Junior Tennis

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26634, 21 January 1952, Page 6

Junior Tennis

Those who look forward to the day when New Zealand will hold a less humble position in international lawn tennis must "have found just as much encouragement in the New Zealand junior championships, which were played at Wilding Park last week, as in the splendid per* formqpce of J. E. Robson in fighting off a powerful Australian challenge in the national senior championships. Year by year the average standard of play among the players in the junior championships is rising; and this is a more accurate measure of progress than the standard of the few who win the championship titles. It Should be a cause of concern—as it is a matter of some reproach—that one provincial association is doing very much more than its share of the important work of encouraging and training juniors. It is not an accident that in recent years Auckland players have largely dominated the junior championships as well as the junior interprovincial competitions. Since the war, the Auckland Lawn Tennis Association has organised junior tennis in its district with a thoroughness equalled in no other centre. It has been rewarded by the success of its young players in the national junior tournaments and competitions; it will before long reap a very much greater reward in the higher standard of its senior tennis—and Auckland can already field Wilding Shield and Nunneley Casket teams which cannot be challenged seriously by the teams of any other association. The value

of systematic coaching is well illustrated by Auckland’s experience. Not only are there three professional coaches fully engaged in the northern city, but the Auckland Association has several times employed the Australian professional, D. R. Pails, to coach selected players. Moreover, regular coaching of young players by competent seniors has been promoted and systematised by .the formation of an association of amateur coaches. Auckland, of course, is not the only association to demonstrate the value of regular professional coaching for young players. Because of its lack of grass courts, Otago has traditionally been “ backward ” in the tennis sense; but Since the Otigo Lawn Tennis Association engaged a professional coach a few years ago the province has been winning New Zealand Chattipionships. In Sonia Cox, the winner of the under 16 singles title at last week’s tournament, Otago has a player who promises within a few years to rank with the best this country has produced. The lesson should not be ignored by other provincial associations.