Good practice for tennis pros

Press, 24 November 1980, Page 40

Good practice for tennis pros

Special correspondent The New Zealand professional tennis player, Chris Lewis, says the top. overseas competitors in the Winfield Classic, in Christchurch next month, have been attracted not so much by the $25,000 prize-money as by the unlimited training time and facilities being offered. Lewis has expressed surprise at the high standard of the overseas players who have accepted the invitation to compete at Wilding Park for the prize money, which by international tennis standards is not a great deal. He regards Yannick Noah. France’s No. 1 Davis Cup player, who reached thirteenth in the world singles rankings at one stage this year, as one of the biggest attractions in, world tennis today.

Among the other top players at the Winfield Classic will be the third-ranked Australian, Kim Warwick, who won over $lOO,OOO last year. Lewis explained that the players were all keen to get in as much practice time as possible on grass courts, before the start of the financially lucrative Australian circuit the day after the four-day classic. The circuit includes the $350,000 Australian Open in Melbourne from December 22-28. The New Zealander said that the eight men invited to Christchurch

could not practice in continental Europe because there were no grass courts there, and those in Britain had a different type of grass. In addition to Noah and Warwick, who is ranked thirty-sixth in the world, the other overseas players in the Winfield Classic will be France’s No. 2 Davis Cup player, Pascal Portes, the winner of the 1976 Australian Open, Mark Edmonson, and the American, Billy Martin, who is said to have the best junior record of any player in the world.

The New Zealand competitors will be Lewis, Onny Parun and Russell Simpson,