Posts Tagged With : 70s tennis
Okker Wins as Disputed Calls Rattle Angry Reid
by Laurie Pignon
Ilie Nastase and Tom Okker, the two leaders in the £150,000 Commercial Union Grand Prix, and favourites for the £3,000 Dewar Cup first prize, both had straight set wins to reach the quarter finals at Nottingham University Sports Centre yesterday.
Losers are seldom happy but yesterdays were particularly disgruntled. Raz Reid, a 23 year old from South Carolina, said after he was beaten, 6-3, 6-4, by Okker.
I had to replay points which I thought I had already won. I am not inclined to jump on linesmen, the British are normally very good, but we are out there playing for money and Grand Prix points. I normally leave my tennis on the court when I come off, but not today.
The normally quiet American, who was a finalist at Billingham last week, was upset by disputed calls which occurred in both service break games.
Nastase can, as Californian Bob Kreiss discovered be very aggravating when he knows the opposition isn’t strong enough to pressurise him. His tennis is brilliant but he can’t resist the temptation to show off. After he was beaten 6-1, -6-1 Kreiss said: “Nasty was so frustrating to play against that in the end I didn’t even want to run.”