Again Australia

In the midst of the Davis Cup tennis match, Referee Cliff Sproule waved his hand and stopped play. The Sydney Stadium crowd began to buzz as Sproule got up and walked to the front-row grandstand seat, where U.S. Coach Jack Kramer was sitting. The referee spoke to Professional Kramer briefly, turned on his heel, and went over to speak to U.S. Captain Frank Shields and Australian Captain Harry Hopman. Then Sproule ordered play resumed.

Sproule's action was new for big tennis matches, but so were a few other items on the Davis Cup program last week. Sproule had apparently caught Kramer coaching from the sidelines, a breach of tennis etiquette. As it turned out, etiquette took a bad beating--almost as bad as the trouncing Australia's Frank Sedgman gave the U.S. team.

The Line-Up. When U.S. Captain Shields announced his team line-up before the matches, he chose veteran (30) Ted Schroeder and Johnny-come-lately (28) Vic Seixas to play singles. As expected, Schroeder was teamed with Tony Trabert in the doubles.

Shields's choice placed an almost unbearable burden on semi-retired Schroeder, and it ignored the man who, on the basis of his Wimbledon and Australian championships, is generally considered the U.S.'s No. 1 player. Dick Savitt, who had been blasted earlier by Shields for his "stupid" play, promptly sounded off: "I still think the deal was arranged before we ever left America. I've been beating Ted in practice."

Beating Ted seemed to be the order of the day last week. After Seixas put the U.S. team in the lead by routing Mervyn Rose, 6-3, 6-4, 9-7, Ted took the court against Sedgman. The Aussie, displaying the resounding all-court game that won him the U.S. title, whipped through Schroeder, 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. This tied the teams at one match apiece and paved the way for the vital doubles point against the Aussies' Sedgman and Ken McGregor, U.S., Wimbledon and Australian title holders.

The Letdown. The Aussies had cannily broken up this invincible pair in an earlier tournament in order, they said later, to make the U.S. team overconfident. In the match, Schroeder and Trabert did not suffer from overconfidence; they suffered from Schroeder's slipshod play. Schroeder was the only player on the court to lose his service, four times in all. Although generally considered a slam-bang player, Schroeder scored only three placements. Trabert had 17, McGregor had 19, and the indefatigable Sedgman had 24. The Aussies won handily, 6-2, 9-7, 6-3.

With the chips down, Schroeder finally evened the matches at 2-all by beating Rose, with Kramer's sideline coaching, 6-4, 13-11, 7-5. But it was too late. Sedgman was at the peak of his form as he slashed through Seixas, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, to keep the venerable cup in Australia for the second straight year.

At the cup presentation ceremonies, Australia's Prime Minister Robert Menzies made a polite little speech: "Of course we were all completely unbiased, but we were not without a modified form of rapture when we saw the result of the last set . . ." Referee Sproule, calling on the players to make statements, ended up in the middle of another awkward situation. Dick Savitt, at first, refused to come forward, but Sproule relayed a biting, boastful message from the disgruntled 1951 Australian champion: "Savitt says he will have a few words to say in Adelaide after he has won the Australian championships."

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