Sport: Tennis with a Twist

Gussie Moran got top billing as the tennis pros opened their winter tour in Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden last week; Jack Kramer, Pancho Segura and Pauline Betz Addie took what poster space was left. As a reflection of tennis ability this made no sense, but the pros knew what they were doing. Their box-office mixture is not tennis alone, but tennis with a brimming jigger of circus stuff.

So it was no great surprise that in the week before the match, prancy Gussie Moran, seventh-ranking U.S. amateur last year, spent a good part of her time in press conferences where she was asked whether she would wear lace panties or a leopard-skin number. Meanwhile, her opponent, Pauline Betz Addie, put in a week of hard practice, polishing up the game that had made her (1942, ’43, ’44, ’46) a four-time national champion.

It was therefore no great surprise, either, when Pauline beat Gussie, 6-0, 6-3, in a 33-minute opener at the Garden. The only real departure from the advance script was that Pauline, wearing dazzling silver lame shorts and a shocking-pink sweater, nat only gave Gussie (in white pique) a tennis lesson but out-dressed her as well.

After that, the fans settled back in their seats to. see if big Jake Kramer, 29, was still the best player in the world. Little (5 ft. 7 in., 150 Ibs.) Pancho Segura had been playing in pro preliminaries for two years while Kramer was knocking over the 1948-49 headliners, Bobby Riggs and Pancho Gonzales.* Segura had finally earned a shot at Kramer by winning the pro title last spring.

Bandy-legged, Ecuador-born Pancho Segura had Jake’s number from the first. He covered court like a bird dog in a chicken coop, took the sting out of Kramer’s big serve, whacked his own two-handed forehand drives into the far corners and outguessed Kramer in nearly every rally. It was all over in less than an hour. Score: 6-2, 6-2, 6-1. Explained a somewhat surprised Kramer: “Pancho knocked me down in the first set and never let me get off the floor.” Pancho, who gets only a salary, to Kramer’s 25% of the gate and Gussie’s 30%, had a simpler explanation: “I’m hongry.”

* Currently at home in Los Angeles counting the $70,000 he earned last year when Kramer took the starch out of him in 93 of their 121 matches.