Poor play costs Simpson match

Press, 18 January 1986, Page 8

Poor play costs Simpson match

PA Wellington Hutt Valley’s James Dunphy did local hearts proud by beating the second seed, Russell Simpson, in a tough quarterfinal match at the New Zealand championships in Lower Hutt yesterday. Dunphy, aged 23, played a solid serve-volley game to beat Simpson, of Auckland, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

For Simpson, who in six weeks will be trying to help New Zealand win a Davis Cup tie against Australia, it was a poor performance. His serve, always strong, was too erratic to place Dunphy under sustained pressure. As ever, Simpson volleyed and smashed with authority, but his groundstrokes were poor. It amazed that a man who has played professional tennis for about 15 years could make so many mistakes. He once beat the French-

man, Henri Leconte at Junior Wimbledon, but he ranked yesterday’s win over Simpson higher. Steve Guy, who has picked his way through a tough draw with ease, was impressive yesterday in dismantling the bighitting game of Greg Hansford, 6-2, 6-3.

While Guy, aged .26, had some service problems in the wind, he was forever attacking the net, and with his power he simply had too many guns for Hansford.

Evernden turned back the top junior, Brett Steven, 6-4, 64, in an entertaining game that never seemed likely to have any other result. Bruce Derlin, the third seed, was pushed to the brink before beating sixth-seeded David Lewis 1-6, 6-1, 7-6. He wbn the tiebreaker 7-5. Derlin had triple matchpoint; when Lewis was serving, but from there Lewis reeled off 12 straight points.