Evening star., 1954-12-28
|Iraberi and Seixas
Put U. 5. al Top of
| Tennis World Again
lContinued Prom PAGE A-l8.

lennIS WOHu again
Continued From Page Ala,
game or the fourth set when he
had four match points against
him.
.Seixas was the best player on
the court-brilliantly and con-s
sistently. He made far fewer
mistakes III his ground strokes
than usual"
Richardson Is scheduled to play
Rosewall In the flrst match Of
the final day. with Seixas meet
ing Hoad In the second. II the
switch is approved
Hopman himself may wish TO-
make change, In which case
he probably would cali on Rex
Hartwig, his brilliant substitute
who was bedded with the mumps
shortly before the challenge
round.
"A white Christmas next
year!" exclaimed the Americans
| in their dressing room as crowds
poured In to tender their con-
gratulationS.
Talbert, who was ridiculed for
predicting q SO sweep, took the
triumph calmly.
''The Australians have had
their days and it is only right
we should have ours" the Amer
ican captain said.
Talbert Gets Butterflies.
Talbert acknowledged he got
butterflies In the stomach"
when Rosewall and Hoad, with
four match points against them.
rallied In the fourth set.
IT had some anxious mo-
ments." he said. ''But we de-
cided to start hustling both Hoad
| and Rosewall on their service,
that is, hit the service quickly
and move in. It worked WELL"
Discussing the crisS-crosS tao
tics which were used in the sue
cessful doubles match against
Australia in the challenge round
a year ago and which were en-
ployed only occasionally today,
Talbert observed:
1--WE used 1t mostly on Ira
! bert's service becaues he wasn't
serving as well as Vic and we
decided to use it only on big
points. I think it worked very
! we'll"
In this maneuver, the netman
signals the server whether or not
/, he will cross the court on service
and allow the server to come up
on the opposite side.
Crowd Cheers Americans.
The crowd, as yesterday the
! largest ever to see a tennis event
anywhere in the world, showed
very little favoritism and rose to
give the Americans a standing
! salute as they walked from the
J court.
| Only In the dramatic fourth
set did the fans permit their
national pride to .ooze to the
surface in q wild demonstration
of joy for the courageous come
back of Hoad and Rosewall.
The spectators sat on the edge
Of their seats and screamed at
every point as the match went
! from service to service until
Trabert made his great clinch-
| ing shot in the 18th game.
| It appeared for q while that
the young Australians, given a
| new lease on life. might pull the
match out of the skillet and even
perform a miracle in saving the
big silver bowl for these shores.
After they had scrambled back
from seeming defeat to tie the
set at SIS. they almost broke
Sexias' next service, grabbing
a 40-15 lead, and then held two
game points on Trabert's next
service in the 18th game.
Seixas Best on Court.
Seixas, who scooted all over
the court making spectacular
gets and scoring killers with that
deft volley of his. definitely was
the outstanding player on the
court.
| He never lost a service and his
volleying was the cleanest and
deadliest of the day.
| Trabert played well, but he
had trouble holding his service
and he erred frequently with his
backhand volley.
Rosewall was broken three
times, once in each of the first.
third and fourth sets, and Hoad
went down on his delivery in
the first and third sets.
But Hoad seemed to grow in
strength as the match pro-
gressed. Rosewall's backhand
failed repeatedly on return Of
service.
Trabert's failure to hold serv-.
ice in the third game of the
second set was responsible for
the only set the Yanks lost.
In this particular game Hoad
uncorked two tremendous over
head smashes which put the
Americans in a hole from which
they never recovered.