1960-06-20 — Page 9

WIMBLEDON PREVIEW

THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, JUNE 20, 1960.

AFTER THE DERBY DISASTERS

THE QUESTION NO. 15...

It's a wide open Wimbledon

...and still the greatest Are racing horses

tennis show on earth

This year's Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships, from June 20 to With a host July 2, promise to be one of the most exciting in recent years. of new stars, thrills and upsets will abound. In this three-part preview JOHN COTTRELL paints the whole picture. His first article sets the scene. The other two articles analyse the strengths, weakness, techniques and, not the least important, the character of first the men and then the women competitors.

By JOHN COTTRELL

The greatest invasion in lawn tennis history has begun

with players from all over the world gathering for the 1960 Wimbledon Championships-the 74th and most probably the last of the exclusively amateur champion- ships at the All-England Club.

getting too soft?

By CLIVE GRAHAM

Is the tricky, up-and-down. Epsom course to blame for the list of injured horses or are horses getting too soft?

That is the controversy begun among racing men by the fatal accident to Angers in the Derby and to Exchange Student in a trial gallop at Epsom.

The series of Injuries-not The mighty Sea Biscuit, win-

only recently, but over several ner of the Kentucky Derby, con- years suggests that in fact the tested 32 races as come degenerate

a two-year- modeth thoroughbred has be- old.

atid weak- The American, Allies and boned after generations of close maréz are also hard-raced, inbreeding. M

often being kept in tralulin until they are five years old and more.

Take a look at the subsequent

since 1950.

Next month, in Paris, the International Lawn Tennis Federation appear

almost certain to give official sanction for open tournaments in 1961. racing careers of Derby winners Then Jack Kramer and his dollar-spinning "circus" will move in to Church Road, Wimbledon.

For years the tide of events has been turning against ali- amateur tennis championships; soon even the prosperous All- England Lawn

and Croquet Club must bow to the Inevitable.

Tennis

In recent years there has been no list of seeded players to com- But let's not pare with that. forget how many very ordinary players used to make up the list of 128 men and 96 Indies in the singles championships of those times.

Only five countries had ever won a singles tille-men's ́or women's-in $8 JOLIE of Wimbledon history-the Valt- ed States, Australia, Britain. France and Egypt.

Retirad

This may be why they are so successfully crossed with im ported European stallions.

"I am always prepared to buy a top-class stallion in England, Ireland France," says the Kentucky stud-owner A. B. Hancock.

Arolio Prince (1951) ran only one race after that, lamed himself, and was re-famous tired to stud.

The same tate awaited Pinza, the 1963 whiner

Crepelle (1957) never ran gain after bis Epsom triumph. Hard Ridden (1958) also had to be retired prematurely.

"But-for zhóit of tis. Ameri- can bayers the yearling market/11, oat."

Hard bone Why? Hancock gives these

reasons:-

Now the names of a Peruvian (Alex Olmedo) and a Brezilian Meanwhile the Championships

(Maria Bueno) have been added It is a different story today. to the championship rolls. And still provide the greatest tennis

men's singles slote in turture years, Once the show on earth-even without For the

there has been the record num-present-day professionals have the world's top ten players.

There has been record ber of 288 entries, of which 118 heen replaced by new stars, we broken legs suffered by Angers American-bred yearlings are entry, with players accepted were automatically accepted and can expect more new countries

rejected. from 39 countries, and I pre-93

The remaining to provide Wimbledon cham- dict that attendance figures 85 players have had to battle plans. will be as high as ever.

through the qualifying tourna- For Wimbledon is more than ment for the ten vicant places.

a lawn tennis tournament. It's

a British institution.

And the most progressive of reformers admit that the Championships will never seem quite the game again with the professionals bat- tling on the Centre Court for big prize-money,

Different story

At last we have quality with quantity. Such is the might of the overseas invasion that only 15 players from Britain have gained place the men's singles the lowest number in modern times.

in

No Colossus

South

Already Spain has the most improved European player in tall, sturdy Andres Gimeno, Africa has more promising men and women players than ever before.

For the first time Australia is producing women stars who may emulate the success of her men. And at their present rate of pro- gress they joined the Inter- national Lawn Tennis Federation

This year, apart from the and Exchange Student, the list of final Derby acceptors included another casualty for Stupor Mundi split a pastern (a small bone in his foot) in a gallop at Newmarket.

it

The amshine in which reared helps to form good, hard bore, which the damper climate of Europe doesn't.

The American yearlings are the product of horses which have slood the racing test for sound- ness and have not been molly- was coddled and sent away, to stud Early in the season hoped that the Queen's four-before fully proving their worth. year-old colt Pindari would be a prominent challenger for the big Cup races.

He too has broken down SU hopelessly that he can never again be trained for racing.

