Word: borotra
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There was a bald spot now where his familiar blue beret used to be, but his thin face, jerky, stiff-armed strokes and debonair air were unmistakable. It was Jean Borotra all right, back on the same Manhattan courts where he had four times won the U.S. indoor tennis title (1925, 1927, 1929, 1931). The occasion: an exhibition match with an old rival, the U.S.'s ex-Davis Cupper Francis X. Shields...
...been more than a decade since U.S. tennis fans had seen France's Bounding Basque in action. It had been even longer since the Davis Cup matches which established Borotra as one of tennis' all-time greats. In the interim, Borotra had been Minister of Sports for the Vichy government. Fortunately for him, he had been charged with working for the Resistance and fired by Laval in 1942, was in a German prison when France was liberated...
...Jean Borotra, famed "bounding Basque" of French tennis in its salad days (circa 1929), bounded back to glory at 48, in London sparked the French team to victory over Britain, eight matches to four. But he no longer bounded gaily over the net with outstretched hand at matches' end-now he just pushed the net down and soberly stepped across...
Since the liberation, French tennis stars of the gay, bygone days have been creeping back in the news. (Notable exception: flamboyant Jean Borotra, last reported under arrest as Vichy's ex-Sports Director.) This week Yvon Petra, a native of Indo-China, captured the French championship by defeating former Davis Cupper Bernard Destremeau, 7-5, 6-4, 6-2. Then dapper little Henri Cochet, 45-year-old ace of the '20s, paired with Pierre Pellizza to win the doubles crown from Petra and Destremeau...
Then guards drove Weygand to a private room at the Val-de-Gråce military hospital, Borotra to an elegant residence at 35 Avenue Foch, to await the charges against them...