Sport: By Double Fault

In 49 years of Davis Cup play, the U.S. has won the cup 18 times. But the grand days of U.S. amateur tennis supremacy, like those of Ivy League football, are long gone. Since 1950, Australia’s strong-armed youngsters have ruled the courts; the U.S. has won only twice, the last time in 1958—and then with a Peruvian, Alex Olmedo, playing as a member of the U.S. team. In 1960 and 1961, the U.S. could not even make the finals, bowing out both times to Italy in interzone competition. Last week the U.S. 1962 Davis Cup team ran true to form: it lost to Mexico in the American zone preliminaries.

Playing in the thin-aired altitude (7,434 ft. above sea level) of Mexico City’s Chapultepec Sports Center, the U.S.’s Chuck McKinley started out as if he meant to deflate the Mexicans entirely. Having one of his good days, the erratic McKinley routed the No. 1 man on Mexico’s team, Rafael Osuna, in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5, 6-3. No matter that the U.S. team’s No. 2 player, Jon Douglas, lost a tough, five-set match to Mexico’s veteran Antonio Palafox. The U.S. was favored in the doubles, and McKinley seemed sharp enough to win his second singles match, which would give the U.S. at least a 3-2 edge.

But it was not to be that way. As McKinley’s doubles partner, Davis Cup Captain Robert J. Kelleher chose Dennis (“The Menace”) Ralston, 20, a temperamental Californian whose best showing was as a member of the winning Wimbledon doubles team in 1960, but whose uninspired play since then ranks him only eleventh on the list of U.S. players. In the first set, the U.S. had a 4-2 lead when Ralston’s service fell apart. For the first time in Davis Cup memory, a game was lost at love on four successive double faults. Quick to seize the advantage, Osuna and Palafox fought back to salvage the set, 8-6. In the second set, the hapless Ralston served eight more double faults-overshooting the service line. All told, he served a grand total of 18 double faults, surely a record in Davis Cup competition. Though McKinley—and Ralston, too—fought gamely to the end, managed to stretch the match to five sets, their confidence was gone. Mexico’s Osuna and Palafox walked off the winners. Said Ralston, in tears when the match was over: “There were only three men on the court. I let everyone down. I should have quit this game when I was 17.”

Before a screaming crowd of 3,200 on the final day, Osuna, who developed his tennis game at the University of Southern California, beat Jon Douglas. Though McKinley won as expected, Mexico took the competition, three matches to two. Next for the surprising Mexicans is the American zone final against Yugoslavia in Mexico City this weekend. After that, the American zone winner will fight it out with Sweden, the European champion, and India, winner in the Far East, for the chance to challenge Australia in December. And all the while, the U.S. will once again be on the sidelines.