Bill Mountford – Dispatches from Newport, R.I., Part I

Frank Dancevic is set to square off against Prakash Amritraj in the semifinals of the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Championships on the grass courts of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in America’s Resort City.  It is always exciting to see young players (aged 23 and 24, respectively) compete for high stakes as they look to establish top-class credibility.
A win for the top-ranking Canadian Dancevic would represent his second visit to an ATP Tour final.  He would become the first Canadian to play for a title in Newport since Greg Rusedski in 1993, who won three times.  Recall that Rusedski’s first title was for the Maple Leaf flag, about a year before he began wearing Union Jack headbands.
The Californian-bred Amritraj represents India in international competition, and should he take the title, then he and his father will be celebrated as the first father-and-son combination to have won the same ATP event.  Like Rusedski, Prakash’s father Vijay Amritraj also won three times in Newport.  The smiling former champion, and actor from the James Bond flick Octopussy, is in Newport this week cheering for his boy.
Prakash’s uncles, Anand and Ashok, also played in Newport, so suffice to say that the Amritraj family is pretty comfortable in this town- and certainly on the grass.  Anand Amritraj defeated 18-year-old John McEnroe in the 1977 event, while McEnroe was days removed from his improbable run to the Wimbledon semifinal as a qualifier in his debut at SW19.
Speaking of John McEnroe, he is back in Newport this weekend, poised to present Gene Scott with his posthumous induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.  Gambling is strictly prohibited at the Newport Casino, and taboo in the world of tennis, but there are- apparently- some punters who have established an over/under of 25 minutes for McEnroe’s introduction.  I would gladly take the over.
The greatest doubles team in the world was often- and famously- considered to be John McEnroe and Anybody.  However, this was not always the case, and former US Davis Cupper Gene Scott was proof.  In 1977, McEnroe and Scott entered the qualifying for the Wimbledon gentlemen’s doubles, but never made it out of Roehampton.  McEnroe’s subsequent success (78 career doubles titles) made the story amusing, and became a source of needling between the two New Yorkers.
Gene Scott was for many years the conscious of tennis, and he used his pulpit as Founder and Publisher of Tennis Week magazine to assure that justice was always called for.  McEnroe has used his pulpit as an exceptional television commentator, as well as his compulsive need for the public stage, to carry on in the Scott tradition.  I hope that he speaks for as long as he pleases (and pity the soul who tries telling him to stop!).
For Bill Mountford tennis instruction videos click here!