Word: savitt
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...long ago, the U.S. Davis Cup squad-on paper, at least-looked as though it had an even chance of bringing the cup back from Australia this December. Dick Savitt, Australian and Wimbledon champion, was thelogical No.1 man in singles. Up & coming Tony Trabert, U.S. clay court champion, could play the No. 2 singles, and team with veteran Billy Talbert in the doubles. Then the paper plans began to go up in smoke. A week after Trabert was ordered to duty with the Navy, Talbert quit the squad to go back to work as a salesman for the Security Banknote...
...Tennis Club stadium at Forest Hills last week for the semifinals of the national championship tournament; the biggest U.S. tennis gallery since 1946 was primed for white-hot competition. One bracket pitted Australian Frank Sedgman against Art Larsen, the flashy, unpredictable U.S. champ; the other match paired husky Dick Savitt, who had earned his No. 1 seeded position by knocking off the Australian and Wimbledon titles, against Vic Seixas, flashing the best play of his five-year career...
After that it was up to Savitt and Seixas, if the fans were to see a real battle. But Savitt was playing against heavy odds. Early in the tournament a boil had developed back of his left knee. Stiff-legged and slow, he had bulled his way along, pulling out a punishing five-set match from Budge Patty in the quarter-final by dogged courage as much as by his court tactics. The infection had to be lanced two hours before his match with Seixas...
Within a few minutes it was obvious that determination had taken Dick Savitt as far as it could. Again & again he was short of reaching Seixas' placements; he could not go to the net effectively; Seixas took the first set at love. Savitt rallied himself for a do-or-die effort and somehow managed to win the second set, 6-3, but after that his cork was pulled; Seixas ran the match...
...Australia's Adrian Quist is one of many old hands credited with having revamped Savitt's game. Savitt says he is almost entirely self-taught. "Quist and I played once or twice, and of course it helps to play with a guy, but he never gave me any coaching...