LAWN TENNIS American Players Impress

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 February 1947, Page 4

LAWN TENNIS American Players Impress

Comment On New Zealand Standard The American Davis Cup tennis players who took part in the exhibition matches with leading New Zealand players at Wilding Park, Christchurch, yesterday not only delighted the gallery of about 3000 spectators but impressed the connoisseurs of tennis who are always ready to make comparisons with other great players who have visited New Zealand in the past. In estimating the standard of the Americans certain alowances had to be made. They were playing at the tail-end of a strenuous tour, involving much travelling and continuous play for three months. Gardnar Mulloy looked and played like a tired man. Though he was good enough to polish off the New Zealand champion, Ron McKenzie, in straight sets, he was well beaten by his team-mate, Bill Talbert, who showed more life and altogether more accuracy. Four Matches. They played four matches, a single by themselves, Mulloy’s single against McKenzie, and doubles against J. E. Robson and O. M. Bold, the New Zealand champions, and McKenzie and J. W. Gunn. They were more impressive, perhaps, in the doubles than in the singles. Their volleying was several classes above that seen as. a rule in the best New Zealand tennis. Detailed scores are as follows: — G. Mulloy (U.S.A.) beat R. S. McKenzie (N.Z.), 6-2, 6-2. G. Mulloy and W. Talbert (U.S.A.) beat J. E. Robson and O. M. Bold (N.Z.) 6-3, 6-3. Talbert beat Mulloy, 6-1, 6-3. Mulloy and Talbert (U.S.A.) beat McKenzie and J. W. Gunn (N.Z.), 6-3, 6-3. O. M. Bold beat W. J. Smith, 6-3, 6-0. Bold and Mrs. K. Hart beat Robson and Miss M. L. Kerr, 6-2, 6-3. McKenzie and Smith beat Bold and Robson, 6-3, 6-2. Both Americans were warm in their praise of the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association’s ground. “There are lots of places in the States —big places, too —that would love to have as good a tennis ground as this,” Mulloy told a reporter. “The stadium is excellent, the court was perfect—one of the best we have ever played on —and the whole set-up is magnificent,” he de-, clared. New Zealand Standard. Asked for a recipe to improve New Zealand’s tennis, Mulloy had no hesitation in saying that the interchange of visits by New Zealand and overseas players was essential to raise the standard in the Dominion. “Your players have all the shots; just as good shots as we have. But they have not got the concentration that comes from constant play against better players. They make more mistakes even than we are doing now, and we are completely stale and tired from continuous tennis and too much travelling.” The Americans dislike the balls used in Nfw Zealand, claiming that the nap to too heavy and makes it impossible to get speed into a stroke. “They are the kind of balls we use only on clay courts and cement courts at home,” he said. “Your chaps will get more speed when they use a faster ball,” he added. _