The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 53

1 fi I' J. JEtmiowuiiitjHiSLnmLmm' m- Hi: BIGGEST AND BES o) 0) Iru LZ1LZ (7h An xN winner of the first Wimhledon Open. MELBOURNE, Saturday. Fiery Ame-rican Pasarell 'blew up" during a sensational Victorian men's singles semifinal at Kooyong this afternoon. Pasarell, leading two sets to nil, went on to lose the match 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.

II If II II II II III '-Jill! iff i i i'ii 11 "'i SI nil llele i i i In the second semi-final American Davis Cup star Arthur Ashe coasted to a 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Australian Ray Ruffels. The Incident during which Pasarell argued with the umpire for more than 30 seconds occurred in the ninth game of the fourth set. Pasarell challenged the umpire's ruling after Smith, who led 5-3 and was serving for the set, raced in and sprawled on his face hitting the net with his racquet. The ball had bounced back into play. amiin, in a seemingly hopeless position, regained his feet, raced back and re turned the ball which Pasa rell cracked into the net with a weak backhand.

Pasarell, who would have raced to 40-15 on Smith's service if he had been 1 ff I i mm 0) I I LZ3 1 awarded the point, dropped his racquet-a few inches from the net and argued heatedly with the umpire. A discard from the U.S. Davis Cup team for the Challenge Round in Adelaide last month, Pasarell protested that he should have been awarded the point because Smith's racquet had contacted the net. Fought back However, after more than 30 seconds argu-ment, the umpire refused to alter his call. The incident upset Pasarell visibly and he.

lost the next. two points to concede the set 6-3 to Smith. Smith lost the first two sets of the gruelling 3 hr. 20 min; clash in near century heat on the centre court 7 7 of 15, started the day with a runaway win in tne Junior men's Onc-mctre springboard title. But it was his second win, about two hours later, that earned Barnctt's admiration.

Ono of 'string' Grove defeated older, more experienced rivals to win the open three metres springboard championship. nuhc wiiiie since junior won an open title in N.SAW Barnctt said mil. I. "Let me see some young fellow called Barnett i 1 An FIVE SET VICTORY TO SMITH From ADRIAN QUIST MELBOURNE, Sat. An "ice cool" Stan Smith staged a magnificent recovery to defeat team-mate Charles Pasarell in five sets in a men's singles semi-fmal today.

Tmnnrisnn the Kforv vwn'l'1" P. -j of trie second semi-final be tween Arthur Ashe and Ray Ruffels is a rather simple one. Pnsflrr.1l started brilliant- His service functioned efficiently, he vollcved accu rately and his overhead was flawless. Smith appeared very tight and served a stream of double faults. Pasarell won the first two sets 10-8.

13-11 and at that stage Smith was in a hope less position. To his credit he never changed expression. He never gave up nope. In fact, he lifted his game and Pasarell. sensing vic tory, relaxed a fraction al lowing Smith to get his ser vice going.

Two-all An extraordinary change came over the game at the beginning of the fourth set. Smith commenced return ing almost all of Pasarell's services. Obviously upset, Parasell endeavoured to hit his services at maximum speed and his first service frequently missed. Smith began to punish bis volleys, keep the ball In play, and eliminate mistakes on the easy shots. At two sets all it was anyone's match.

Pasarell opened the fifth and it was apparent feeling the pressure. He dropped his opening service due to two magnifi cent passing shots and from that moment onwards be had lost the match. Unnatural Ruffels' left-handed swins- ing service was of no avail against Ashe. The American's service return from the backhand line was superb. The fact that he was able to turn the ball Into play onset Ruffels' entire game.

In" an effort to prevent the American swinging the return across court the Australian tried to alter his delivery to the forecourt. This was unnatural and he served many double faults. It was one of those matches in which one player held and also maintained control without permitting his opponent to get into the game. The final tomorrow between Ashe and Smith should produce some of the finest tennis seen In Australia for many years. Some judges believe Ashe is the finest singles player in trie world today.

I think he is among the first three but I do not con cede that his best tennis is any better than we have seen from Rod Laver. In my opinion Laver at peak form would beat Ashe. fa in I a'! xtn The men's singles alone has 110 entries, which is 40 more than the previous highest entry remembered by longstanding tournament chairman Mr Esca Stephens. N.S.W.L.T.A. secretary Mr i Alf Fryer said last night his association had to take about from the gate in the By ROD; HUMPHRIES next week to cover commitments.

"Judging by the public interest it will certainly be a financial success, Mr Fryer said. And on the playing side the Open should pro- duce some of the bestV tennis seen at White City. How could it fafl with names like Laver, Rose-' wall, Newcombe, Roche, Gonzales Gimeno, Buch-holz, Emerson and Stolle playing in the men's singles? And in the women's singles, the world's top names, including Billie B1LLIE-JEAN KING $300 with the runner up getting $2,000. Beaten semi-finalists will take $1,250, beaten quarter finalists $750, $150 will go to players losing in the second round. The women's winner will receive $1,500 and runner up.

$1,000. Beaten semi finalists receive $450, beaten quarter-finalists $150 and losers in the second round $50. The winning men's doubles pair will receive $1,000 each and the women $500. Play will be held daily through till next Sunday, with night matches on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights. Elimination matches will begin at 10 a.m.

to II ffl Rod Laver, The N.S.W. I.T.A., ihs organisation which fought loolh and nail, for Open tennis, will see the result of ils many baffles this week. The first N.S.W. Open tennis tournament will begin with elimination matches at White City today. N.S.W.

led the fight within Australia for Open tennis and its determination finally swung support in its favour from the LXAA. Later, when the L.T.A A. backed up in the face of Open tournaments, N.S.W. stood up to the national body. And "it 'took -on" the professionals and forced them to back down when they threatened to with-: draw from" the tourna- ment if competitors of the registered player category were allowed to accept prize money.

