Tennis: Off with the Shackles

The American twist wins a lot of tennis matches— but a British twist finally won the big one. A twist of the arm that is. Faced with Britain's decision to ermit professionals as well as amateurs to compete at Wimbledon this year, representatives of the 65-nation International Lawn Tennis Federation met in Paris and voted "unanimously" (two unidentified nations abstained) to sanction open tennis on a worldwide basis thus granting the pros first-class citizenship at last and freeing the sport from the shackles of "shamateurism."

Reaction was swift and encouraging. Australia, France and the...