view raw text
U.S. Gains 3-0 Wightman Cup Lead Connolly and Hart " ♦ Whip British Stars Latter Also Teams Up With j Miss Fry in Doubles; Play Final Four Matches Today By ROBERT MUSEL United Press Sports Writer WIMBLEDON, England, June 13. UP. —This awe-inspiring birthplace of lawn tennis competition gave little Maureen Connolly a bad case of "Wimbledon nerves" today, but the 17-year-old U. S. champion j managed to overcome them to lead Amer- j icas feminine stars to their customary 3-0 margin in the first day of Wightman J Cup play with Great Britain. It was the seventh successive time since l the war that the American team has won , all three — two singles and a doubles — of . the opening day matches. The U. S. needs only one victory out of the three singles 3 and one doubles tomorrow to retain the slender silver trophy for the sixteenth con- ] secutive time. , Britain has won only four times since the series started in 1923 with its last win • in 1930. In todays matches Little Mo beat Brit- ains Mrs. Jean Walker-Smith, 3-6, 6-1, 7-5. Doris Hart beat Mrs. Jean Quertier Rinkel, 6-3, 6-3. Miss Hart and Shirley Frey beat Mrs. J Rinkel and Miss Helen Fletcher, 8-6, 6-4. j A home crowd of 6,000 jammed into Wimbledons famous court one — the upsets court — which came frankly to mourn but J remained to cheer the unexpected loss of * a set by Miss Connolly and the hard fight given the Wimbledon doubles champions, j Miss Fry and Miss Hart, by the British pair. Gruelling Final Match ■ i For a brief moment in the gruelling duel between Little Mo and the 28 -year-old j British veteran they even dared hope for "a Curtis Cup victory" — the recent capture j of the Curtis Cup by an underdog British golf team. For scarcely the width of a pencil separated the San Diego slammer f from what looked like defeat in the last t set of her match with Mrs. Walker-Smith. | The Wimbledon worlds champion is Lit- tie Mos major goal this year and she came on the court today in a pastel pink sweater j with several local English titles already on her belt. She played the first two games f wearing the sweater and a smile which be- l came more and more fixed as the wily E Briton — one of the fastest women in tennis — trapped her into long forehand duels, t Mrs. Walker-Smith broke Littles Mos c service in the second game — she broke the Americans service six times during the t afternoon, twice on love games and showed i up other weaknesses in the San Diego . slammers game. But the American girl also had to fight her own nerves and Mrs. a Walker-Smith has played at Wimbledon r many times. r. After a pep talk before the second set from team manager Mrs. Midge Buck — an % old Wimbledon star herself — Little Mo seemed to find herself and gave a display c so devastating in the first five games of i the second set that someone remarked, t "A couple more years and shell have to i enter the mens singles." c Eases Up in Sixth Game l She belted the ball from corner to corner, t running the heart out of her opponent and 8 a it was not until the sixth game that she eased up and allowed — the right word — the British matron to take a game. J They had a 10-minute rest before the . third and final set, in which two dubious decisions figured prominently. Mrs. Walker-Smith, remarkably refreshed, went back to her running game and took the C first two games. She was leading QO-0 in s the third when she ended a long rally with 5 a short crop. The crowd seemed to think it was good, but the linesman ruled other- t * wise and Miss Connolly Vent on to win c the game. c Again Mrs. Walker-Smith dictated the * type of play and went to a 4-2 lead. Little Mo, with tremendous flat drives to the cor- F ners that even her opponent could not c reach, brought the score to four-all. And s then came the second decision. Behind 15-40, Little Mo cracked one * down the base line. The crowd thought it f was out and that the Briton had pushed ahead in games 5-4 and started to cheer, f But the linesman ruled the ball was good. No one knows how the match might have ii gone had the decision been in Mrs. Walker- * Smiths favor, but the Briton broke Little a at Mos service to take the next game. Then the American girl hammered the b tiring matron off the court with two love games. s Miss Rinkel ran into Miss Hart on one t of her best days and never really had a a a chance. Miss Hart took advantage of Mrs. Rinkels tendency to get flustered by work- t ing her toward the sidelines, then double- h crossing her across the court. After a while, t» to Mr*. Rinkel had trouble keeping the ball n ii * a at b s t a a t h t» to n inside the court and, had she borne down, J Miss Hart might have won the second set ! love. I As it was, she saved herself for the dou- 1 bles later in the afternoon. There was an American scare in the first set of this match when Mrs. Rinkel and . the 20-year-old Helen Fletcher jumped to i 3-0 lead. Mrs. Rinkel played the best tennis on j the court, but her partners weak backhand helped Miss Hart and Miss Fry to pull up I four-all and from then on the issue was never in doubt. i
