A TENNIS INTERLUDE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 26, 31 January 1924, Page 5

A TENNIS INTERLUDE

"THE ENGLISH ARE PIGS"

MLLE. LENGLEN BREAKS OUT AGAIN.

(ONIKD PRI63 ASSOCIATION.—COPIRIGHT.) (AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE* ASSOCIATION.) (Received 31st January, noon.) LONDON, 30th January. The correspondent of the "Daily Express" at Cannes states that an unpleasant incident occurred in the final of the ladies' doubles, in which Mile* Lenglen and Miss Ryan played Mrs. Covell and Mrs. Shepherd-Barrow. During the first set the linesman left his place to ask the umpire a question and a minute later called a footfault against Mile. Lenglen, who thereupon stopped playing. "You know-nothing about the game," she told the "linesman. "You werel wrong." She then left the court and went, nearly in tears, to her mother. She refused to continue the game till tho linesman had been changed, but this the umpiro refused, holding that tho footfault decision was right. Mile. Lenglen then returned to the court; j "It is unfair,'* she declared, "and the English are pigs." Mile. Lenglen turned the .full force of her ■ fury towards the linesman, but he missed it because of being deaf. The French player adhered to her refusal to play. The matter was finally settled by the referee for the tournament asking the linesman to resign. In the interests of the tournament he agreed to do so, the game then proceeding. Mile, lenglen and Miss '.Ryan won "comfortably," 6-3, 6-4. :

„'.A similar. incident occurred last June, when an umpire gave a decision against -Mile. Lenglen in a match with Mrs. Golding forlhe French singles championship: The French lady player left-the court, bursting into tears. She askedher parents what she had better do, and was "advised to finish the game, which she did, playing brilliantly. The most notable of these incidents occurred, however, when Mile. Lenglen was in America. She arrived two day B before the championships opened and found herself drawn to play Mrs. Mallory,' the holder at that time of the American championship. Mrs. Mallory showed commensurate speed and confidence, and won the opening set, . 6-2. After 2-0 and love-"" thirty had been called in the second set, Mile. Lenglen retired after a "scene.".' Her withdrawal, on the plea of illness, was much criticised in America'; where "a fight to a finish" is the traditional rule.