TENNIS

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 November 1928, Page 3

TENNIS

PLAY AND PLAYERS. (By “Ace”). Excellent tennis weather for over a week has at last allowed the game to get fairly, under way here. Openjing days were held on Saturday by United and Grey Clubs, good attendances being registered at both sets of courts. There appears to be little change in the personnel of each club, and the ladders are unlikely to be |much altered. Uniteds are minus the services of P. Jamieson, a last year’s crack. Faoniliar faces seen about the courts are those of F. M. Dennehy, A. E. Warnes, McCarthy, McKay and Fatliei' Quinn. Among the ladies Mesdames Fletcher, Davis, Lawn, and Misses Tennent, Warnes and McKay, all near the top of their respective club ladders Jast season, are again playing. United have the services of a promising new man in Millar, a young player, and Jseveral consistently fair lady players, i The Grey Club is starting combined doubles and singles on Saturday, and ' (lias also arranged an inter-club tour- ! filament for Saturday, December 1, ' (when the A’s play the Hokitika A’s on ' Jthe Grey courts and the B’s travel , to Hokitika to play the Hokitika B’s. '

General News. The returned Australian Davis Cup /players have some interesting tales to |ell of the American tennis atmosphere. According to one of them, in the country which recently declared /Tilden guilty of professionalism because lie wrote for the papers, there

fare numbers of youths who toil not neither do they spin, but go up and /down the land playing tennis. They call themselves college men, but the only curriculum they follow is that of the tennis court. Their expenses are paid by the clubs running the tournaments, and they receive in addition '/‘out-of-pocket expenses,” these latter (being their living wage. • Mlle. Kea Bouman, the Dutch, champion, who defeated Miss E. Boyd (Australia) after a great struggle, in the French Hard Court Championship, is (considered by Tilden to be one of the /greatest women tennis players in the world. H. W. Austin, the young English tennis player, serves a very deceptive /ball. He employs, as do the others, what is known as the English grip in

all his strokes, that is, the forearm And raquet handle forming an angle. Ho got speed out of his shots without 'seeming to exert himself too much.He moves quickly, and anticipates

(well. pliques in Tennis. For the purpose of inter-club matches and for people to play in tournaments, a club called the Miramar

/Grounds Club was formed, and like Vnost clubs, scarcely works in favour ■ of the inferior player who is nervous ; pf displaying his or her weaknesses (says a tennis writer in the Wellington “Dominion”). The result is that (the better players have a use of the : court but little removed from a mono- . poly. As one noted player once put j (it, Miramar is the only place he knows pf where a man can get five or six , feets on end. But in order that he j |nay be able to get his five oi* six sets ( pn end somebody else has to go short. . That somebody is the “dud” club mem-

ber, afraid to make himself heard, or the proposed hirer of a court. A check is kept on the court hirer by

\reason of the fact that he holds a ticket which permits him to play for a certain definite time, but no such hold can be had ovei- the club member who is largely at the mercy of his own sense of sportsmanship. To give all club members an equal chance demands somebody to keep a close watch on the play in terms of the system employed at Brougham- Hill Club. There the inferior player is given a chance of using the courts equally with the good player, and, furthermore, in sets where all four players are of approximately equal calibre. Does this,method apply at Miramar? (asks, an exchange tennis writer). From information I have received from disappointed people, both hirers of courts and inferior players who are members, it does not. Indeed, the system has laid itself open too much to the formation of parties or cliques, and th© consequent leaving out in the cold of the inferior player. The feeling is not foreign to Miramar, and is

perfectly natural. Indeed, it persists in all clubs, and would assume alarming proportions unless checked at 'the outseb by the same method as applies at Brougham Hill Club, and or two others of the town clubs. Tennis and Golf Compared. A leading American sports writer was recently asked > “Which game calls for the greater skill, and which has tho greater number of players (in U.S.A.) tennis or golf?” His answer was: — The latter section is easy to answer. There are three or four golf players to one tennis player. Golf takes in all ages, from ten to ninety. There are tennis players over fifty, but the number isn’t large. The number of golf players must run somewhere between 2,000,000 and

4,000,000. The number of tennis players is something under a million. Tennis calls for greater speed, for greater stamina, for greater variety of physical attributes. Tennis demands athletic qualities which are not needed in golf. A golfer might not be able to run a hundred yards in two minutes—and many of them are slower than that on the course —whereas foot speed is necessary in first-class tennis play.' The skill demanded in hitting a golf shot correctly is about equal to the skill called for in hitting a tennis ball. The fact that a tennis ball is travelling and a golf ball is stationary has little to do with the argument. It is easier to concentrate, to keep your eye on a moving object, than, on a motionless target. Champions in either game . must start young to build up a method of hitting instinctively correct. But no Walter Travis could start tennis at the age of thirty-six and win a championship. The physical side alone would stop him. Tennis calls for quicker thought and greater strategy. Golf demands greater nerve control and greater repression. The two games are totally dissimilar. But this will not prevent the argument breaking out year after year.

The Service.

“The prime object to be kept in view in serving is to vary one’s delivery. Do not permit the receiver to anticipate the kind of service that Will be sent over; keep him on the anxious seat, at whatever cost. “When you take up your position to Serve, have your mind made up that you will send over a certain kind of service. You know your opponent, What he likes and what he dislikes; be determined to give him the latter. Watch him carefully, note whore he is standing, and where he is expecting the ball to come. He is concentrating, so that he can anticipate properly. Don’t permit him to anticipate. Probe into the processes of his mind, so that you will know what he is expecting—and give him something else, even if you have to change your own shot. “Oppose your mind to his, and always remember that the initiative belongs to you. It is possible for you to change at the last fraction of a second, while he must await your shot and prepare to deal', with it.”

Tit-Bits. “With such a large area as a singles court to defend you niust try to keep where you can control the two halves to the right and left of you with fore or backhand strokes. The less ground you have to cover the easier the stroke and the more force you, can put into it. If you ever manage to play a game 'without moving from a little circle almost on the backline and midway between the two sidelines you will have played the game of your life. So much for hopping about. “Watch your opponent like a duellist. Watch how he shapes at the ball. The flight of the ball ought to fla,sh into your, brain almost as soon as'it flashes into the mind of the person making the stroke. Almost before the bal lis hit you must be on your way to that dangerous quarter. For be sure that a good player always chooses your weakest quarter for liis attack.”