Extra incentive to win

Press, 4 March 1982, Page 19

Extra incentive to win

For only the second time in tennis history, Spain and New Zealand will fight out a Davis Cup tie, at Wilding Park over the next three days. Both teams are keen to gain the victory which will secure a place in the quar-ter-finals of the world-wide competition, and this desire will be,given an added urgency by the fear of almost certain demotion to a lower grade for the loser.

The side which fails in this first round contest in the premier grade will have to play the loser of the ItalyBritain match, at a northern hemisphere venue. Both Spain and New Zealand would be struggling to sur-

. vive such an elimination fixture. So the emphasis will be on winning when the first two singles matches are played at Wilding Park tomorrow, as a prelude to the doubles on Saturday and the reverse singles on Sunday. Chris Lewis and Russell Simpson are the likely singles players for New Zealand, as they were in the ties against Korea and Britain last year, and their Spanish opponents are expected to be Jose Lopez Maeso,- a rising star in the tennis world and Angel Gimenez, whose short statureand big strokes are sure to make him a. crowdpleaser. Last year, when the new

Davis Cup format was introduced New Zealand beat Korea in Seoul to advance to the quarter-finals, where it lost, 1-4 to Britain at the Pioneer Stadium in Christchurch. This was a painful experience for New Zealand and its supporters as both Lewis and Simpson seemed likely to win their opening singles in four sets, only to lose in five. Spain, meantime, battled its way through one of the lower grades beating Algeria. Monaco and Hungary to win promotion. The present Spanish captain, Manuel Santana, played the leading role for his side when it beat New Zealand, 32 in the only previous tie

between the two rivals, in 1961. Just one week after winning the French Open title, Santana showed sparkling form to beat both New Zealanders, Lew Gerrard and Mark Otway, in the singles and teamed with Alberto Arilla to win the doubles in three sets. There was a sour postscript to this tie. Immediately after returning to Britain from Madrid, Otway castigated the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association for its poor organisation. He claimed that he had learned about dates only through bumping into Gerrard by chance in Egypt; there had not been a line of direct communication to him; and he was out of pocket by £35 through travelling to Israel for a first round tie. The national body hit back strongly depriving Otway of all his overseas privileges. The late Mr Stan Ramson, then chairman of the council, drew attention to Otway’s allowance—“more than double that ever given to a New Zealand player”—and criticised him for not teaming more with Gerrard in pre-tie doubles matches. “There is no doubt the doubles loss could conceivably have been a history making win,” he said. “No-one would realise that more keenly than Otway, knowing just what little support he had given to his captain. Gerrard in the preparation for this vital game.” Happily matters are much more harmonious these days in the New Zealand camp. With the amiable Jeff Robson at the helm, there should be no recriminations from the New Zealanders win or lose.