Tennis Association ready to pay Parun’s fine

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33777, 25 February 1975, Page 28

Tennis Association ready to pay Parun’s fine

(By.

A. M. MENZIES)

Questions being asked in the last week about how the various parties involved in the decision of Onny Parun to play in the Davis Cup in Auckland this week-end will fare have no firm answers yet, but th e possibilities are a little clearer.

Parun may be able to supply more of the answers when he arrives in New Zealand this afternoon.

But it is expected that after he gives one press conference he wilLnot be available to callers, because the New Zealand and Auckland Lawn Tennis Associations will try to keep pressures off him.

Parun is on his way home after losing in the semifinals of the World Championship Tennis tournament in Barcelona, the fourth of about 10 he is contracted to nlay for the organisation. to keep his Davis Cup commitment for New. Zealand against Australia he has withdrawn from the fifth tournament in Rotterdam from February 24 to March 2, and for this he is certain to be fined. Figures mentioned for the

fine have varied between SUSSOOO and SUSIO,OOO but it seems most likely to be closer to the lower figure, or about SNZ37SO. The Jugoslav, Nicki Pilic, was fined SNZ3SSO when he withdrew from a W.C.T. tournament in Johannesburg last year. Ready to pay Whatever Parun’s fine is, the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association is ready to pay it, and the chairman of the association (Mr I. D. Wells) said by telephone yesterday that if the demand came this week it would be paid immediately. Nor is the association expected to suffer in this. One offer of SIOOO towards the fine has already been made publicly by. an Australian businessman now living m Auckland, and it is known that other offers have been made. However, when Parun’s decision was first reported, it was also suggested that he might face suspension for the rest of this year’s W.C.T. programme and thus face the New Zealand association with some responsibility for compensating him for lost earnings, perhaps about S2OOO a tournament.

Suspension unlikely Suspension now appears unlikely. It would stand to reason that if W.C.T.. wants Parun playing for the organisation, it would be cutting off its nose if it suspended him. Parun was equal fourth of the 28 in the W.C.T. green group after the third tournament at Bologna, and he may be even higher now after reaching the semifinals in Barcelona. This view was supported by Brian Fairlie when he returned to Auckland at the week-end. Fairlie and Jeffrey Simpson, the other members of the New Zealand team are also W.C.T. players but they are in different groups which have different schedules. One who is not happy with Parun’s move is the local organiser of the Rotterdam tournament, Mr Harry Hoffmeester. He says that he will demand even more than the $3750 Parun is expected to be fined. This demand would be on W.C.T., and the arrangements the organisation has with the Rotterdam organisers are not known; it seems doubtful that a

specific player would have to be supplied for such a tournament. Acknowledges debt Unlike many professional tennis players, Parun has admitted many times that he owes a debt to the country where he began his tennis, and this is not the first time he has shown his words were not hollow.

At the end of last year he returned after many weeks of play and was reluctant to participate in the tie with South Vietnam. Because of the standard of the South Vietnamese his participation was far from necessary, but he agreed to play because the public had been led to expect it. By pulling out of the Rotterdam tournament he will lose his seeding when he goes back to the circuit, and because he scores no points at Rotterdam has probably also lost all chance of making the very lucrative W.C.T. finals. The whole situation shows that no-one is co-ordinating

the world’s tennis programme. The dates for the Davis Cup matches were decided back in October, and the W.C.T. schedule was probably fixed about the same time.

Mr Wells and the New Zealand players are among those who have a high regard for the smooth organisation of W.C.T., but satisfactory arrangements have not yet been made between W.C.T. and the International Lawn Tennis Federation. Mr Wells sees the situation as one of extremely businesslike professional promoters dealing with amateur organisers in a game which has moved away from the amateur’s field.

Swimming.—The women’s 200 metres freestyle world record-holder, Shirley Babaschoff (United States), was beaten into second place by Sonya Gray (Australia) in the Australian championships at Perth. Miss Gray’s time of 2min 4.9 sec was outside her own Australian record.