RIVIERA TENNIS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 54, 5 March 1927, Page 6

RIVIERA TENNIS

MLLE. CENGLEN'S ABSENCE MEANS RUIN TO BIG CLUBS Mile. Suzanne -Lenglen,- as an amateur, brought thousands of pounds and undreamed-of prosperity to tho great tennis clubs of Nice, Menton, and Cannes; Mile. Lenglen, as a professional, is going to land them in the gravest financial difficulties, if not actually in ruin. From organisations with half-a-dozen courts and a tiny clubhouse, these clubs have grown into "villages" of extensive buildings, and as many as twenty and thirty and more courts.

The French girl's popularity and the fact that she spent every winter playing at Nice (Cannes being her home club) brought the Eiviera into great prominence in the tennis world, and with the exception of Wimbledon it became the venue of lawn tennis championships.

Last year was the most successful ever known, and before it was ended ambitious schemes had been entered for new extensions and replacements, writes the Nice correspondent of the "Daily Chronicle." AH these had been actually put in hand before Mile. Lenglen sprang her bombshell among tennis amateurs. But, with the French girl absent, these others have not thought it worth their while, or expense, to come to the Hiviera. Neither Mile. Vlasto nor Senorita de Alvarez has expressed her intention of playing. They can get quite as good practice (in tho absonco of Mile. Lenglen) by staying in England instead of incurring the expense of tho Eiviera.

Mile. Lenglen's absence is not the only blow; that might possibly have been overcome if the other champions attended. Applications f.or seats for the tournaments, which "at this time of tho year have previously run into thousands, are to-day not even in hundreds. .

How serious the position is will bo seen from the following appeal eireulated by the Menton Club, one of tho most popular on the Cote d'Azur. "The expenses of running this cJub amount yearly to some 245,000 francs, so the association must take about 600,000 in order to pay its way. The only receipts available are the subscriptions of members and profits from tho open lnwn tennis championships. This latter will always be problematical. The subscriptions must, therefore, pay the expenses (£3500 to £4000)." '

Tho only club viewing the season with equanimity is that at Monto Carlo. Horc, a lawn tennis "city" is Bpringing up, with acros of courts, putting greens, croquet lawns; with extensive buildings fitted with showor lifting, iiot. sea baths, and a foreshore for actual sea bathing, together with cates and amusements. But then, tha Casino pays for this, as it pays for evoryllur.g olso in tho principality. The cost is put at about a million, and it will probably be two years before it is complete.