A Man Named Smith

"This will be the wide-open Open," announced Billy Talbert, director of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships at Forest Hills, N.Y. If he sounded like a carny barker trying to hypo the gate, it was understandable. Partly because of the wearying pro v. amateur power struggle that has long plagued tennis, six of the top professionals --Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, Fred Stolle, Cliff Drysdale and Andres Gimeno--declined to enter the tournament. Margaret Court Smith, the defending women's champion, could not come because she is pregnant. Wimbledon Champ Evonne Goolagong, the 20-year-old Australian aborigine sensation, said she had decided to take a rest. Then, in the first round, unseeded Jan Kodes of Czechoslovakia eliminated another big name when he upset top-seeded John Newcombe. After that Chris Evert, the 16-year-old schoolgirl who captured the fancy of the fans, got spanked 6-3, 6-2 by top-seeded Billie Jean King in the semifinals. Then the rains came, delaying play and dissipating interest. For all its vicissitudes, though, the 1971 Open produced a winner whom former U.S. Champion Jack Kramer pronounced "a new superstar." Serene Smasher. Stan Smith, a lanky, mustachioed blond, became the second American in 16 years to win the U.S. title.* At 24, and playing the best tennis of his career, he has defeated most of the world's top players. In Tokyo in December, he knocked off both Laver and Rosewall to win the Grand Prix Masters. Two months ago in London, he bested Newcombe to win the Queen's Club Open, then came within a few shots of beating him again two weeks later in a furious five-set finals match at Wimbledon. At the U.S. Open, while Players Clark Graebner and Dennis Ralston were calling the officials "idiotic" and "ridiculous" for banning racket throwing and abusive language on the court, Smith went serenely on his wav, demolishing everyone he met. "Stan," says his doubles partner, Erik Van Dillen, "talks with his racket."

Last week his racket was shouting as he met Kodes in the finals. Though the volatile Czech possesses one of the strongest service returns in the game, he was no match for Smith's cannonball. By contrast, Kodes' weak second serve allowed Smith to hit sizzling, deep returns, then charge the net where he was virtually impenetrable. That was the difference as the two players went into a sudden-death tie breaker with Smith leading two sets to one. Needing five out of a possible nine points to win, Smith was down 3-1 when he connected on a pair of crackling cross-court shots. After Kodes missed a forehand return, Smith put everything into a big serve that the Czech was lucky to bloop back. Smith put the ball away with an overhead smash to win the tie breaker and the match 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6.

New-Found Speed. Though Smith has been playing tennis for a decade, he is a relative newcomer to the big-time pro circuit. Gawky as a youngster (at 14, he was once rejected as a ball boy for fear he might trip over his size-13 sneakers and get in the way of the players), he later became known as half of the country's top doubles team --with Bob Lutz, his partner at the University of Southern California. To become a topflight singles player, Smith needed to speed up his ability to cover the court. "I was a high jumper in high school, not a runner," he says. Nonetheless, after putting himself through a daily regimen of exercises and wind sprints, he says, "I'm now nearly as fast as Pancho Gonzales, who's still the fastest big man playing tennis."

Last year, capitalizing on his newfound speed, he won $97,251. This season, however, he is Pfc. Smith and, in return for the Army's allowing him to play in selected tournaments, he must donate his winnings to the U.S. Davis Cup Fund. Last week, Smith had no regrets about donating his $15,000 purse to the fund. Scheduled to be discharged in December 1972, he knows there is a lot more money where that came from.

* The other is Arthur Ashe, the 1968 U.S. Open winner.

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