Mixed success for Sally

Press, 14 June 1978, Page 38

Mixed success for Sally

The young Canterbury tennis player, Sally Champman, has built up an impressive run of successes in mixed doubles events in England during the last month.

In partnership with the Australian, left-hander, Dale Collings, she has won the mixed doubles title at each of two major tournaments — the Surrey hard-court championships at Guilford and the Surrey. grass-court championships at Surbiton.

Collings and Miss Champman have now carried off five consecutive mixed doubles titles. On their three previous appearances as a team, during the last New Zealand summer, they won the national open and hardcourt titles and the Auckland championship.

The Surbiton -success was attended by no little drama. Miss Chapman was affected by food poisoning, lost half a stone in weight, and was well beaten in a singles contest.

But, with the valued support of the energetic Collings she struggled through the mixed doubles, and they

came from the brink of defeat in the final to beat an English combination, Christopher Bradnam and Joanne Jury.

Collings and Miss Chapman survived two match points against them before winning the final. On the second of these, Collings slipped and fell, but Miss Jury, with an open court before her, was seized by a moment of madness and hit the ball out.

The Christchurch girl has made good progress in singles at most English tournaments, and at Guilford she teamed with an American girl, Christine Murphy, to win the women’s doubles. Another young Christchurch player, Brett Hibbert, reached the quarter-finals of the men’s singles at Surbiton, and had an excellent chance of achieving fame by advancing to the semi-finals. But he fell by the wayside after leading, 5-1, in the third and final set. However, there was some consolation for Hibbert in the news that he has been chosen for the Masters round of selected tournaments.