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Vilas beats
Roche in
five sets
MELBOURNE: Top-seeded Argen
tine Guillermo Vilas squeezed through
a five-set match against veteran fellow
left-hander Tony Roche in the Aus
tralian Open tennis title at Kooyong
yesterday.
Vilas, 26, battled for three hours in the
quarter-final before winning in five sets, 3-6,6-1,
3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
He now meets Hank Pfister, of the US, in
the semi-final.
Pfister earlier had strolled into the semi-finals
after blasting Queenslander Paul Kronk in
straight sets, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3.
Vilas is drawing toward a finals match with
third-seeded American- Arthur Ashe who will
face Sydney's John Marks in the other sem-final.
Vilas, who admits he likes to watch fellow
left-hander Tony Roche whenever possible so
that he can learn from him, became the teacher
yesterday.
Roche took the first set in 37 minutes, but
the super-fit Argentine won the second set after
breaking service twice.
After Roche won the third set, he did not
waste a second in taking the voluntary break.
During the 10-minute break he had his legs
massaged by masseur Clive Fullerton to try to
ease soreness which had been troubling him in
the latter half of the set.
However, Vilas easily took the final two sets.
The Argentine is philosophical about his
chances of taking the Australian crown. He said
he could win any tournament because he had the
strokes but whether he would was a different
proposition.
Roche on grass, according to Vilas, is as good
as anyone.
"I have a lot of respect for his game and I
like to watch hime whenever I have time", he
said.
"He is very tough to play against. He has a
very clean game and I can learn a lot.
"I think I played well. I started slowly but
he was hitting a lot of winners.
"He was hitting them from the baseline -
chipping deep and hitting top spin shots deep".
Hank Pfister served his way into the semi
finals in 110 minutes, assuring himself at at least
$11,000. He was forced to alter the flat powerful
serve he has been trying to perfect in order to
beat Kronk.
He said later that he had to revert to his high
kicking serve because the Australian was hitting
top-spin winners off his flat serves.
"I had to kick the serve up so he couldn't get
over it", he said.
"It gave me time to get to the net".
The women's title is now anything but a
promoter's dream.
In fact, it developed into a nightmare when
the two top seeds, Britain's Sue Barker and
Czech star Renata Tomanova, were eliminated.
In the space of two minutes the two potential
finalist disappeared in straight set defeats in the
quarter-finals.
Melbourne girl Dianne Evers, 22, accounted
for Sue Barker 6-2, 7-6.
Tomanova admitted she did not get to bed
until 12.30am yesterday after New Year's Eve
celebrations and was awake at 5.30am to take
an overseas call. She lost to American Betsy
Nagelsen 6-4, 6-4.
Barker's defeat ends an Australian season she
will quickly want to forget. She had a fall in an
early Federation Cup match at Kooyong in
November which put her on the sidelines until
the beginning of the tournament.
Betsy Nagelson Help
Betsy Nagelson
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