U. S. Women Tennis Stars Gain British Semi-Finals: Miss Connelly Leads American Group to Victories in Singles, Daily Racing Form, 1954-06-04

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U.S. Women Tennis Stars Gain British Semi-Finals - Miss Connelly Leads American Group to Victories in Singles MANCHESTER, England, June 3 UP. Americas women tennis stars, led by Maureen "Little Mo" Connolly, set up an Ail-American singles semi-final today at the Northern GrasS Court Tournament and Hugh Stewart carried U. S. hopes into the mens semi-finals. Miss Connolly, the 19-year-old Californ-ian who is tuning up to defend her Wimbledon crown, scored a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Britains Ann Shilcock. It was the hardest-hitting womens match played so far in the tournament. In the other womens quarter-finals, Doris Hart of Coral Gables, Fla., defeated Betty Pratt, former East Orange, N. J., player who now lives in Jamaica, B. W. I., 6-0, 6-1; Louise Brbugh of Beverly Hills, Calif., eliminated Mrs. Joy Mottram of Britain, 6-2, 6-0, and Mrs. Margaret Osborne duPont of Wilmington, Del., ousted Shirley Fry of Akron, Ohio, 6-4, 2-6, 7-5. Stewart from Pasadena, Calif., defeated Tony Mottram of Britain, 8-6, 6-4, but Gil Shea of Los Angeles was beaten by Australias Ken Rosewall, 7-5, 6-3. In the other mens quarter-finals, Australias Rex Hartwig defeated Bob Falken-burg of Brazil, 6-1, 6-2, and John Barry, the New Zealand champion, eliminated his countryman, Mark Otway, 6-3, 6-4." The womens semi-finals Friday match Miss Connolly against Mrs. duPont and Miss Hart against Miss Brough. Stewart will play Rosewall and Hartwig will meet Barry in the mens semi-finals. Miss Shilcock is one of Britains most promising young women players and appeared to have a chance to pull even with Miss Connolly in the first set when she rallied to trail, 3-4. But the San Diego blonde then produced a shower of the fierce backhand drives that have helped her dominate womens international tennis since 1951. The British girl was able to win only one more game during the match. In the Stewart - Mottram match, each player held his service until the thirteenth game of the first set when the American broke through. Stewart won the set when Mottram flubbed an easy smash and won the final set in 10 games after they divided the first eight games.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1950s/drf1954060401/drf1954060401_2_5
Local Identifier: drf1954060401_2_5
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800