THE MISSING X

"Great tennis players have one indefinable quality in common," said U.S. Tennistar Bill Talbert. "I call it 'x.' I haven't got it myself. But Budge had it. Vines had it. And so did Perry and the other greats." Whatever "x" is, the quality was sadly lacking at Wimbledon last week, as the All-England tennis championships got under way.

Of the men, only Australian Champion Frank Sedgman, 22, seeded No. 1 among Wimbledon's contenders, seems likely ever to reach the stature of a Budge or a Vines. Sedgman plays today's "big" game of constant attack. Best of the Americans (in the absence of Ted Schroeder, who is too busy with his refrigeration business to defend his title this year) is Billy Talbert himself, past his prime at 31 and a diabetic. Third and fourth seeded are Jaroslav Drobny, the self-exiled Czech with a singing serve which subsides to a whisper in an endurance match, and South African Eric Sturgess, a solid, stolid player of the old base-line school.

Women's tennis for the past four years has been dominated by Louise Brough, Wimbledon champion in 1949, and Margaret Osborne Du Pont, neither of whom has ever shown the verve of Pauline Betz or the grace of Alice Marble. Doris Hart, ranked third, has an outside chance of breaking up the Brough-Du Pont monopoly this year. No one expected as much of bouncing Gussie Moran, pressagent product of a tennis era in which mediocrity is often confused with talent.

On the basis of the early rounds at Wimbledon last week, what tennis badly needs these days is a few up & coming youngsters equipped with the missing "x."

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