N.Z. Tennis Championships Have Strong Men's Entry

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30953, 8 January 1966, Page 11

N.Z. Tennis Championships Have Strong Men's Entry

SUCCESSFUL arrange- ° ments for the participation of overseas players have enabled the Auckland invitation tennis tournament to steal the limelight from the national championships in recent years.

To counteract this the national association has been trying harder and harder to attract interesting overseas entries to its titles each year. From 1959. when the Australian, R. N. Howe, won the men's singles at Wilding Park for the second year in succession there was a long gap to 1964 when the American. E. L. Scott, graced the men's field and the English girl, Miss R. Bentley, the women’s.

Scott was unable to stop New Zealand's leading player, L. A. Gerrard, from his record feat of five successive national singles wins but Miss Bentley won the women's title. Last year Miss Bentley was unable to keep the title from the beloved little Maori girl. Mrs R. Davy. At the same time. B. Phillips-Moore was brought from South Australia for the men’s singles and he put an end to Gerrard's run.

This year, not one but two leading overseas contenders have been obtained for the men’s singles. Seeded first is the former Australian Davis Cup squad member, K. Fletcher, who now lives in Hong Kong, a domicile he chose when a number of Australian players fell out with their association.

Trying to win his sixth title. Gerrard has the second seed and a final between him and Fletcher could be a thrilling event. When they met in West Berlin earlier this year. Fletcher won, 6-4, 2-6. 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. The other leading overseas entrant is the Englishman, R. Taylor, a popular

and able previous visitor to the Dominion in 1963. A left-hander, he has had wide experience on the world circuit.

Even apart from these two, the seedings list for a change bears little resemblance to the national rankings. In fact, only four ranked men, Gerrard, R. N. Hawkes, J. E. Robson and J. B. Souter are seeded. Robson is fourth and his recent success in the Auckland title supports that. Souter, winner of the Canterbury championship and Gerrard’s conqueror in an Auckland quarter-final is fifth, although he is ranked only sixth to R. N. Hawkes’s second. Hawkes has sixth seed because he has had a number of losses to Souter this season.

Seventh and eighth are the unranked K. H. Long and J. Lockington, of Auckland. Both reached the Auckland semi-finals in national class fields.

This, of course, means there are some fine players in the rest of the field. R. G. Clarke, A. S. Burns and B. E. Woolf are all ranked nationally and the Australian Universities players may be a force. In the North Island championships P. Keller, all but beat Hawkes. The field for the women’s singles is also headed by an Australian, Miss K. Melville, of Melbourne, who loses only to the best of her countrywomen, taking such as Miss L. Turner, considered about number four in the world to three sets. However, the field suffers from the lack of several of New Zealand's leading players of recent seasons like Miss J. Davidson, who has retired, Mrs R. Davy, who is expecting a child, Mrs E. Mitchell and Miss E. Cavaye.

Miss E. Terry is now considered the leading New Zealander and she is seeded second, Mrs E. Stephan is third and Miss S. Clement fourth. However, Miss Clement won three titles at Auckland, beating Mrs Stephan in the singles final. The rolls of winners of

titles include some of the best players from overseas such as W. T. Tilden, F. J. Perry and J. Bromwich, and the greatest from the Dominion, like A. F. Wilding, G. F. Ollivier, H. A. Parker and Miss K. M. Nunneley. Next week, at Central Park, Auckland, some enthralling contests will decide whether overseas or New Zealand names are added to the trophies this year.