Word: savitt
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Three Theories. In spite of the fact that Art Larsen is U.S. champion, at Forest Hills Savitt is seeded No. 1. His rise to the top is recent, and looks fast. In fact, it took him quite a while to get there. Like all athletes of championship caliber, he is sure of his own ability: "If I am on my game, nobody can beat me ... The others are coming uphill to me ... I'm the man to beat." A man in his tennis shoes has to believe that, but he has yet to convince his peers that...
...endless gossip of the lockerroom, where the players dissect their matches with the fanaticism of shot-by-shot golfers-and remember the precise scores of each match for years-several theories are advanced on just how to beat Savitt. Bill Talbert, 32-year-old Davis Cup veteran and still a quick man on his feet (for three sets), says: "Make him run." Talbert's pal and protégé Tony Trabert, the 20-year-old sensation of the summer circuit, thinks the answer is: "Hit 'em harder." Gardnar Mulloy, a canny old hand at 37, says...
...Degree. There, his dogged fighting qualities, his persistence and determination, and growing control over his hard hitting paid off. He beat Harry Likas and Vic Seixas (a higher ranked player) in the early rounds. In the semi-final and final matches (against Earl Cochell and Ed Moylan), Savitt dropped the first two sets, and was on the verge of defeat. He won both matches. That worked wonders with his game, and with his belief in himself. It was, in a sense, his bachelor's degree in tennis...
...three ensuing months in Australia gave him a fine postgraduate course. In the Australian championship, after beating wily Veteran John Bromwich in the quarterfinals, Savitt faced two-time Champion Sedgman in the semi-final bracket. The match went to five sets, and in the fifth, Sedgman spurted to a 4-2 lead. Savitt, always tense when he's ahead, simply relaxed and began hitting winners, won four straight games and the match. In the final, against rangy Ken McGregor, "I felt that nothing could stop me." McGregor couldn't. Dick won handily...
...European campaigning ("minor league stuff"), Savitt had only a so-so record, actually lost six of seven matches (on clay) to Jaroslav Drobny, ex-Czech Davis Cup veteran. The losses did little to shake Dick's new-found faith in his ability to win, but they did create a jinx. Drobny beat him again in the quarter-finals of the French championships, a tournament that Savitt really wanted to win. He began to fret, decided he was over-tennised, and practically stopped playing for the whole month before Wimbledon...