Surrounded by Latins

It was a week of U.S. agony and Latin American ecstasy. Chuck McKinley was America's first top-seeded tennis amateur in eight years in the national championships at Forest Hills, but even his debut match came close to disaster. Seized with a muscle spasm in his back at the start of his game with Ecuador's Eduardo Zuleta, McKinley grimaced through on a mixture of drugs and guts. There was always third-seeded Dennis Ralston, but it was soon clear that he was caught in another of his wild spells; in midweek he finally buckled under to Brazil's unseeded Ronnie Barnes.

Suddenly there were Latins on all sides. Maria Bueno fought her way to the women's finals with Maggie Smith of Australia, and McKinley found himself in the semifinals with Rafael Osuna, a Mexican who whipped him in zonal Davis Cup matches only a month ago. Osuna seemed to play with a sixth sense that put him on top of every McKinley shot, while McKinley helped beat himself with the torment of mental agony. The Mexican won 6-4, 6-4, 10-8.

When McKinley's dust settled, the U.S. found its hopes pinned to an unheralded, unseeded 21-year-old Floridian named Frank Froehling III. With a battery of explosive serves he crushed Australia's best amateur, Roy Emerson, then dispatched Brazil's Barnes in the semifinals. And although he was no match for Osuna in the finals, Froehling was at least the first U.S. finalist at Forest Hills since 1955.

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