Harvard Tennis Player Upsets Arthur Ashe, 6-4

Harvard's tennis team captain for the 1974 season, Kenny Lindner, scored a stunning 6-4 upset over Arthur Ashe Wednesday in an exhibition match at Brooklyn's Parade Grounds Tennis Center.

Lindner, a senior and second singles player last year for the Crimson, topped the world-ranked Ashe in an African Student Aid Benefit for professional and amateur players.

The match began as expected with Ashe breaking Lindner's serve for a 1-0 lead. But with a slow clay court to help him, Lindner managed to tame Ashe's serve and brought the match back to one all.

Ashe took two quick games with the help of a series of red-hot serves. But Lindner, behind 3-1, came through with a big win on his serve and then broke Ashe's service to tie the match up at three.

The Harvard senior then began to use a combination of high spinning shots, to go ahead, 5-3. After a couple of long rallies, Ashe managed to bring the score up to 5-4. Lindner succeeded in breaking Ashe's serve and won the set on an Ashe double fault.

Shocked

"Everybody was really shocked when I won," Lindner said yesterday. "Ashe told me at the end of the match that I played pretty good and he said he hoped that we could get together again for a few matches later on in the year."

Lindner had known about the match a week in advance, and did some preparing for his bout. "I talked to Gardner Malloy, a tennis champion from some years back, and I watched Ashe when he was on television last week in Philadelphia," Lindner said.

"I noticed that the only way I could beat him was to give him high shots and hope that he would come back with something I could put my forehand on," he said. "The clay courts slowed down that tremendous serve of his, and I got him to play my game."

Lindner, a 1972 Eastern Clay Courts Champion, has recently come into his own in national tennis circles. Ranked in the top ten in the East, he was captain of the 1973 summer Eastern Junior Davis Cup team.

Bout with Mono

"I had a good summer after coming off a bout with mononucleosis. I contracted the sickness after playing first singles for the initial five matches of the season," he said. "It gave me a lot of problems during the last season but now I am fully recovered."

Lindner said he predicts a terrific year for the Crimson squad in Ivy competition. "I have obviously never played better, and I think we will have a very cohesive team," he said.

Lindner said that Coach Jack Barnaby plans to emphasize more conditioning during this year's practices. "We will definitely be in better running shape this season," he said.

The four-year varsity player says that his greatest inspiration has come from Jack Barnaby. Lindner said he felt that if Barnaby hadn't stuck with him when he had mononucleosis, he never would have had much chance against a player as good as Ashe.

"He's the difference why I can play up to the caliber of Arthur Ashe. He's gotten me to be a lot more offensive with my backhand, and I owe him a great deal--he's done a great job," Lindner said.

Although Linder could have a chance in the pro ranks, he is dead set on going to law school next fall. "Everybody has been asking me whether I'll play, and I will go into a couple of matches this summer, but my mind is made up about law," he said.

Lindner's victory over Ashe came in the only serious match of the tournament. The other matches featured celebrities: Bill Cosby, Clarence Williams, and Richard Roundtree vs. Stan Smith, Gene Scott, and Ashe.

Lindner was the only college player invited to the benefit. The tennis captain makes his home in Brooklyn so he was a natural to be invited to play.

The match, which attracted over 1000 spectators, was filmed for a possible later television showing on educational stations. The match might also be aired on New York's channel 2, a CBS outlet, Lindner said.