The Cup Comes Home

Stubborn, high-strung Ted Schroeder, ex-Navy flyer and onetime U.S. singles champion (in 1942), never could sleep soundly the night before a big tennis match. Sometimes he got out of bed in disgust and ate a 4 a.m. breakfast. Last week, the hot, humid weather in Melbourne was no help. And it was no help either that he was the unexpected dark-horse choice to help Jack Kramer (TIME, Dec. 30) win the Davis Cup back from the Australians.

When the Kramer-Schroeder team was announced, Melbourne papers gleefully predicted that Walter Pate, the bright-eyed little Wall Street lawyer who has captained U.S. Davis Cuppers for twelve years, had made a mistake. Frank Parker, nationally ranked the second best singles player of the six Americans who made the trip, complained angrily because he wasn't chosen. At 1:30 p.m. that afternoon, when Schroeder strode out before 14,500 fans in Kooyong Stadium on a slippery grass court, the pressure was on him. He was to meet Jack Bromwich, Australia's big gun, in the opening match.

Rush, Rest and Win. Captain Pate, who squatted beside the water buckets with a grin frozen on his face, had gambled on Schroeder, the money player. At first, it looked as if he had guessed wrong. Ambidextrous Bromwich, not quite as spry as of old, was nevertheless steady; Schroeder flubbed the simplest shots and lost the first set, 3-6. Then Schroeder, who plays with his mouth open, his tongue out and blowing ferociously, began to use his best weapon--a net game. He rushed the net at every chance, smashing beautifully and volleying down the lines with superb accuracy.

For the next two sets (6-1, 6-2), Schroeder's all-out attack made Bromwich look almost helpless, but the pace was telling on himself. He let Bromwich win the fourth set, and tire himself doing it, while he got back strength and wind. The final, fifth set Schroeder won easily. The stunned Australian crowd, after seeing its own star beaten, cheered Schroeder for five minutes.

Whatever Jack Kramer did after that was sure to be an anticlimax. In the second singles match of the day, he barely moved off the baseline, but easily defeated Australia's Dinny Pails in straight sets, 8-6, 6-2, 9-7. Next afternoon, when Kramer and Schroeder (twice U.S. doubles champions, in 1940-41) teamed up against Bromwich and Adrian Quist, it was Schroeder's day again. Even though he made winning shots look difficult where Kramer made them look easy, it was Schroeder who carried the load with his smashing net game. That clinched the Cup for the U.S., for the first time since 1938. Another two-man U.S. team, Big Bill Tilden and Little Bill Johnston had taken the Davis Cup from the Australians in the same way 26 years ago.

The final two cup matches, which didn't matter, were won by U.S. second-stringer Gardnar Mulloy (over Pails, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4) and Kramer (over Bromwich, 8-6, 6-4, 6-4). It was the first Davis Cup sweep since 1935, when the English trounced the U.S. team.

Glowed Captain Pate, who had won his gamble: "I've always said Kramer and Schroeder at their peak are the best doubles team in the world. They very nearly reached that peak today." Ted Schroeder was now free to go back to Glendale, Calif, to sell refrigerators, a job he stuck to most of last summer when other U.S. tennis stars were playing tournaments. Said he: "A fellow's got to quit this tennis sometime and get down to business."

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