It hasn't been an easy road, but N.S.W. officials are now putting the finishing touches to the organisation for what will be the biggest and the best tennis rtourna-" ment, ever held in He has already won the amateur grand slam, two amateur and one professional Wimbledon, title and the first open of the'-players coming back to tennis. after a Christmas, and New. Year break, there could be some upsets. Players who will be fit and ready are the professionals who contested the Tasmanian and Western Australian Opens two weeks ago.

American Marty Reis-sen downed Ken Rose-wall in the W.A. final, but Rosewall is expected to be a really tough competitor at White City. Fred Stolle won in Tasmania from Tony Roche, while Mai Anderson and Britisher Roger Taylor apparently showed good form in Hobart. Prize 1 money in the N.S.W. Open totals $25,000 and is split $12,200 for the men's singles $5,900 for the doubles, $4,400 for the women's singles, and for the doubles.

In the men's singles, the winner will receive 50 II II If II THE SUN-HERALD, and appeared to be facing ucicat. In the first two sets the rubber jointed Pasarell played the superior tennis. However, once Smith really hit his top it was curtains for Pasarell. Smith broke Pasarell's scr-vice four times and raced through the last three sets in only 76 minutes to take the match. For Pasarell the 8-10, 11-13, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 dtrfeut was a heartbreaking twist of fortune.

Two days earlier he had come back from what appeared imminent defeat to down Australian champion Jlill Bowrey in the quarter Una is. Against Bowrev Pasarell trailed two sets to love and 2-5 and Bowrey served three times for the match in the third set. Each time Pasarell staved off defeat and finally won a gruelling five set battle. MARGARET'S GREAT WIN Brilliant Western Australian Margaret Court this afternoon retained her crown as Queen of Australian tennis. In one of the most crushing wins of her win-studded career, Nfrs Court thrashed young Kerry Harris to win the women's singles championship 6-1, 6-4.

II was her sixth win In the title since 1961. The 19-year-old Hsscndon secretary was never in the match. Margaret, smiling broadly an she walked from the court, said: "So much for that, now for the profes-lonals. "I'm looking forward to meeting Billie Jean King in next week's New South Wales championships." Mrs Court will fly to Sydney tomorrow to prepare for the $25,000 titles to be played at White City. in 1936, I think," he added with a grin.

Grove's rare double completed a day of typical monopolisation of honours by Barnctt's pupils. Barry Knapman, 24, who finished second to Grove la the open etrnt, Is another In the "Mring" at third placc ucitcr Vincent Nevlo. Earlier, in the women's open highboard championships, Ann Roby narrowly defeated Madeleine Bollinger and there's no prize for guessing the identity of the girls' coach. Nor for picking the coach of Lyn Trewhclla who won the junior women's high-board title. Jean King and Margaret are studded through the draw.

Apart from professionals, there are 31 other entries from Russia, Spain, Italy, France, Great Britain, Belgium, Japan and Indonesia. Of the non-profession al overseas players in the i men singles, me "year-old Spaniard Manuel Orantes, Russian Toomas Lejus and the well-performed Japanese Osamu Ishiguro are1 competitors. A -All eves will naturally be on the men's singles 2 where the red-headed Queenslander. Rod Laver, recognised in many quarters as the world's greatest ever player, is favourite. This is an important tournament for Laver, who will want to sharpen himself for next weeks Australian Open in Bris- bane.

Laver has only one more playing goal in tennis an open grand slam of the Australian, French, Wimbledon and United States titles. day with the first round men's and women's singles tomorrow and On Wednesday and Thursday, during the day and night, organisers have scheduled matches of the men's and women's singles. -v A semi-final of the-men's and women's singles and possibly the men's doubles final will be played on Friday, with the remaining semifinals on Saturday and the final day on Sunday. Admission to the preliminary matches today will be 50 cents. The scale of prices for the following days is: Monday: reserve southern and not hern stands $2, eastern and western stands $1.

Tuesday: $2, $1, Wednesday and Thursday: Day $2.50, $1.50. Nighty $3, $1.50. Friday: Day and night: $3, $1.50. Saturday and Sunday: $3.50, $1.50. There are some "quality" reserve scats in the northern and southern stands with preferential booking at $5., mm- -f; 1 1, rt tit V.

ft MB Ai Arthur afterro rod hi win men pionsh He ising did to blast Ray Rut centre, Ashi ant 6-: took It ad row's fij clash man Sti Ashe mood i the gall stunned 4,000. siour Ruffels' Austral back ioitiativ I Ashe cvjdcnt Kollcls (sane i thpn rt guncs iP-2 I I The minute I Asl frcsst hen fie ft fnd Ruff nj en 1 cc I ked Vor st iltcd Ken Grove, winner of the junior one-metre springboard and open three-metre springboard titles at the NS.W. diving championships at Ryde Pool yesterday. laiiE isiiL By ALAN PEERS It's a rare year when the specialised "production line" of Jack Bar-nctt docs not produce more than one. Australian or State diving champion.

Result is he is sometimes a little blase about the performances of his charges. But the old maeftfrn could not conceal bis pleas ure at the display of one of his brighter young stars, Ken Grove, at th diving championships at Ryde Pool yesterday. Grove, a freckle-faced lad i i. JAN. 12, 1969.

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