HIGH-GRADE TENNIS

Evening Post, Volume CCXV, Issue 13, 17 January 1938, Page 6

HIGH-GRADE TENNIS

STEDMAN AT MIRAMAR

WELLINGTON DEFEATED

SOME FOOT-FAULTING

Several factors, other than the consistently high grade of the play, helped to make the exhibition tennis matches at Miramar on Saturday afternoon between the New Zealand Davis Cup team and a Wellington side an interesting experience. One important feature was the noticeable improvement in the standard of A. C. Stedman, the Davis Cup star, who is touring the country prior to the national .championships; another was the defeat of D. C. Coombe, the present holder of the New Zealand title, by N. F. N. Bedford: and a third was the foot-faulting. , Before he went Home several years ago Stedman had won the national title on the strength of first-class forehand .drive, a steady but -not attacking backhand, and an,adequate, but not outstanding, equipment for ouier strokes. Today he has returned to this country the possessor of a forehand, drive easily in world class. But. his, repertoire has been bettered by the, development oi a studiously correct: and accurate backhand dove, by volleying which is quick .and decisive, and by smashing which is well placed and accurate -.(iaough the best of it, ; owing to the bright sum, was not seen,on Saturday). But more has been, added to-Ms game than strokes, for consistent play against; an average high class of opponents has t«JgM him. many things, sharpened his rounded and moulded his game into excellence la all phases. ; _ . Given anything approaching, suit-. ability of bounce and pace, Stedmans. forehand is fearsome. The _ drive is made flat and' wjth + low to|ector^ pitches within a foot .or. so ©f mejaseine, coming off the surface a- .speed. Time after time, in his, singles with N V Edwards. Wellington's topranking ' player, Stedman ended the ranywithaformidably fastshot.which !eft his opponent standing. Edwards was faced with a difficult + task and his failure to win more than tmee gameTwas more a point for sympathy than condemnation, for he _ tried an the time. Possibly he should have en deavoured to slow the game up but he could never get sufficient grip of it to do that; at least, though, he should iave placed his service rather moie ffierately, for his slowish second ones, pitching in the forehand corner,! were the answer to Stedmans prayer. BEDFORD PLAYS WELL. Where Edwards could not dictate' the tactics of his match by deliber-i ately slowing. Bedford, in his match, with Coombe, could. And he did it; very successfully, with shrewd place-; ments to the backhand. Much *>f. the; stroking was slow, and it was a tribute, to Bedford's powers of concentration that he should have divorced his .game from its normal, hard-hitting standard. Towards the end, it is true, he, sharpened up his strokes and produced the stinging shots off tooth: hands for which he has won fame. But by then he was so much in command, of the match that he could afford to Coombe' w.as obviously -unhappy at many of his errors; a number of them; were simple enough to worry any player, and most of them .came when Coombe, tired of the humdrum placing from backhand to "backhand by each man, stepped in and played the rising ball with pace. But there the; fly in the prescription for success was discovered, for most of those forcing shots sailed unhappily out of court. The foot-faulting produced an .-unexpected incident in the day's play. By now, of course, it is well known that the recently-formed Wellington Dm-, pires' Association has been conducting a necessary and somewhat delayed campaign against the "prodigious, incidence of foot-faulting in club tennis. The members of the association have carried out a difficult duty with admirable discretion and impartiality. In the circumstances, their representatives, Messrs. R. D. Sime and J. Neale, who called the faults on Saturday, scarcely deserved the audible criticism from a section of the spectators. . The .circumstances were that on his first serve in the singles, Stedman was l oot>=faulted ior stepping "into the sermce. He immediately paused and asked theareason and was given it. Later, Mr Syme, the judge concerned, made other .calls, and several spectators criticised Iris action. He. left the court for a time rto -ascertain the views of the Wellington Association, was assured of support, and returned to the court. Later, at the end of the match, he penalised Edwards on important points. Edwards, trying to change his tactics, began rushing the net on service and he penalties by swinging the right foot over the line before impact. . In the doubles, Mr. Neale made an occasional call chiefly to penalise players anxious to Teach the net in a hurry. Considering the quality of the players, the tennis -during the afternoon seldom reached glamorous heights, and the Bedford-Coombe match was easily the most interesting tactical gcime, even though it was .so slow The Sted-man-Edwards match was chiefly remarkable for the superb quality of Stedman's driving and the doubles was .singularly notable for the melancholy lapses of Coombe COOMBE'S BAD DAY. It was Coombe s bad day in the doubles, a game in which he usually shines. He was missing on his ground shots, smashing -violently but unpurposefully into the bottom of the net, and even in ids volleys he could not click all the time.., In the last set, he .didjpick Tip .a little, and in that set he heloT^service more easily than in the other four. Stedman, in partnership with Malfroy, has become one of the best doubles players in England. His exposition on Saturday showed why, because he was covering up Coombe's errors, driving with rare pace on the forehand, and going in close to volley well Overhead he was .affected by indecision —;but that was because of the sun and the amount of tosses E. A. Boussell and D. G. France were playing from the southern .end. ROUSSELL PLAYS WELL. Now and again, France and Roussell played very good tennis. • Except in the last set, as a matter of fact, Houssell was about the most consistent player of the four. He played two really memorable shots during the afternoon, one a snappy interception of a pacy Stedman drive going from left court to left court, and the other a return of a toss deep into the backhand corner. Ttoussell picked it up beautifully, tossing it high back into the other court. He carried on with the impetus of his run into the netting at the back. Except that France was not always certain of his service, his play was interesting. Often he played his shots with all the cunning skill of placement of an experienced player, and his tactics generally were fine. On one occasion he played a clean forehand winner down the alley and Rqussell turned to him quickly in admiration. On the next service Roussell played a classic backhand winner down his alley: and it was France's turn to admire. Results were:— A. C. Stedman beat N. V. Edwards, 6-2, 6-L

D. C: Coombe lost to N. F. N. Bedford, 5-7, 2-6. Stedman and Coqmbe beat D. G. France and E. A. Roussell, 6-2, 0-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.