New Leasehold

Tennis fans were familiar with the careers of two of the four men on the Australian Davis Cup team at Forest Hills, N.Y. last week. Balding Jack Bromwich, 31, was a veteran of many a Davis Cup encounter. Handsome Frank Sedgman, 22, Australian champion, had been a member of two Australian cup squads. But who precisely were Ken McGregor and George Worthington?

U.S. tennis fans soon found out about big (6 ft. 2 in.), lean (180 Ibs.) Ken McGregor, 21, who lost to Teammate Sedgman in the final of the Australian championship this year. Later, in the French championships, he was put out early by the U.S.'s tenth-ranking Vic Seixas. At Wimbledon, Czech Jaroslav Drobny knocked him off in the fourth round. In a Davis Cup interzone mat^h this summer, Mexico's Gustavo Palafox defeated him. Nonetheless, last week, as the Aussies made their fourth reach for the big cup since V-J day, Team Captain Harry Hopman named McGregor for the singles matches. In the first day's play, he met famed Ted Schroeder, No. 1 U.S. amateur.

First Meeting. McGregor had never seen Schroeder play, but he was impressed with his record in Davis Cup singles: seven straight victories over Australia. At 29, Ted Schroeder, the U.S. mainstay, was admittedly past his peak. Uncoiling a booming serve, Ken won the first game with the loss of only one point. Barging up to the net with racehorse strides, playing the position with the adroitness of a Vincent Richards, McGregor kept Schroeder constantly off balance.

After 20 games of give & take--mostly take--Schroeder made an antic gesture. Standing near the net between points, he bounced a ball against his head. The ball bounded over. Ted seemed to be saying: "Well, I can't get the ball over any other way.' McGregor won the first set, 13-11, then romped through two more, 6-3, 6-4, for the match. Since Sedgman had walloped an unsteady Tom Brown in an earlier match, the Australians, needing three-of-five to win, could just about crate up the old cup for shipment home. But the Aussies' Captain Hopman was not yet jubilant. "I want to see us get that third point," said Harry.

The Third Point. Next day he got his wish. With Bromwich, in fine form, setting up plays for Teammate Sedgman's smashes, the Aussies won the clinching doubles match from the U.S. pick-up pair of Schroeder and 36-year-old Gardnar Mulloy. The score: 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

The excitement was all over, and Australia had won. Only the formality of the last two singles matches remained. Next day, Sedgman defeated a listless Schroeder with the loss of only six games. The only U.S. consolation was Tom Brown's inspired play against McGregor to win the last match, 9-11, 8-10, 11-9, 6-1, 6-4.

Despite his loss to Tom Brown, some sportwriters were already labeling young Ken McGregor as potentially the best amateur of 1951. McGregor, a part-time sporting-goods clerk from Melbourne, showed no sign that he had such an opinion. He explained his victory over Schroeder simply: "I never played better in my life." But Australia, with 21-year-old Ken McGregor and 22-year-old Sedgman, appeared to have established a leasehold on the big cup for a few years, at least.

The U.S. could obviously no longer bank on its Schroeders and Mulloys. Somewhere among its youngsters, perhaps digging as deep as Junior Champion Ham Richardson, 17 (TIME, Aug. 14), the U.S. would have to find new blood.

Collectors of coincidences glumly observed that it might not be necessary for the U.S. to develop new players quickly. Twice before, when Australia took the cup from the U.S., international complications prevented Davis Cup play for quite a while. The years: 1914 and 1939.

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