LAWN TENNIS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 244, 12 October 1907, Page 12

LAWN TENNIS.

Anthony Wilding, who has "farmed" a good many of the principal lawn tennis championships for the past two or three years, met with a rude shock at Hamburg last month. For some time past the younger generation of German players has been a thorn in the side of the English touring tennis player, but until now no German has been able to really extend the best of our peripatetic cracks. At Hamburg, however, the Germans more than held their own. The contest for the Hamburg Cup, valued at £ 100, found no Englishman even in the semi-final. The best of the Germans, Otto Froitzheim and Kreuzer. came together in the top half, when Froitzheim won a hard-fought match- In the bottom half the holder, A. F. Wilding, was opposed to Baron X- yon Lessner. and won easiiv, but he "came undone"' badly when opposed to Froitzheim in the final. The German, who had recently given a taste of his quality by beating _r J. G. _itcbie, was ''all over" the !\evv Zealander. whom he beat decisively by three sets to love and IS games to 9.

The Australasian internationalist did not play up to the top of his form, but there is no getting away from the fact that in Froitzbeim he met an opponent who, if he cares to take the journey, will take a lot of beating at Wimbledon next year. He is certainly the most versatile" player Wilding has yet met on the Continent, and has a cast-iron nerve. He has indeed much the same match-win-ning temperament as Xorman Brookes, and, like that great player, always seems to be able to rise to the occasion when affairs are going against him