TENNIS Aggressive Play Of American Women

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29855, 22 June 1962, Page 17

TENNIS Aggressive Play Of American Women

[From

F. S. RAMSON,

manager of the New Zealand

touring tennis teams)

June 9, 1962. A couple of years ago tennis nations were asked for an opinion on the possibility of extending the Wightman Cup competition, at present open only to Britain and America, so as to give it the scope and standing for women's tennis that the Davis Cup has for men’s tennis. In the last couple of months New Zealand players have had the opportunity of watching and playing against the best British 1 players and this last week in Manchester they have had the same opportunity of assessing the quality of the best that America has to offer. Ten American women took part in the Manchester tournament. These included the Wightman Cup squad as well as several free-lance players travelling more or less with the squad, and they were ail very good. In spite of the presence of the number one Australian, Miss M. Smith, Miss Tegart, of Australia, and the British Wightman Cup players, Misses Catt and Starkie, America supplied three out of four semiflnalists in the singles and seven out of eight players in the semi-finals of the doubles. Of the 10 Americans probably only three are over 21, most being nearer 19, and nearly all are on at least a second trip to England. They play a virile brand of tennis which is worth watching and obviously gets results.

Serve With Power From the champion, Miss D. Hard, who won the final against Miss Tegart, 6-3, 6-2, to the youngest member of the party, Miss V. Palmer, the American junior champion, they all serve with real power, follow in to the net, volley and smash with zest and with accuracy. They move actively on the court chase and get difficult balls and always seem to be attacking rather than defending. This attitude to the game picks them out in a tournament such as this in which many women players, including the New Zealanders, seem too often reasonably content to get a serve in rather than bang down an ace, and leave the baseline with a reluctance which commonly leads to disaster. British women players are much less aggressive than the Americans and that may be one of the reasons why they are not favourites for the annual Wightman Cup encounter next week. The British women, Misses A. Mortimer and A. Haydon, stay mainly on the baseline, and through long experience on hard courts have developed a game based on positional play and accuracy of placing rather than on power. They can beat anyone who tries to out-steady them but they tend to fall victims to the sustained attack of the Americans.

The most notable example of this brand of tennis was supplied by the vivacious Miss Caldwell, the ninthranked American, who, in the quarter-finals, reduced to ineffectiveness perhaps the best woman player in the world. Miss Smith. Miss Smith herself is wonderfully strong and active but Miss Caldwell attacked her from start to finish, net rushed, played drop shots, lobbed, chased everything and hit to win so tenaciously that she beat Miss Smith, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2. A little earlier young Miss Palmer gave the New Zealander, Miss E. Green, a similar lesson in variation of play and attacking tactics Having lost the first set, 5-7, Miss Palmer concentrated on a vigorous net attack to take the next two sets, 6-4, 6-3. Miss Palmer, incidentally, has one of the characteristics of the well-known Aucklander, A. S. Burns. Every time she serves or hits hard she grunts; the pitch is higher but the grunt is equally effective. One of Lessons For the New Zealand girls one of the lessons of this trip should now be obvious. To match the best women players in other countries they have to develop what might be called the British style of play—clever variation of pace and length, with extreme accuracy and lots .of patience or the American style of attacking tennis, tennis as played more com-

monly by men. New Zealand has not got the courts for the first type so the answer seems clear; our girls will have to learn to attack with a sound allcourt game. If they are to do that they will have to improve their serves, be prepared to run twice as far and as fast as they now do and get some punch into their shots, ground strokes and volleys. These American girls really move and keep it up for three sets if necessary. In this part of the world women do not have a 10minute rest after two sets, nor do men have any rest during a five-set match. This summing-up of a situation is not a condemnation of the play of the New Zealand girls. They have played very well indeed lately and have won many matches against good players. If, however, New Zealand is to contemplate entering some day in a Wightman Cup competition run on Davis Cup lines we will have to be ready to match, not the good players, but the best of players of other countries. Our best girls have, therefore, to learn to play a more aggressive brand of tennis. These young American girls can play this way and so can New Zealand girls.