19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

TRACY'S REIGN
Sir:
In your Sept. 20, 1976 issue (A Duel of Pace and Power) you wrote about Chris Evert-Lloyd's second straight U.S. Open victory and said, "Evert may win 10 more Forest Hills before a young lady from California named Tracy Austin is old enough to take the Open from her."

Well, Chris won four straight before Tracy beat her (She Simply Couldn't Believe It, Sept. 17). In any case, Tracy is the new queen of tennis.
MYRON REIN
Bazine, Kans.

Sir:
This year's U.S. Open proved to be too much for the big guns. I was excited to see a gutsy No. 3-seeded teen-ager stick with it to the end. What a thrill it must be for her—and no one except your photographer captured her excitement. Thanks for another great cover.
TOM GOWANS
Orem, Utah

BEHAVIOR PATTERNS
Sir:
Is there no code of decency that might be upheld in the once dignified sport of tennis? The utterances by Jimmy Connors as he expressed his dismay over his failures in the U.S. Open were vile enough for me to usher my younger children away from the television set.

Perhaps sterner disciplinary action for vulgarisms and for the lack of respect shown by many of the players toward the officials would help to restore some semblance of order and decency to a game once played by ladies and gentlemen.

I suppose, however, there is very little hope, because the measure of success has become who won and how much money did he or she earn. How sad it is to realize what little value is placed on good sportsmanship and fun.
STEPHEN P. WOLFSON
Ormond Beach, Fla.

Sir:
I think your SCORECARD item (Sept. 10) was less than fair to U.S. Open umpire Frank Hammond and his handling of the McEnroe-Nastase affair. I saw only six or eight of the games preceding the crisis on the TV replay the following Sunday, so I cannot address the question of which player was the more boorish during the match. However, just before the uproar, Nastase knocked the hat off the head of the net judge, and that in itself should have been grounds for throwing him out. In your article on the NASL National Conference Championship in the same issue, you endorsed penalties for the physical intimidation of soccer officials.

The U.S. tennis Establishment owes an apology to Hammond for publicly embarrassing him. Instead of reversing his decision and continuing the match, the tournament director should have cleared the stands, sent everybody home and ruled that the match be finished the next day, no matter how much rearranging of the schedule that would have necessitated.

The powers that be in American tennis are going to rue the day that they let an unruly crowd control the play and force the reversal of a decision by an experienced and respected official.
BEULAH M. WOODFIN
Albuquerque

CAROLINA FOOTBALL
Sir:
As a sophomore at the University of South Carolina, I welcomed your article Do Not Ignore All the Signs (Sept. 17). I have pulled for the Fighting Gamecocks all of my life, and in that time nothing has really changed in the quality of our football program. The blame really can't be put on Coach Jim Carlen, though. Paul Dietzel came here after having success at LSU with his Chinese Bandits. Dietzel is now back at LSU and Carolina is still nowhere.