TENNIS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 14, 29 October 1935, Page 3

TENNIS.

THE HINDS CLUB OPENING. Owing to the unsettled) weather there Avas only a fair attendance of players at the opening of the Tennis Club, Avhich Avas held on Saturday afternoon. The captain (Mr D. McDonald) declared the courts open. Some enjoyable games were played. Afternoon tea was served.

NEW ZEALAND STAR.

RECENT ENGLISH SUCCESS OF MALFROY. Hoav C. E. Malfroy, the New Zealand tennis player, triumphed in the final of the Frinton-on-Sea tennis tournament recently and beat H. Nishimura, the Japanese, 6-2, 8-6, is explained in a London exchange. • The Avcather for the final Avas dreadful. High Avind. and rain made things generally unpleasant, and Avhen the wind died doAvn there! were thunderstorms. Such a day made the result of a match almost as much a matter of hazard as of skill; direction Avas upset by the wind, against which length Avas often impossible. Malfroy gained a stirring if unexpected victory over Nishimura in straight sets, states the exchange. The conditions disturbed Nishimura more than Malfroy, who from residence in this country probably knows more about them. Nishimura seemed puzzled in the first set by his inability to drive through, the wind or to control, the ball with the wind behind him, and with his ground strokes uncertain he Avas deprived of anything, but the most Hazardous attempts at volley. Malfroy had gained experience of these matters from a mixed doubles match in the morning and he was fully prepared foi the unexpected, sometimes allowing even a short lob bounce rather than risk a rvobble in the air.

Alalfroy led by four games to one in the first set, playing with a determination which faced results. He served with a strong kick to his opponent s forehand, drove hard, and volleyed confidently. In tlie seventh game Nishnnura enjoyed a measure of success, but it was short-lived, and Alalfroy won the set in the next game. In the second set, although Alalfroy kept level, one always bad the impression that it would be Mishimura who would force matters. He did not have the best of luck. He lost the fourth game on bis service against rain which almost blinded him and held up the match. He went ahead in the next game on. resuming and broke through the service for a valuable lead in the sixth game, hitting hard and placing deep to the corners. Then it was Malfroy’s turn to win two successive games to draw level at four games all, and the eighth game contained the best rally of the match, each player in turn retrieving almost untakable strokes. Nishinmra led once more in the ninth game. The struggle went on with a thunderstorm approaching; Nishimura.”at last lost his service in the thirteenth game, and then the vital game came in Malfroy’s favour. He served hard to his opponent’s backhand, recovered from a hopeless position to retrieve a lob with a grand drive made backwards, and finished the match with a perfect cross-court drive.