Now Confident.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 261, 4 November 1933, Page 4 (Supplement)

Now Confident.

What Encouragement Meant

To Perry's Tennis.

Those who, though overjoyed at our Davis Cup successes, were at the same time a little liable to regard them as m the nature of an accident, must have had their defeatist spirit rudely shocked by the great triumph of Fred Perry, who has won the lawn tennis singles championship of the United States and has become the first English player to have done so since 1903, writes H. W. Austin.

To me, as to all his friends; his success is more than gratifying. When he began the season there were few in England willing to believe that Perry had any hope, either together with the rest of the Davis Cup team, or by himself, of achieving anything in the nature of a success in big lawn tennis. They were too willing to overlook his merits and see only his faults. They were willing to blame his temperament and unwilling to recognise the fact that, next to Crawford, whom he beat in the final, he possessed the finest stroke production in the world, and that encouragement, instead of criticism, was all that was needed to ensure his triumph.

A Great Handicap. Encouragement did not seem to be forthcoming. For some obscure reason it is a thing that is not often handed out to English sportsmen. It is rather their opponents who are boosted and receive the encouragement, and this fact, to a man of Perry's temperament, was a great handicap. He felt that everyone was against him, and it seemed that it was so. He was, however, determined to succeed in the face of everything. • In spite of this determination, things at first did not go well. Though he played brilliantly in the early Davis Cup matches, he was beaten in the French championships by Satoh and at Wimbledon by Farquharson. When, however, the important Davis Cup matches came along his fortune changed. Instead of adverse criticism he had the advice of those who were his friends and believed in his ability. He knew they wanted him to win, did not long for his defeat.

The effect was remarkable. In every crisis—and they were many —he hold firm. At times when he might easily have broken down his resolution never wavered. He justified every bit of faith his friends had placed in him.

The strain he had undergone had been intense. After the Davis Cup matches were over and the shouting and the tumult had died down he was like a man in a daze. He was due to go to America. He determined to go; but he determined

also that he would not take tennis too seriously and that although he would endeavour to win he would not kill himself to do so.

I believe that this determination not to take things too seriously was -the real reason for his great victory. Instead of going over there and playing intensively in every tournament before the championships, he took things easily. In consequence he allowed his nerves, his body, and his brain to recuperate and regain their full strength. He entered the championship fit and fresh.

Confidence Regained. Moreover, confidence, which is an essential to his success in lawn tennis as the racquet with which he plays, had been restored by the Davis Cup victory. The feeling that he was not as good as he had originally thought—which had gained a hold on him and destroyed his faith in himself—was banished. , He was prepared to take on anybody and beat them, but at the same time did not care much whether he did or not. For the first time since- he achieved his first success and came to the forefront of lawn tennis, he was carefree and confident. In that mood there was nothing to stop him.

| English sportsmen should be proud of I Perry, who has done so much to restore our prestige in the lawn tennis world, who has done so much to break through the we-never-can-win attitude which has been like a, strangle grip around the throats of our leading players. While the Americans, whom we, "in England, have proclaimed for years to be supreme and wonderful, are grovelling in the dust, beaten hopelessly in the Davis Cup in Paris, beaten even on their own courts in their own country, Perry and English lawn tennis stand supreme.

Perhaps in the future we shall have faith in Perry; perhaps we shall remember for a change .his triumphs rather tlian his defeats; perhaps we shall look upon his defeats not as damning evidence against him, but as unfortunate occurrences. That is all they are. I have played against Perry and I know the stuff he's made of.