Evening star., 1957-12-28

MELAbOUHNE, Dec. - lA1s-
Vic Seixas. Q veteran of seven
Davis Cup campaigns. and
Barry MacKay. ~ year old
intercollegiate champion. SAL
vaged the final two singles
matches today in the challenge
round against Australia and
thus saved the United States
from q humiliating third
straight Shutout.
The valiant Seixas. playing
his last match here. fought on
four match points TO win q
2l5-hour struggle against NAL
colin Anderson in oppressive
heat. 6-3. 4--6. 6-3. 0-6.
l3-ll. MacKay won an equally
intense struggle against Ashley
Cooper. 6-4, l-6. 46. 6-4,
6-3.
That made Australia's final
count 80. closer than the
Aussie captain. Harry Hopman.
had predicted. It set the ex-
perts to wondering II the
United States OUTFIT was quite
as weak as advertised. This was
supposed to be the most inept
team the Americans had sent
into the challenge round in
many q year.
Would Have Set Record
Yet the Aussies won both the
1855 and 1856 challenge round
by SO scores and wanted to
make this q third shutout. Had
they been successful. they
would have set q Davis Cup
record Of shutting out the same
country three straight years.
Conversely, the United States
also would have set the dubious
mark Of being shut out three
straight years.
True, the Aussies already had
wrapped up the Davis Cup be-
fore today's final two singles.
But they wanted to make 1t q
clean sweep.
The 34-year-old Seixas. who
Is going TO be tied down by
business interests from now
on. drew wild applause from
the capacity crowd Of 20.600 at
the Kooyong Stadium on che
outskirts Of Melbourne. The
Australian fans know him so
well they almost regard him as
one Of their own.
Set Lasts 81 Minutes
And rarely has a more cou-
rageous Davis Cup perform
ance been given. The old Phil
adelphia war horse was almost
out on his feet, but he was de-
termined to make his swan
song q success and that he
did. The pressure-packed final
set lasted 81 minutes.
It appeared TO be all over in
the 18th game Of the final set.
Vic was behind 6-5. and An
derson had him 40. on his
own service. But Seixas made
It 4o-l5. then 1910. then
deuce, then took the advan-
tage and then the game to tie
1t again. The crowd roared its
approval.
Anderson appeared weary.
too; although he is Is years
younger than Seixas. Finally.
in the Gath game. Seixas broke
through when Anderson
double-faulted on the final
point. Then Seixas held his
own delivery. and that was the
match.
Both Seixas and Anderson
were victims Of some question
able line calls. Seixas has q
tendency TO permit bad calls
to upset him. so he probably
was affected the most.
In the second set, he was
leading Anderson 2-l and 400
on Malcolm's service. Ander-
son hit q return which most
of the crowd and Seixas
thought was out. 1t would
have given Seixas the game
and q 3-1 lead.
But the linesman ruled It
good and Seixas gave him q
dark glare and banged his
racket on the ground where he
thought it landed. The crowd.
which usually boos such tao
tics. remained silent, obviously
sympathetic to Seixas.
Another time Anderson
served an obvious ace and 1t
was called a fault. Seixas in
tentionally hit the next shot
into the net and endeared
himself with the crowd for his
sportsmanship. Later Seixas
had another opportunity to
protest when he hit a return