NO RESTRICTION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22200, 10 December 1946, Page 6

NO RESTRICTION

BROMWICH'S ACT DROPPING SPARE BALL AUSTRALIAN DECISION SYDNEY, Dec. 9. The Lawn Tennis Association of Australia will not take action to compel the Australian champion. John Bromwich, to change his court style unless .the American Davis Cup team manager, Mr. Walter Pate, asks it to do so. This was announced in Melbourne by the president of the association, Sir Norman Brookes. Earlier Sir Norman Brookes had hinted that action would be taken to prevent Bromwich dropping the ball on or near the court in the Davis Cup challenge round. Bromwich, during his Victorian championship singles final against Schroeder, quietly dropped the spare ball alter hjs serves. He discarded it so well behind the baseline that it was hardly noticeable. Would Oppose Change Tennis officials in Melbourne said that even if Mr. Pate did protest the Australian Lawn Tennis Council would oppose any action against Bromwich. Bromwich has always dropped the ball if his first service is right. This is to allow him to change to his two-handed grip. Prominent Australian players have defended Bromwich against the criticism of the American players and the Daily Telegraph, in a sports editorial, says that the protest of the American players must not be upheld. “The American protest cannot be justified in any way,” it says. “Bromwich played in America on two Davis Cup tours without his method of dropping the ball raising a query. Other two-handers, Vivian McGrath and GeofT Brown, who use the same method of disposing of the second service ball, have been accepted overseas without question. To ask Bromwich to change an integral part of his style on the eve of the" Davis Cup Challenge round would be imposing an unwarranted and grossly unfair handicap on our greatest player.”