Evening star., 1953-12-27
Aussies Back Hoad
Over Vic Tomorrow;
Trabet Heavy Choice
BY the As.oeia,ed Pres,

BY the Associated Press
MELBOURNE. Dec. 26. -
Americas Davis Cup fate may be
known by Monday afternoon.
The opening match of the
high tension challenge round
sends the Wimbledon champion,
Vic Seixas, against Australia's
power-hitting young ace, Lewis
Hoad, and most everybody agrees
next years residence of the in
ternational tennis trophy prob
ably hinges on the outcome.
The second match at Koo-
yong's vast 17,500-Seat stadium
pits the United States champion,
Tony Trabert, against Austria
las little court-covering star,
Ken Rosewall. Trabert is a heavy
favorite in hits one.
The Seixas- -Hoad match will
open the challenge round at 1:15
pm. Monday G0:15 pm. Sun
day, EST, in the United States).
HOad 4-tO-1 Choice.
The United States pins its
hopes on a Seixas victory over
Hoad, who has become some
thing of private property for the
Philadelphia. SeixaS has beat
en- the blond youngster six
straight times-four times this
year-and only once was he car
ried to as many as five sets.
II Seixas fails-and you can
get to l here tonight that he
will-then Australia will become
an overwhelming favorite to
retain the cup, regardless of the
abert-RoSewall outcome.
Australia, with two expert
enced doubles teams, is a strong
choice in the tandem event
Tuesday and then on Wednes-
day it's Trabert against Hoad
and Seixas against Rosewall.
Hoad has beaten Trabert in
their only meeting in the semi
finals of the New South Wales
tournament about a month ago
and RoseWall, with his passing
shots. has defeated Seixas the
last six times they have met.
Largest Tennis Crowd.
So it's easy to see the i'm
portance of the opening days
matches before the largest
crowd ever to witness a tennis
match.
Kooyong is the largest tennis
stadium in the world, even big
ger than Wimbledon, and you
could not buy a seat for love or
money.
At today's formal draw, both
Capt. Bill Talbert of the United
States and Capt. Harry Hopman
of Australia announced they
planned to play two-man teams
all the way.
That is,- Seixas and Trabert
were nominated for the American
doubles and RoSewall and Hoad,
who hold most of the world
doubles titles, were named to rep
resent Australia.
Both Allowed to Switch.
However, both captains re-
served the right to make
change an hour before Tuesdays
match.
If Rosewall plays poorly or
has a hard match on the first
day, he may be replaced by Rex
Hartwig in the doubles. Austral-
ian selectors are worried about
Rosewall's service. If Seixas
happens to fall back into his re-
cent slump, he may be benched
in the doubles for Talbert. who
played against the Belgians in
the interzone finals.
However, Seixas, after a series
of injuries and setbackS, seems
to have recovered his confidence
and fine volleying touch. Today
he trimmed Trabert in a practice
set, Ga.
Later In the afternoon Hoad
put on an exhibition that shook
American hopes. He squared off
against Frank Sedgman, now a
professional, and played the ex-
Australian Davis Cup star even,
Tt
Talbert was pleased with the
draw, declaring "it could not
have been better if we had ar
ranged it ourselves. We believe
Vic has Hoad's number and it
will get us off to a good start.
I think it will be two to nothing
in our favor Monday night"
Hopman said: I'VE are de-
lighted. We preferred that Hoad
get Seixas before Vic has played
a match. We think we were
favored by the draw"