AUSTRALIA’S TENNIS RICHES

Evening Star, Issue 21391, 20 April 1933, Page 11

AUSTRALIA’S TENNIS RICHES

YOUTH PROMINENT That Australia is destined to play a, more prominent part in world tennis than ever before is the only conclusion to which one can come after having witnessed the South Australian championships (says the ‘ Sporting Globe ’). The future of tennis, as in all branches of sport, lies With the youth of to-day. And here we saw nine teen-year-old" Leu Schwartz extending Harry Hopman, who had only to say that ho was willing to go to be sent away with the Australian Davis Cup team. Twice Schwartz had match points at 5-4 in the fifth set of the South Australian singles championship, and Hopman had three niatch points before he won. There could be no better indication of rapid improvement made by the South Australian. By next season he might have to be seriously considered for a place in the Davis Cup team. Whom did Schwartz defeat on his way to the final? His victims were R, Ewin, R. Jessup, 6. M. Hone, and Jack Purcell, one of the best juniors in Australia. His hardest battle was against Purcell, but sheer grit and determination proved too much for the stylish play of the Victorian. What else did Schwartz do in the championships? With Ewin he reached the semi-final of the doubles championship, but Hopman and Hone stopped their progress. With Miss Weston Schwartz got to the semi-final of tho mixed doubles championship, and he defeated Bert Tonkin among others in the State junior singles and played Purcell in the final on Monday. Then youth was also represented by Miss Joan Hartigan, twenty years, and Miss Gwen Griffiths, twenty-two years. The Sydney girl had to fight hard to account for Miss Griffiths in the final of the wbmen’s singles championship, for she was down 4-6 in the first set. Miss Griffiths was the_ schoolgirl champion of South Australia, but iu the intervening years she did not progress in the game as anticipated. She had the shots, but until last week apparently lacked confidence. Her matches in Melbourne last month evidently supplied what was wanting, as she has never played better than in the South Australian championships. Her defeat of Miss Hoddle Wrigley, the holder of the title, indicated that she was at the top of her form, and she went on to win against Miss Kathleen Lo Messurier, who for nine years had been recognised as the best woman player in the State.

No doubt Miss Hartigan, being two years younger, will improve her game to a greater extent than Miss Griffiths, but now that the Adelaide girl has acquired confidence she must be regarded as one of the best women players in. the land.

_ Miss Hartigan also captured the girls’singles championship, her opponent being Miss Joan Walters, sixteen years old, and, with Miss K. Woodward, tbo women’s doubles title. The fourth final iu which she played was the mixed doubles, in which, partnered by Tonkin, she was defeated by Hopman and Miss Woodward, the title-holders.