Tennis: The Jaws

The suspicion is that Harry Hopman, coach of Australia's Davis Cup team, picks his players as much for the hang of their jaws as the strength of their forearms and wrists. At least it looked that way last week, when Hopman and his prognathous protégés posed proudly with a sterling-silver heirloom. And why not stick out their chins? The Aussies have been inviting the world to come fight for the Davis Cup every year. But hardly anyone makes much of a scrap of it.

Australia's Challenge Round opponent this time was India, and rarely, if ever, have the Davis Cup finalists been so obviously mismatched. All four Aussies—Fred Stolle, Tony Roche, Roy Emerson and John Newcombe—were ranked among the top ten amateur tennis players in the world.

Neither of India's two challengers, Ramanathan Krishnan and Jaideep Mukherjea, had ever won a major tournament; and neither was ranked. Krishnan and Mukherjea had reached the Challenge Round by beating a couple of similarly unranked Brazilians—who had upset a heavily favored U.S. squad.

"We are not going to be overawed," insisted Raj Kumar Khanna, India's nonplaying captain, as the match got under way in Melbourne's Kooyong Stadium. "The whole world lives on hope."

Maybe so. But in tennis, Australia springs eternal. Displaying the form that has won him two Wimbledon titles, four Australian championships, a U.S. and a French championship in the last four years, Emerson swept both of his singles matches in straight sets—polishing off Mukherjea in 66 min., Krishnan in 95 min. Fred Stolle's "big" serve, the biggest in the amateur game, did the rest. Aceing Krishnan twelve times and Mukherjea 20 times, Stolle won the other two singles matches to give the Davis Cup to Australia for the 21st time and the 14th in the last 17 years.

The Indians only managed to avoid a shutout by upsetting Roche and Newcombe in the doubles, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.

The real consolation for the losers came in reports that Emerson, at 30, was hanging up his racket and that Stolle, 28, was planning to turn pro—following in the footsteps of Dennis Ralston, the U.S.'s top-ranked player, who signed a $100,000 contract last week.

The loss of Emerson and Stolle could cripple Australia's Davis Cup chances next year—although the loss of Ralston, in the view of one expert, just might boost U.S. chances for the cup. Said Aussie Coach Harry Hopman: "I don't think America will miss Ralston from the team. He did not have a very good record in Davis Cup matches."