Sport

World Tennis, Inc.

By KENNETH GREGORY

WIMBLEDON is SW19. Each year at the All-England Club a ten- nis tournament is heltL Its importance to those who are dedicated 'to the Season, but whO have been dilatory in applying for tickets, can be gathered from advertisements in The Times Personal column : M BLEDON.-- - esehange two good Centre

Cour: seats, Ladies' thuds, for two ,Medea Covent,Garden.

The equation thus implied--Bueno equals Callas —tells us more about the right people and their balanced attitude towards life than about the tennis. For the record, men attend Wimbledon wearing school or clUb ties, the older ones peruse the debs, the younger ones the mums. It is fashionable to. taste strawberries and cream. and to comment casually on the origin of the ball boys in their purple and green shirts. The largest crowd attends on the first day; it is not until things are becoming more ordered that one may sit behind the competitors' seats and watch Ameri- can men holding hands with French women. Even then there are furtive glances lest Dr. Billy Graham should be around. Nothing more need

be said about Wimbledon save that the Gentle- men's Singles Championship entitles its winner to keep silver replicas of the two Challenge Cups, also that the present champion, Olmedo, hardly ranks among the world's best half-dozen players.

Wembley is the scene of the FA Cup Final. In addition there is a covered court where next week World Tennis, Inc., will stage a tournament which coincides with the Ring at Covent Garden. No equation will be implied in The Times Per- sonal column, partly because Hotter is not Callas and partly, as the house agents will confirm, because Wembley is not Wimbledon. Tennis at Wembley is democratic, the umpire and linesmen preferring the anonymity of dinner jackets and red carnations. Indeed, Wembley would be wholly unbearable were it not for the breath- taking quality of the tennis. Nothing more need be said save that the members of World Tennis, Inc., are rewarded with money. Last year Richard Gonzales, who is just about king of the profes- sional jungle—anyway when Lew Hoad is not listening—cleared .$180,000 from striking balls and endorsing equipment.

The President of World Tennis, Inc., is Jack Kramer. whose name is not mentioned in ,some circles. The Wimbledon champion of 1947,

Kramer was still spry enough two years ago to beat Gonzales at Wembley. About the same time that he went into big business, the Australian Dimly Pails threw up a £12 a week job as a salesman for £300 us a tennis pro. Four years later another Australian, Frank Sedgman, ob- served the beckoning Kramer finger. So, too, did the public who were keen that the Americans should be beaten in the Davis Cup. Came Sedgman's wedding and there was a nice little present of £5,473 from public subscription. Sedgman took the hint and delayed turning pro- fessional for a year. The Wimbledon winners of 1955-56-57, Trabert and Hoad, also forsook the Centre Court; so did Rosewall, who, like Gonzales, never bothered to win Wimbledon. Of all the post-war champions of SW19 Kramer now has five in his circus. No one doubts they were the best of the bunch.

The only men left in amateur tennis are those whom Kramer hasn't asked. A harsh generalisa- tion perhaps, but just about the truth. Once in the circus everyone does well so long as he lasts. For his recent American tour Kramer took $90,000 and split -it into sixty parcels of $1,500 each (the number of stops on the tour), with the feature winner earning $600 and the loser $300. In the supporting match the loser had to be content with $200, a negligible sum perhaps, but one which meant that the least successful member of World Tennis, Inc., was guaranteed £4,300 for two months' work.

Compare the lot of the amateur. He probably has a job with a firm of tennis equipment manu- facturers, but spends most of the year away from the office. Until a few months ago he was per- mitted to take part in tournaments outside his own country for 150 days a year. This figure has since been amended to 210 days, but, and this is the vital ruling, he may draw no more than £5 a day for expenses. Clearly the amateur is not meant to save for his old age, he simply lives comfortably while in the amateur circuit. What every sensible amateur must hope for is marriage to a city tycoon's daughter.

If tennis permitted a Gentlemen v. Players match the present programme would read some- thing like:.

A. Glinted° v. Gonzales, R. A. N. A. Fraser v. Hoad, L. A.

B. Mackay v. Rosewall, K. R. R. Laver v. Trabert, T. L. Ayala v. Sedgman, F. R. Emerson v. Cooper, A.

How many sets would the amateurs take? Colour is slowly being drained from the amateur game, as witness the 1959 Wimbledon when the forty-four-year-old Mulloy was about the only personality. The tragedy lies in professionalism's implications, that in future Wimbledon will probably never see a great player at his peak. Most arc lured into the paid ranks at an early age (Gonzales was twenty-one, Hoad and Rose- wall twenty-three) some years before they may reasonably be expected to be at their best. Again, Wimbledon is unlikely to see the great player worthily extended by a man of his own class. Hoad and company aTe liner players today than they would have been had they remained as amateurs; it is constant conflict with masters which .raises their game by that extra amount.

All that the professional circus lacks is tradi- tion. It is hard to feel any great emotion when

one maestro is confronted by another with only s. d. at stake. But give the professionals their Wimbledon or Davis Cup and you add soul to superlative skill. When -that happens amateur tennis must surely give way to. reason and come to terms with Kramer or others. The problem is not an easy one to solve, for it is Wimbledon's money which keeps the game alive in this country. But whichever way we feel about integration of one kind or another, let us remember what we are missing. The great Tilden could win Wimbledon at the age of thirty-seven

(at fifty-two he could beat Perry, who was sixteen years his junior!); today he would almost cer- tainly be ineligible. Had the circus existed in the Twenties, Wimbledon might have lost not only Tilden but the French cavaliers as well. After all, it is a lot to expect of a man who likes playing tennis that he should turn down $100,000 a year not for appearing more often but for appearing only against the top opposition. Wimbledon, with its past and its unrivalled press facilities, must always have sentiment on its side; reason is in residence with World Tennis, Inc.