Tennis: Missile v. Computer

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Indoor tennis has been played on a lot of surfaces. First there was wood, which picked up glare like ballroom parquet, bounced the ball sickeningly fast and with a deadly skid. Then there was canvas, which killed the reflections —but that was about all. Last week, when the $25,000 New York pro tournament opened in Madison Square Garden, a vast improvement was on hand to finally make volleying under the bright lights at least two-thirds as nice as the grass game at Forest Hills. It is a thin green rubber surface, made by U.S. Rubber, that can be rolled up, stored on cylinders, laid down in 30 minutes flat. In time, it may even become available for just about everybody's backyard Quonset court.

Romping around on this modern surface at the Garden was an equally advanced set of tennis players. There was California's rangy Pancho Gonzales, trying for a comeback at the ripe age of 37, and the current Wunderkind of the pro circuit, Australia's Rod ("Rocket") Laver, 27, biggest money winner ($65,495) in 1965. Finally, there was slight (5 ft. 7 in.), polite Ken Rosewall, also an Australian and evidently a has-been at 31, since Laver had pushed him off the top of the heap last year. In the quarterfinals, Gonzales gave Rosewall something to think about by trouncing his onetime Davis Cup twin, Lew Hoad, 31, by a decisive 6-1, 6-1.

Rosewall, however, does most of his thinking on the tennis court, where he has been called "an automaton guided by an electric brain." For 77 punishing minutes, before a near-record turnout of 13,541, he resisted a Gonzales onslaught marked by a dazzling echo of the towering serve of yesteryear and a Gonzales rush to the net in an effort to seize the lead. The crowd roared for their longtime favorite Gonzales. Slowly, methodically, Rosewall worked his opponent back to the base lines, until Gonzales yielded 7-5, 7-5, with a disgusted "Oh, no" as his last easy return hit the net.

That made the finals a case of the missile v. the computer, the Rocket's violent volleys against the subtle shotmaking of Rosewall. Pinking the sideline markers with precision, forcing Laver to weave back and forth across the green like a wayward Agena, Rosewall pulled off an upset, winding up with a straight set victory of 6-3, 6-3. "Just a shot here and there," he said in gentlemanly fashion. "Besides, Laver missed more than he usually does."