Two Little Words

There is nothing wrong with tennis that a little British ingenuity can't cure.

Last week, by an overwhelming vote of 295 to 5, officials of the British Lawn Tennis Association decided to delete two little words -- amateur and professional -- from their rule book. Next year, all the game's men and women will be merely "players." So pros, for the first time, will be eligible to compete in the All-England championships at Wimble don, the oldest (91 years) and most prestigious tournament in the world.

The British decision was praiseworthy, and even necessary, for a sport that too long has treated its best players -- the pros -- as second-class citizens, while allowing less talented "shama-teurs" to live lives of leisure on their expense accounts. The move was courageous, too. Only two of the other 83 member countries in the International Lawn Tennis Federation -- Canada and New Zealand -- have offered any real as surance of support.

Australia is threatening to prohibit its top amateurs from playing at Wimbledon -- mainly for fear of having them wiped up by the pros, a circumstance that would damage the prestige of the Davis Cup (which the Aussies have won 21 times) and of amateur tennis in general. Italy's tennis officials are so angry at the espousal of open tennis that they are trying to get Britain expelled from the I.L.T.F.

The British may get some help from the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association, which has yet to decide just where it stands. "I am against dishonesty," says President Robert Kelleher, "but I stop short of any abolition of all distinction between the amateur and the pro." Kel leher has promised to test U.S. re action to the British proposal in a poll of his membership next February.

If the players ever get a chance to vote, there is little question of how the balloting will go. Australia's John Newcombe, the world's No. 1 -ranked male player and the defending Wimbledon champion, says that he will defend his title even if he has to turn pro to do so. California's Billie Jean King, who won this year's ladies' crown at Wim bledon, will be back, too: "I favor open tennis," she says realistically and practi cally, "and I would be happy to play it." Arthur Ashe, the No. 2-ranked U.S.

male player and America's best hope for the future in Davis Cup competition, is also willing to risk losing his amateur status to play against the pros at Wimbledon. "I will play if I can get leave," says Ashe, currently serving as a lieutenant in the Army. "I'll stick my neck out -- regardless of whether the U.S.L.T.A. backs Britain."

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