Word: mcgregor
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...tennis fans soon found out about big (6 ft. 2 in.), lean (180 Ibs.) Ken McGregor, 21, who lost to Teammate Sedgman in the final of the Australian championship this year. Later, in the French championships, he was put out early by the U.S.'s tenth-ranking Vic Seixas. At Wimbledon, Czech Jaroslav Drobny knocked him off in the fourth round. In a Davis Cup interzone mat^h this summer, Mexico's Gustavo Palafox defeated him. Nonetheless, last week, as the Aussies made their fourth reach for the big cup since V-J day, Team Captain Harry Hopman...
First Meeting. McGregor had never seen Schroeder play, but he was impressed with his record in Davis Cup singles: seven straight victories over Australia. At 29, Ted Schroeder, the U.S. mainstay, was admittedly past his peak. Uncoiling a booming serve, Ken won the first game with the loss of only one point. Barging up to the net with racehorse strides, playing the position with the adroitness of a Vincent Richards, McGregor kept Schroeder constantly off balance...
After 20 games of give & take-mostly take-Schroeder made an antic gesture. Standing near the net between points, he bounced a ball against his head. The ball bounded over. Ted seemed to be saying: "Well, I can't get the ball over any other way.' McGregor won the first set, 13-11, then romped through two more, 6-3, 6-4, for the match. Since Sedgman had walloped an unsteady Tom Brown in an earlier match, the Australians, needing three-of-five to win, could just about crate up the old cup for shipment home...
...excitement was all over, and Australia had won. Only the formality of the last two singles matches remained. Next day, Sedgman defeated a listless Schroeder with the loss of only six games. The only U.S. consolation was Tom Brown's inspired play against McGregor to win the last match...
Despite his loss to Tom Brown, some sportwriters were already labeling young Ken McGregor as potentially the best amateur of 1951. McGregor, a part-time sporting-goods clerk from Melbourne, showed no sign that he had such an opinion. He explained his victory over Schroeder simply: "I never played better in my life." But Australia, with 21-year-old Ken McGregor and 22-year-old Sedgman, appeared to have established a leasehold on the big cup for a few years, at least...