpire's
chair while the crowd enjoyed every
moment of the throbbing drama.
Eventually they got to playing again
and Hunt ran out the final set, 6-4.
Hunt Faces Riggs Today.
II wouldn't have cared" Hunt said
later, "if he had stood on his head
if the crowd wouldn't have laughed
at him. I pleaded with the umpire
to make them stop laughing before
I sat down"
Hunt, now that he's past the
Kovacs menace, meets Bobby Riggs,
the defending champion, tomorrow
and will need only to try to defend
himself in the clinches.
Bobby, suffering from cold and
running a temperature, was unusu-
ally serious today as he swept aside
young Ted Schroeder of Glendale,
Calf. 6-l, 2-6, 6-3, 6A
Schroeder was the first to win q set
from Riggs in this tournament. but
Bobby was far too steady and smart
for him in the long run.
The other mems semi -flnalists,
decided yesterday. were Don McNein
of Oklahoma City and Jack Kramer
of Belvedere Gardens, Calf.
Jacobs. Hardwick Gain Semis.
Helen Jacobs of Berkeley, Calf,
four time former women's cham
pion, and Mary Hardwick of England
both came back after losing the
opening sets of their quarter-final
matches today to qualify for to-
morrow's play.
Miss Jacobs eliminated Virginia
Wolfenden of San Francisco, 3-6,
6A, 6-1, while Miss Hardwick,
British Wightman Cup star, beat
Pauline Betz of Los Angeles, ST.
61, 50. The Hardwick- -Betz match
was extraordinarily fine women's
! tennis.
| Miss Jacobs and Miss Hardwick
clash in one semiflnal tomorrow.
with Champion Alice Marble meet
ing Valerie Scott of England in the
| others