1.
CU ZOOM TO SV: John Alexander (Australia) serving to Arthur Ashe (USA) Alexander wins point.
0.08

2.
SV: crowd applauding
0.10

3.
SV: Alexander serving to Ashe, losing point.
0.18

4.
CU: overhead scoreboard
0.19

5.
GV: Ashe serving to Alexander, winning point for set, PAN TO scoreboard.
0.37

6.
SV: Alexander serving, loses point.
0.45

7.
SV: scoreboard
0.48

8.
SV: Ashe serving to win match point, PAN TO players shaking hands and walking off court, PAN TO scoreboard.
1.17


In the opening doubles, Smith and Lutz beat Australian and Dent seven-six, six-one.




Initials RH/


SPORT: TENNIS

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Tennis...and former Wimbledon champion, Arthur Ashe, thrashed Australian John Alexander on Thursday (8 March) in the opening singles of the Aetna World Cup. A doubles victory by Stan Smith and Bob Lutz over Alexander and Phil Dent gave the United States team a two-nil start in the four-day tournament between the two countries.

SYNOPSIS: Alexander serving to Ashe. The fast court surface in the New Haven Coliseum in Connecticut helped both players, who are among the fastest servers in the game. Ashe has a wider range of ground strokes, and is renowned as a fine tactician.

This was the tenth Aetna World Cup, the tournament having been launched in 1970 by the Sportsmen's Tennis Club of Boston as a new attraction between the United States and Australia -- the two most successful tennis nations in the world.

Alexander was sliding towards a miserable defeat six-love, six-two. He found Ashe in a relentless mood, and eager to score an eleventh win in this, their fifteenth meeting. In the last two months, Ashe has staged a brilliant comeback after a heel injury and trouble with his vision had kept him virtually out of big tennis for more than a year. He scored a memorable win over Brian Gottfried to win the Arco Tennis Open in Los Angeles, and in January, stretched John McEnroe before losing a three-sets classic in the Grand Masters final at Madison Square Garden.