Sport: Defeat Down Under

• Share

Only a pathological optimist would have wagered a wooden nickel on U.S. chances to bring home the Davis Cup. The best men U.S. Captain Bill Talbert could muster for the challenge round against Australia were young (22) Barry MacKay, U.S. intercollegiate champion, and Old (34) Master Vic Seixas, who left his best tennis on the center court at Forest Hills back in 1954. Aussie Captain Harry Hopman made the most of a bountiful supply of stars by calling on 22-year-old Mai Anderson, proud owner of the U.S. championship, and Ashley Cooper, another youngster (21) with years of experience. Still, Bill Talbert talked like a man who did not plan on losing. "The team," said he, "is ready to go. Any draw will suit us."

The draw gave Anderson first crack at MacKay, and for a few sets the rangy (6 ft. 4 in., 185 Ibs.) University of Michigan alumnus played like a man who planned to win. He went for broke with his big serve, belted it with such fierce abandon that he committed 20 double faults. But he also scored 15 service aces to Anderson's five, and he pushed the powerful Aussie cowpoke to five sets before he lost, 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 7-9, 6-3. After that, the cup slid swiftly out of reach. Cooper pinned Seixas to the base line and whipped the U.S. veteran in a match that went the unimpressively full five sets. Next day, in the doubles, Hopman took Mervyn Rose, 27, out of the Davis Cup doghouse, where he has lingered ever since losing two singles matches in 1951, teamed him with Anderson and clinched the cup with an easy, three-set victory over Seixas and MacKay.

Losers for the seventh time in eight, and with only pride at stake, the U.S. tennists went back on the courts for the final singles matches, and fought hard to save themselves from an embarrassing shutout. Seixas outlasted Anderson, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 0-6, 13-11, and MacKay, no longer bothered by cup competition jitters, beat back Cooper, 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Said happy Harry Hopman: "You may consider my grip on the Davis Cup slippery." Somehow he managed to say it with a straight face.