The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1951-08-18
Finols Go On
Court AT 4:30:
Hcrtenstine VS..
Vurelu Or Watson

The finals Of the 1851 Mems
Tennis Championship unfolds on
County Beach tomorrow at 4:3o.
Champion Ralph Hartenstine en-
cages either Peter Varela or Com
mander Joe Watson for leg on
the John NJ. Spottswood Cup.
SpoftSwood viii present the
trophy TO the winner and Beach
Chairman Joe Allen and the
county commissioners will be
guests of honor.
The Varela- Watson semi-final
is very much In the air at the
moment. On Thursday they
fought through two hours and six
minutes into darkness without a
decision. Scores stand at 60 flor
Watson, GA flor Varela) and
Watson 5. Varela 4, with Peters
service up. They finish 1t to-
morrow morning at eight.
A plentitude Of seats will be
on hand for tomorrow afternoon
and a loudspeaker will carry a
point by point announcement
over the entire area. This speaker
IAN electric ship-to-ship mega
phone of the Navy--was used IN
the Varela- Watson marathon and
il functioned beautifully with an
abundance Of power. Coach Van
viii preside over it.
Commander Watson swept
through the former champion 60
in the first set with the most
perfect array of strokes seen here
in years. Peter is renowned for
his slow starts, but nothing short
of miraculous tennis would have
enabled him to stay with Watt
son in those opening minutes. The
Navy ace was winging top-spin
forehand down the sidelines with
remorseless accuracy and power.
As the second set progressed
through II, and 3-3, Varela un-
limbered into his finest game and
he displayed rare courage and
patience in fencing with an adj
versary whose effortless strokes
were sudden death. He forced
the Commander TO cover more
and more court to stay abreast,
and. in the seventh game, fatigue
began creeping little by little in
to the stylist's game. A double
fault, a baekhand in the alley by
an inch, forehand just over the
baseline, and few balls landing
weakly in mid court these
started as a trickle and snow
ballcd before the increasing pres
sure of Varel9
Peter forced his way to So
with yolleys containing real snap
as the gallery went wild. He
missed set point and slid to
ga. but then brought the crowd
TO its feet with a killing overhead
to seize the second set at GA.
In the third set the battle went
evenly to 3-3 with Varela hold
ing a slight edge in staying power
and attack. He held game points
in two of the games he lost. He
realized during these crucial
points that the Commander was
a weary man and also that day
light was fast running out. This
twin knowledge rendered him
over eager, Watson's stamina re-
turned partially in the seventh
game and he pushed to So after
Peter again fambled two game
points with forehand outs in the
bitterly contested eighth game
With deep dusk settling, Varela
with hts back TO the wall played
tennis ais he has never played be-
fore Scoring caution, he hit out
on every ball and reached two adj
vantage points. But the Com
mandef, on serve, was throwing
in everything he had in des-
perate effort to end it, and he
swept the issue back to deuce and
then to match point. His first
service tore into the center cor.
ner ia an attempt To ace, but