NEW ZEALAND TENNIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 308, 29 December 1924, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND TENNIS.

THE STANDARD IMPROVING. VETERAN PLAYER'S OPINION. MORE MEN ABOVE THE AVERAGE. Since the time of Wilding the fact that New Zealand tennis has been unable to produce a player entitled to rank emong the first flight of world exponents of the racquet game has been responsible for a prevailing impression that the standard of play has fallen in this country. This "impression, in the opinion of competent judges, is unfounded. They contend that the standard cannot be judged by counting the number ot international representatives that a country produces. That is emphatically the opinion of Mr. J. 0. Peacock, of Thomdon, the New Zealand Davis Cup representative, ■who played against Czecho Slovakia and returned just recently from a lengthy visit to England and the Continent. A veteran "Sew Zealand player himself and still a prominent figure at Dominion championship meetings, Mr. Peacock has watched tennis growing in popularity here, and by his visits to the older countries has kept himself informed upon the standard of play abroad.

"I don't think the standard in England is as good now as it was, compared with the Continent," he observed to-day: "and the leading men in England do not rank as high as the best in Australia, Europe or America. Leaving out Kingscote. there are not very many first-class players in England; many of the older players ar? still holding their own. The veteran, M. ,T. Ritchie, for example, who has been a prominent figure for many, many years, has won quite a number of open championships this year. At the recent Wimbledon meeting no Englishman showed winning form. They were dominated by the best players from America, France, Spain and other countries, and Kingscote was the only one among them who looked like having any sort of a chance." Hard Chip Courts Advocated. Asked if he could name the causes of this apparent decline in England, Mr. Peacock said that it was partly on account of many of the best players being lost in the war and partly the fact that the courts in England were grass, which meant a slower game than on the hard chip courts of the Continent.

New Zealand, he thought, had done well in the last few years, and, considering the disadvantages here, it was rather astonishing that the standard of play was so high in comparison with English tenuis. "I think the first half-dozen New Zealand players would give a very good account of themselves against the first half-dozen Englishmen," he remarked. There was no doubt the game was gaining in popularity here, and he was very much impressed with the possibilities of chip courts, which he found in games that he played on the Continent were superior to grass in showery weather and were always truer and faster. He was satisfied that chip courts were coming into favour in England and a few also had been formed in New Zealand. A Quickened Interest in Tennis. Mr. Peacock emphatically denied that the standard of men's tennis in the Dominion was unduly low. He recalled the Davis Cup year of 1020, the last occasion on Which the N.Z. championships were played at Auckland; and said that he had observed a noticeable improvement since then. "Probably the standard of men's tennis in New Zealand has been somewhat under-rated," he said, "in consequence of recent visits of Davis Cup teams and the easy and complete dominance of the visitors over our local players." He considered that those 1 visits had been invaluable: they had aroused a quickened interest in tenuis here and had exerted a strong stimulus towards raising the standard of play. "I am quite convinced," Mr. Peacock observed, ''that, considering the difficult conditions under which we T>lay, and the fact that we do not get the opportunity for constant practice by men who devote the whole of their time to tennis, our men players have done well. There : are certainly more players above the average standard than there were in 1920." No Faults With Style. He welcomed the appearance of many young players in the championships this year, and considered the standard of their play augured well for the future. He was not disposed to find fault with the style of play here.; and observed that, though Norman Brooke3 showed the effectiveness of the volley game and gave it a great vogue in Australia and | other countries, W. T. Tilden and W. AI. j Johnston, who had done so much for j American tennis, had proved that the base-line game could be made equally ' effective. I "The trouble here is that there is only j one meeting in the year when all the I best players get together," commented |Mr. Peacock. "In England, with their i very much bigger population, they start .in April on hard courts and the season | practically lasts from April to October, with sometimes as many as ei™;it, nine, or ten tournaments in one week." While expressing himself as wel! satisfied with the standard or men's tennis in New Zealand, Mr. Peacock said that our ladies were a long way below the world's leading players.. He found ;that the girls in other countries used j the volley more than they did here and I played the same sort of style as men V .-New Zealand men's team, he considered could do far better in England than a ladies' team.