Sport: Virtue's Extra Reward

Every pro tennis promoter feels pretty sure that every amateur has his price. In Australia, Melbourne Promoter Ted Humphrey figured that £40,000 ($89,600) was about right to buy the Aussies' No. 1 star, Frank Sedgman. Top U.S. Professional Jack Kramer also made his sales pitch to Sedgman, dangled before him the prospect of a money-making world tour.

But Frank Sedgman was not for sale, after all. Last week at the banquet celebrating Australia's Davis Cup victory (TIME, Jan. 7), Sedgman borrowed tuppence from his coach, Harry Hopman, and put through a phone call to Sydney's Daily Telegraph to make an announcement: he was going on as an amateur.

Such virtue, the Daily Telegraph proclaimed on its front page, deserved more than its own reward. Melbourne's Sun and Adelaide's Advertiser heartily agreed. By week's end the extra reward reached $8,500, raised by the three newspapers as "a wedding gift fund for Frank Sedgman's fiancée," Miss Jean Spence.

Was Sedgman taking a bribe that added up to Australia's premium on Davis Cup insurance? Under his country's lenient rules, no. To well-mannered British and U.S. tennis fathers, the "gift" was an internal Australian affair and no foreigner's business. U.S. Lawn Tennis Association President Russell B. Kingman washed his hands of it: "Judge Sedgman for yourself." Apparently feeling no pangs of conscience, practical Frank Sedgman said: "I propose to buy a home and use the rest for investments." Kicking in $112 for the unique dowry, jilted Promoter Humphrey wished Frank the "greatest possible success." Amateurism had carried the day.