Sport: Shadow for Substance

The action was so dull at the U.S. tennis nationals at Forest Hills last week that the New York Times's Allyn Baum, looking for a new angle, snapped Peru's Alex Olmedo lunging for a ball. The Times airbrushed out the player and printed his shadow, making it look like an ancient cave painting (see cut). The picture made a telling point: amateur tennis was only a shadow of its former self.

U.S. tennis is in a poor state. With the single exception of Cincinnati's crew-cut Tony Trabert, who turned pro in 1955, the U.S. has not produced a tennis star of consistent...

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