Tennis Tournaments Vary; Natal To South Of France

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31982, 8 May 1969, Page 10

Tennis Tournaments Vary; Natal To South Of France

(By R. N. .HAWKES, a member of the 1969 New Zealand Davis Cup team) In the last two weeks I have played in two tournaments which differed greatly as well as being separated by several thousand miles. The first was the Natal Open which was held at Durban. Although it was a good tournament by most standards it was somewhat of an anti-climax after the outstanding South African nationals. Withdrawals by several of the leading players- such as Tony Roche and Cliff and Nancy Richey, coupled with defeats of other players such as Ray Moore, Cliff Drysdale, Bob Hewitt and Rosie Casals, caused this to be one of the most unpredictable tournaments I have ever played in. I won my first two rounds of the singles by coming from behind to win in five sets. I won with superior fitness rather than superior play. However, in the third round I regained form to extend the leading Australian player, Dick Crealy, to 64 in the fifth set of a long match. Crealy kept the spectators amused with some of his comments on his errors.

r Jeff Simpson, the young ' New Zealander, lost in straight sets in the first round ; to the promising young South , African, Julian Krinsky, who was the sensation of the ' tournament by reaching the I final of the singles. In the , doubles, Simpson was particularly sharp at net, when he and a young Australian, I Sid Ball, beat the experienced ; pair of Barry Phillips-Moore i and John Brown in five sets. ; Hank Irvine and myself ; played well together to reach . the semi-finals of the doubles i where we lost in four close - sets to the eventual winners, > Drysdale and Keith Diepraam. . Bob Maud, the powerful , serving South African Davis • Cup player, won the singles , after upsetting Drysdale in t the quarter finals and Hewitt I in the semi-finals, i t Beverly Vercoe, the New [ Zealand women’s champion, was forced to default in the i singles because of illness ! from which she soon i recovered. The second tournament was ■ at Draguignan, in the south I of France, where I played i my best tennis of the tour i so far to win the singles and I doubles. ; The tennis people there ■ were very kind to us but ' the organisation of the tournament left a lot to be

desired. Mixed changing rooms, for instance, took a little getting used to. Also, there were certain irregularities in the draw such as when Pancho Gorostiaga, of Bolivia, the top seed, had the draw changed because he did not like the half he was in. Simpson, maintaining the good form he has displayed on the tour, recorded a straight-sets victory over Peter Burwash, the Canadian who played recently in New Zealand, in the quarter finals. However, in the semi-finals, he was beaten, 64, 6-1, by Gorostiaga, who hit some superb passing shots. Suffering from influenza, Irvine struggled to beat a former New Zealand junior champion, Neil McAffer, of Wellington, in three sets but had to default against me in the semi-finals. In the final I attacked Gorostiaga from the net at every opportunity and, volleying well, cut off most of his passing shots and won the match, 6-2, 6-2. Although Irvine was not well he still played in the doubles which we won. Our toughest match was in the semi-finals where we dropped a set to Simpson and Burwash.