The fact emerges that the thoroughbred is not

The standard of tennis rising throughout the world

modern the chiefly because more and more

countries are following the ex- cellent example of Australia by sending promising young players

This year, pace rain, men's singles ulle will be unde- fended; again the standard of play at the top will be slightly lower. Yet I believe this can prove to be the most interesting and exciting Wimbledon since

the war.

Why? Because the general standard of tennis in the world now at a highest. Gone are the days when Wimbledon was a "Fabbit" warren dominated by a handful of giants,

Some enthusiasts look back nostalgically to

year like 1952

when Wimbledon boasted

on overseas tours.

South Africa, New Zealand, South American countries, even Russia. have

players more

Monopolised

four years ago and have al- ready

produced # junior Wimbledon championssin could become a major tennis

power in ten years:

Thus, with such rapid development of tennis talent

touring Europe this year than abroad, Wimbledon, promises to ever before. Some of them

provide ten days of thrills and have been playing on grass

surprise and even many frst courts for the first time.

and second round matches - once mere formalities -

should develop into ferce struggles.

So even if the standard at the There is nothing more profit-top disappoints, the world's pre- aable to young players than the mier tennis tournament will be as fascinating es ever. For this year no player bestrides the

star-studded list of "seeds" experience of a long tour on Sedeman, Drobny, MoGregor.tournament circuits overseas; Fatty, Seixos, Richardson, even in the course of a few championships like a coloesus Sturgess, Savitt, Larren, Rose, months it has been possible to and while the professionals have Mulloy and Fism.

see a distinct improvement in not yet arrived this is--in one many youngsters,

sense the moet open Wimblo- Until a year ago the Wimbledon since the war,

WIN FOR BURNLEY don Ten's singles title had been

Jersey City, June 19.

monopolised by Americans and Australians for eleven yeare except for the intervention, in

TOMORROW:

Burnley, English. League 1954, of Jaroslav Drobny, then The Men's Singles

The

champions, beat Nice 4-8 in the naturalized Egyptian. Undied Stater International Americans had kept a strangle- League here today. Burnley hold on the women's crown for led 1-0 at half-ume-Reuter,

21 years.

Championship

Now's the time to

quit, Sugar

HAROLD MAYES reports from BOSTON

for

Sugar Ray Robinson,

greatest pound pound fighter of this century has almost certainly fought his last fight. After his failure to win back the world middle- weight title for the sixth time he was beaten by a split decision in Boston Garden by 29-year-old ex-

people close to him were advising him to retire.

For although the 40-year-old coloured New Yorker maintained his record of never having been

knocked out in 154 professional contests spanning 20 years, he was more exhausted after this contest than he had ever been in

his life.

never

Just over two years ago, when ·

● SUGAR 'HAY· he won back the championship from Carmen Basilio, he had to knocked out in 154 contrezia, be helped from the ring but was. lively enough to join a party in

fireman. Paul Pender his suite at three-o'clock in the

European swim record

morning.

Near collapse

Over to manager George Gain- ford who said: "What else is there for him to do? He didn't have such a hard fight as he did against Basilio yet he finished more drei That shows the dif- ference two years has made. I should like him to quit right.

This time it was different. Although he left the ring ertet and was boupistely composed in the dressing room after the now." fight, he was near collapse when he returned to his hotel. Only close friends were al- lowed to see him.

Victor celebrates

While Robinson rested, his

Berlin, June 19. Egon Herninger, of East Gemany, net a European, re- cord for the men's 200 metres breast-stroke during a swimming hours while supporters were descent gave a small party for international between Hungary talking in hushed tones outside friends in a suburb of Boston, and Ele Germany in 2 East his white.

were he was born. Pat

The man who lives in a

I visited him in the early conqueror; who is of Anglo-Irish

Berlin today why didn't you quit after you modest three-bedroomed family Henringer's time of two beat Carmen Basilio in house and who has the Irish exinutes. 37.4* reconds 18 Chicago?" I asked him, family motto of “} persevers": seconds faster than the previous I would have liked to have record, set up by other Best gone out on that one but prepares today to take his wife Bod two children holidaying in

Berlin od August 11, 1989

German Konrad Enke in love story Th

I'll think about it Floride, something which a few

won

he now,

montas ago was beyond his

His mother told me I've wildest dreams

the always tried to keep up his beating zoals so why don't you tall 4 Robinson's Lotai – nurse, was

Tot the that hawa tia s tabu to soprokába

nearly ancestors.

so hardy as his

Hard, raced

Rather more than 100 years ago a horse called Fisherman ran in 119 races during five seasons, winning 89 of them,

Respect

Hancock's views are listen- ed to with respect in America. Over the past 10 yours the - demand for yearling stock to

raise

their dirt-tricks (which Impose such a sirali on horses' feet and legs) has fallen.

And American bloodstock ex- perts who come to Britain to select horses for racing are apt to discard as many as they buy, in the firm conviction that they would not stand up to the arduous American racecourse

Today the only country where racehorses are kept consistently conditions. on the move is America.

Four D. Jones BY MADDOCKS

POW CAM

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