No upsets in first rounds of Canterbury titles

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32803, 31 December 1971, Page 3

No upsets in first rounds of Canterbury titles

(By

A. M. MENZIES)

After the excitement provided by a group of the world’s leading women less than a month ago, the first day of the Ballins Canterbury tennis championships yesterday seemed to begin in desultory fashion. But by last evening both the men’s and women’s fields were each reduced to eight players of good standard.

Partly to blame for the slow start was that players were late arriving from the South Canterbury tournament, and it was afternoon before some of the firstround singles were played. Also contributing to this first-day lethargy was the fact that the fields were sniall. The entry locally was far from substantial, perhaps because many of the province’s leading players are in the under-19 category, and are playing a circuit in the North Island.

With this taken into account, eight competent players have been found from the 26 entered for the men’s singles and the other eight from the 14 in the women’s singles. They will fight out their quarter-finals today to the best of three sets before the sterner test of the semi-finals and finals on Saturday and Sunday are the best of five sets. QUARTER-FINALS

The quarter-final programmes have a cosmopolitan flavour. In the men’s singles O. Parun, New Zealand’s leading man, will play the Rhodesian, R. Dowdeswell; R. N. Hawkes, of Canterbury, will meet a tall redheaded American, J. Fort; S. Faulk, another American, will play a compatriot, A. Neely; and R. Puddi x.ibe, a Canadian doctor who is training in Wellington, is matched with New Zealand’s second man, J. G. Simpson. The women’s line-up may not be as fascinating, but it

also has plenty of interest. Playing again after an injury, the top New Zealander, Miss M. Pryde, meets a rival of similar young age, Miss J. Amer, of Auckland; the champion of Taiwan, Miss Ching Ling Chang, will play the unflappable Miss B. Vercoe, of Auckland; the shy little American, Miss M.-

Struthers, plays Miss S. Blakely, of Otago; and lastly, two Canterbury players, who could meet on any club day, Miss R. Legge and Mrs C. Armitage, face one another again. It is unusual for the first day of any tournament not to have at least one upset to seedings, but that, was thei case yesterday. The first round of men’s singles had little that was noteworthy except for a contest between B. Bailey, ranked fifty-sixth on the American list, and J. Taylor, of Canterbury. Bailey had been eliminated m timaru by another Canterbury player, J. Martin, and

when he began he looked as if he would suffer a similar fate from Taylor. He Appeared with a T-shirt with a motif on the front and the words “Tennis Bum” on the back. Eventually, he did not fit that description because, although he started stylishly but inaccurately, he later steadied up.

Very deliberate about the court, he fixed Taylor with a steely look before he served, and he produced some good deliveries in winning, 6-4, 6-4. In one of the best matches of the second round, Dow--deswell seeded seventh, beat the national under-19 cham■pion, R. McGhie, of Auckland, 7-5, 6-1. McGhie is another young New Zealander who is going to make tennis his life —he will leave to play in Europe in January—and he is playing the senior circuit for experience, rather than defending his junior title for which he is eligible. Suffering from injured

muscles in a leg, McGhie met a formidable opponent who has had quite a lot of success in British tournaments. McGhie returned service well enough, but he was passed too often from the return of his own serve and his volleying was lacking. DowdesweU was sound enough all round, especially in volley and half volley, close to the net.

AMERICANS The Americans emerged from the day with credit. When he beat D. Radford, of Otago, 6-3, 6-0. Faulk, ranked twenty - ninth nationally, played powerful left-handed shots all round the court and made few errors.

Neely,, who is now ranked forty-second but who has been higher, began serving in shaky fashion against P. Angland, the former Canterbury player now living in Wellington. He changed his racket to a tighter one and stretched and curved his compact body to send down the bullets. Like the other Americans, he was deliberate in his approach to the game, and he won, 6-2, 6-o.' Puddicombe, who is surely going to be an asset to New Zealand tennis in the year that he is here, wielded his racket with the delicacy with which he might have used a scalpel when he beat Martin, 6-2, 6-2,' with clever placement and the ability to pick up difficult shots. The two leading New Zealanders, Parun, smarting from his defeat in the final at Timaru, and looking as if he will make amends here, and Simpson, hitting as crisply as ever after another year overseas, had comfortable wins—a flexing of the muscles for later and harder meetings, perhaps with one another.

Late in the day, Bailey and Hawkes had a tense and ex-

acting battle to decide who would be the eight quarterfinalists. Bailey had been reluctant to play two singles in one day; the tournament organisers insisted that they have the draw completed to quarter-finals for today. So Bailey played and he met a Hawkes who was determined to put an end to the defeats he has had in the earlier tournaments. Hawkes was at his consistent best and Bailey found everything coming back to him with interest. Hawkes won, 6-3, 6-2. The two top seeds in the women’s singles, Misses Pryde and Legge, did not have a singles yesterday; but those who may be their main opponents, won with ease. Miss Vercoe, for instance, drove as well as ever without doing anything spectacular, to beat Miss A. McQueen (Canterbury), 6-1, 6-0, and Miss Struthers, with similar driving ability, did not allow Miss E. Smith, of Canter--1 bury, a game.