They Play for Pay

Maybe his take from pro tennis is falling off; maybe he was just feeling ornery.

Whatever the reason, Jack Kramer, former U.S. amateur champion (1946-47), last week remembered out loud that he had earned a pretty penny playing even before he turned pro. Everybody knows that "amateur" tennis-tournament travelers get fat under-the-table fees, wrote Big Jake in This Week magazine--everybody, that is, except the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association. And why blame the players? Why call them tennis bums? Topnotch tennis is a 52-week-a-year job; tennis stars have to earn a living like anybody else.

Kramer's suggestions for cleaning up the game are straightforward enough: get the payoff above the table. Hold open tournaments and let both amateurs and pros compete for prize money, "as clean and candid a reward as there is." In Wiesbaden, Germany last week, where this year's crop of "amateurs" were competing in another tournament, Kramer's plan was cheered. "Every one of us in this tournament is paid, and if we weren't, you can be damned sure there wouldn't be a one of us here," said one player. "What can you do? Turn pro and make less money than the amateurs?" Said current U.S. Champion Vic Seixas: "Tennis keeps moving along, but there are a lot of fuddies in the U.S.L.T.A. who just keep standing still. Things should change, and unless somebody thinks of a better incentive than money, they're going to change."

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