The Old Men

Ever since hard-hitting Pancho Gonzales followed Jack Kramer onto the professional trail, U.S. amateur tennis has become an old man's game. Going into the semi-finals of the national indoor tennis championships last week, 31-year-old Billy Talbert, who has won some 20 national titles in his time, sadly took note of the fact: "If the Davis Cup team were picked right now it would probably be composed of three old men, Ted Schroeder , Gardnar Mulloy and me."

Next day it looked as though Veteran Talbert was unduly pessimistic about the youngsters. Stepping onto the boards of Manhattan's Seventh Regiment Armory, he ran into 25-year-old Fred Kovaleski of Hamtramck, Mich., who promptly dumped Talbert out of the running.

But the old men of tennis still had something left. In the finals, 31-year-old Don McNeill, who last won the indoor title twelve years ago, downed Kovaleski in four sets. Then he teamed up with Billy Talbert to take the doubles title in three straight sets.

In the women's tournament, lanky, 22-year-old Althea Gibson became the first Negro ever to reach the finals in a national championship sponsored by the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association. Although she lost out next day, her performance made it possible that she would also become the first Negro ever to play in the nationals at Forest Hills this summer.

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