Sport: A Man Named Smith

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New-Found Speed. Though Smith has been playing tennis for a decade, he is a relative newcomer to the big-time pro circuit. Gawky as a youngster (at 14, he was once rejected as a ball boy for fear he might trip over his size-13 sneakers and get in the way of the players), he later became known as half of the country's top doubles team —with Bob Lutz, his partner at the University of Southern California. To become a topflight singles player, Smith needed to speed up his ability to cover the court. "I was a high jumper in high school, not a runner," he says. Nonetheless, after putting himself through a daily regimen of exercises and wind sprints, he says, "I'm now nearly as fast as Pancho Gonzales, who's still the fastest big man playing tennis."

Last year, capitalizing on his newfound speed, he won $97,251. This season, however, he is Pfc. Smith and, in return for the Army's allowing him to play in selected tournaments, he must donate his winnings to the U.S. Davis Cup Fund. Last week, Smith had no regrets about donating his $15,000 purse to the fund. Scheduled to be discharged in December 1972, he knows there is a lot more money where that came from.