WOMEN TENNIS PLAYERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 August 1932, Page 10

WOMEN TENNIS PLAYERS

■ — WILL NEVER RIVAL MEN. Other things being equal, the de. ciding factor in tennis is mental alert, ness, or, if you like, intelligent anticipation. There are so many roads to proficiency in a sport in which there are to-day more adepts than in the pdst, that it is impossible to lay down any fast rules. For my part, I would lay particular stress on regular practice and particular concentration on any weakness in your play (wrote Helen Wills-Moody in. the London Daily Tele, graph)’. At the same time, never play so much tennis that you find yourself getting bored with it. I know that Gochet’s golden rule is to have frequent interludes in which he plays no tennis at all» and to time his serious training so that he reaches the top of his form only when the crucial moment in a tournament has arrived. For my part, I play the whole year round, but neVer more than two sets a day or more than four or five days a week. If only a woman does this, and if she has a natural aptitude and good average physique, she ought to show a consistent and steady improvement in the standard of her play. In the case of men perhaps three instead of two sets might be played each day, as they have to play five sets in matches against our three. This is as it should be, though my personal opinion is that five sets is rather too strenuous even for the best male athlete.” Above all, don’t play one set more than you feel you want to play. People talk to-day of the enormous number of tournaments in which the tennis amateur takes part, arid, it is quite true that our best players seem to do nothing else but globe-trot in search of opponents. I am certain that such constant play would do them no good if they did not love.it. I foi' my part would never play in ariy tennis tournament if it were not a pleasure for me to do so. Often I have been asked if women will ever play as well as men, I suppose people would like to hear that the day -Will come when women will riVal men. Well, I do not think that day will ever come, though the margin between a good man player and a good woman player is bound to decrease as time goes on. Women to-day train more scientifically, and they do not allow any other consideration to inter, fere with the attention which they give to the. game. But they have neither the strength noi* the height, nor the reach of man. 5 PLAY OFTEN WITH MEN.

Their play is not as vigorous. They cannot move so quickly on the court. On the other .hand, they . are. psychologically as well suited for the game, and I think theii* brains, generally speaking, are just as alert. One piece of advice I should like to give to women players is to try to have as many games with men as possible. The days are gon© when men, for reasons of chivalry, did not play their best when opposed' to a woman. No ‘ one can-afford to be a gallant in any sport to-day, and in America, at least, our men play as well as they can when opposed to women, and never object to playing with us. I attribute a great measure of the skid which I have attained to frequent practice with men players. In San Francisco, my native town, conditions are particularly favourable in this respect, and 1 do not think there are many towns in which the tennis courts are so conveniently placed. They are at the - front door, so to and so easy to get at that the San Francisco business man can put in a. game in his lunch hour. For this reason I would back the players from our club against any ten from any other club in the United States. We possess quite a number' of firstclass players, who rarely come into the limelight because their business prevents tournament play. Thus Chandler this year has beaten Vines on several occasions, and yet, who, apart from a few Americans, has ever heard of'him in Europe. The standard of woman’s play throughout the world has never been so high as to-day. 1 was particularly impressed during my recent visit to the East to see how the women there are taking up the game. When I was in Japan I played a number of games with Japanese women players, and, though they are still forty years behind us in standard, they are coming on very fast. The present economic crisis has done immense good to tennis. People have less money to spend on amusements and sport, and so quite a number of American women who played golf and more expensive sports are taking to tennis. It is a far more economical game, takes less time,, demands cheaper kit, and does not entail long journeys to the courts.