Top Play ers In Age Tennis

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32199, 19 January 1970, Page 12

Top Play ers In Age Tennis

Several leading players who did not compete in the Canter-i bury junior tennis champion-; ships last week will add interest to the national age championships—under 17 and under 15— at Wilding Park this week. One player who will not be present is the Aucklander, R. McGhie. seeded second for the. under 17 boys’ singles but later selected for the Linton Cup team now in Australia. McGhie was seeded behind C. Gunning (Auckland) but after the seedings were made he beat Gunning in the Auckland under 17 championship and in the New Zealand under 19. Gunning a national under 19 quarter-finalist, was not in thel Canterbury championships last week but he will be heading the seeds today. Second in place of McGhie will be the Hutt Valley boy, B. Hegarty, who won the Canterbury under 17 title on Saturday but who was third seed for the national championship. He will take MeGhie’s place at the bottom of! the draw but no-one else has been seeded. The absence .of McGhie also

posed a problem in doubles because he and Gunning were thei top seeded pair. However, theNorth Otago boy, R. Wood, did not have a partner $o he has been paired with Gunning and they remain top seeds. This arrangement is satisfacenough because Wood won the Canterbury under 17 title with R. Simpson, of North Shore, on Saturday. Another strong Aucklander who did not play in the Canterbury championships, J. Mills, a member of the Auckland Slazenger Shield team, will also appear at Wilding Park today. He will be third seed behind Hagarty in the under 17 boys’ ; singles. He was recently run-ner-up in the Auckland under 19 championships. Newcomers to the under 17 girls’ singles are the top seeded L. Ward, of Auckland. J. Connor (Auckland), seeded fourth ;C. Cooper (Auckland), fifth, and A Pryde (Wellington!, seventh. Misses Ward. Connor, and Cooner are all members of the Auckland Howe Shield side. Miss ward is the Auckland under 19 champion. Miss Cooper is Auckland under 17 champion, and Miss Conhor is North Shore

junior champion, Miss Pryde isl a sister of the national senior champion. Miss M. Pryde’. The seedings for the boys' under 15 title are the same as they were for the Canterbury championships, except that the seventh seed, L. Fudge (Auckland), has withdrawn as he did from the Canterbury tournament. Fudge and K. Smith were seeded third in the under 15 doubles but Smith has now been paired with G. Rokela (Auckland), whose partner, R. Ewen has also withdrawn. A newcomer to the under 15 girls’ singles is J. Foy. of Auckland, seeded sixth, as she was for the Canterbury tournament in which she did not play With jJ- Garvey (Auckland), she is top seed in the doubles. The tournament, to be played from today to Saturday, will be much more leisurely than last week's Canterbury championships because there will be only half the number of players and there are no mixed doubles. There will be more plate matches than usual with a division into two flights. The national age championships were last held at Wilding Park in 1966.