LAWN TENNIS

Evening Star, Issue 22359, 8 June 1936, Page 6

LAWN TENNIS

[By Recokdeh.]

Davis Cup. By a splendid victory over the United States of America, Australia has won in the American zone in the Davis Cup contest. Australia has now to play the winner of the European zone tor the right to play Great Britain, the holder of the trophy. There are still eight nations in the European zone, they being Belgium, Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Argentine, Ireland, and Switzerland. It' is anticipated that the finalists in this zone will be France and Germany with the latter tho winner.

The match between Australia and the United States was closely contested, the former only winning by three matches to two. Both the United States victories were gained by Donald Budge, the 22-year-old, redheaded Californian. Budge first came into prominence in 1934 when, with Mako, he won the Pacific Coast doubles championship, defeating Lott and Stoefen and Allison and Van Ryn and gained several victories over Perry and Wilde. In tho final of the Pacific Coast singles championship he took Perry to five sets. At Wimbledon last year he reached the semifinal, defeating in turn Quiet, Boussus, and Austin and being only defeated by Von Cramm. Budge, however, had his revenge a week later, when, in the interzone final of the Davis Cup, he defeated Von Cramm by three sets to one. .

Budge’s back-hand drive is said to be one of the best in the world, and he hits it with such terrific pace that it is hard to get near it. He has strengthened his forehand during the past few months and is being spoken of as the future world champion. Budge has wonderful fighting qualities and he showed these when Crawford led 3-2 and 40 love in the fifth set. This was Crawford’s chance for victory, but Budge fought every point and after winning the score went on to fight out a marathon set which he eventually won at 13-11. Against a player of Crawford’s ability and experience this was a truly remarkable performance, and it shows that Budge has in him tne makings of a real champion. Quist’s defeat of Allison was expected but it was not anticipated that lie Ausralians would be so closely pushed in the doubles. There seems no doubt that the calling of footfaults at critical stages of the game upset the Australians. To the writer and others who carefully watched QuisPs play when he was in Dunedin, it is really no surprise that this player has at last found himself in trouble with his footfaulting. When playing here it is doubtful whether Quist did not break the footfault rule on 50 per cent, of his services. Being small, he was not only inclined to jump -when serving, but also he repeatedly stood on the line or swung his foot over before hitting the ball. In spite of all the footfaults Quist was the hero of the doubles match and smashed his way to victory after the Americans had a 4-1 lead in the fifth set.

To Crawford, however, went the honour of winning the deciding match, and this lie did when lie defeated Allison in a match which we«t to the full five sets At the end of the' third set Crawford was down 2-1," but he played brilliant tennis in the final two sets and allowed his opponent to win only four games—two in each set. In the final match Budge repeated his last year’s Wimbledon performance by again defeating Quist in straight sets. However, as the tie was won by Austrialia before this match was played, too much importance cannot be given to this result. In addition it must be remembered that Quist was no doubt feeling the strain of his previous matches, especially after his outstanding play in the doubles of the previous day. French Championships. Austin reached the quarter-finals but had to retire owing to a leg injury. Perry reached the final by defeating Boussus, thus reversing the result of their match in the international match between France and Great Britain. The final was a triumph lor the German Von Gramm, who accounted for Perry 6-0 in the fifth set and thus regained the title he lost to the latter last year. Madame Sperling, also a German, retained her singles title by defeating Madame Mathieu in the final.

Aotea Club. The success of the three teams of the Aotea Tennis Club, all qf which won their respective grades ill the Union Lawn Tennis competition for the 193536 season, must be almost (if not quite) unique. This was but the fifth year of the existence of the club, which was formed in the 1931-32 season with about 30 members. The next year the club joined the union, and, after losing the first match, was successful in winning the D grade competition the first year of its inception. For the 1933-34 season teams were entered for the C and D grade competitions, the O team being runners'-up. With an increasing membership, A, _C, and D teams competed for the 1934-35 season, the A’s_ finishing well up (about third) in their competition. For 1935-36 teams were again entered in the same three grades, each team winning its respective competition (D’s top equal). One of the outstanding factors of this club’s success has been the strong social life, annually contributing to an increase in members (now totalling about 120).