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at the rothmans international tennis tour nament in toronto top jimmy connors bottom dick stockton drama at rothmans international tennis tournament by george fanta tennis is canadas fastest growing participation sport thanks to the rapid construction of many indoor facilities and the elevation of two key tournaments into world promi nence the most important is the cana dian open which is held each year in august in toronto the second and close behind the open is the recently completed rothmans international tournament which is jointly spon sored by world championship ten nis this year over 7000 spectators packed thccnecoliseumintoronto a record crowd to see topseeded players compete for100000 in prizes it takes cash to attract world fa mous players from the professional circuit and rothmans have seen to it that prize money is available in suf ficient amounts to do just that this year 30000 was awarded to the successful male singles finalists the second place winner received 15000 first prize for the best doubles team was 8000 the crowd and a large ctv na tional tv audience at home were disappointed when topseeded jimmy connors from california had to con- ceed victory to rival dick stockton in the first set of the finals due to an injury to his knee connors appeared to have hurt his knee on an approach shot in the 10th game of the first set connors was leading 54 when stockton broke him in the 10th game to tie it at 5-5- by the end of the game connors was limping and favoured the knee when ever he ran despite the injury con nors continued to play and broke stockton in the 11th game of the set to take a 65 then before the start of the 12th game connors took a five and a half minute injury time out as allowed by the wct rules actually he took ten minutes which his oppo nent did not protest because stock ton was anxious to see the match completed in regulation play it was not to be connors had been advised by the examining physician to leave the game to avoid aggravating the injury further the toprated player in the world whose agile legs have made him a millionaire in a few short years on the tournament circuit refused his doctors advice and elected to con tinue playing after returning to the court he facetiously suggested to stockton that he would try to con tinue as long as he stockton would hit the balls back short to his fore hand stockton quipped that he would agree as long as connors would default on the match point there is too much at stake to give anything away in the professional tennis circuit connors pluckily took up position at the service line the crowd held its breath as he took a 4030 lead in the game despite an obvious attempt to favour the knee however he stopped short of the net after the successful shot and told the umpire that he was unable to con tinue after consultation it was an nounced to the crowd and tv audi ence that the match had been awarded to ken stockton stockton admitted after the game that he was disappointed in the re sult while on the court he was in a quandry he said that it was hard to force a man with an injury to move around a lot sympathy for the in jured connors would have built up quickly stockton said that he didnt know what he would have done if the match had continued stockton had advanced to the final by beating tom okker of the nether lands 64 62 in a semi final match the day before connors beat eddie dibbs of florida in a two and one half hour match which finished 46 76 61 okker teamed up with wot- jek fibak of poland well known to canadian tennis fans to claim the 8000 first priiq for mens doubles competition they were the top- seeded pair beating second seeded ross case and tony roche from australia 64 61 it was their fourth victory in five tries on the wct tour this season connors was advised by his doctor to rest his knee for two weeks before resuming his tour this is one more of a series of incidents which has kept jimmy connors in the limelight ever since he made his meteoric entry into international professional tennis in 1974 that was the year that he nailed down titles all over the tennis world he fought his way to the finals at wimbledon to face ken rosewall the veteran had never won at wimbledon and the crowd clearly wanted him to win this one but the kid disposed of him without cere mony 61 61 64 he followed this up with a similar onesided victory over rosewall almost immediately after 61 60 61 at forest hills in other play connors took ten us lawn tennis association tourneys and several opens to earn 281309 the following year connors chal lenged rod laver and don new- combe and walked off with jackpots that dwarfed the sizcof his earnings the year before beating newcombe alone netted him half a million this settled the question whether connors was equal to the top pros and he has been big news ever since it is a trib ute to those behind the canadian tournaments like rothmans the wct and the canadian lawn tennis association that people of connors calibre come to canada to play this is only one step in a series of moves by rothmans to help lift canadian professional tennis further up the ladder of world standing rothmans has been mainly respon sible through their financial support and publicitygenerating activities for the further expansion and devel opment of the canadian professional circuit d