Effect Of Amateurism On Tennis

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 6 October 1934, Page 8

Effect Of Amateurism On Tennis

Amateurism! What a fine word that is! What presumptions of noble effort it conjures up, writes Helen Jacobs in the “Sunday Chronicle.” One who plays the game for pure love of it, without remuneration; with glory, perhaps, and often with disappointment. Of course, one gives much in the way of physical and mental energy to the game because one knows that glory is the best that can await one, and it requires these things to win it. ,

been merely a visitor, I would have gone more leisurely and comfortably, and in all probability I wouldn’t have taken sick and been forced to retire from the American season that year, 1930. HIRED MOTORS. Another experience connected with this same Riviera episode partially explains the matter of transportation. In Cannes I stayed at a hotel quite some distance from the tennis club. A car furnished by the hotel took the players from the hotel to the club twice a day. In other words, if you played at approximately two and four you could go to the club in the hotel car a reasonable time before your match. Otherwise you would have, to wait from one to two and sometimes three hours before playing. A great many players feel as I do about this. If they are obliged to watch the matches or sit in the clubhouse very long before playing they become either nervous or bored, or both. And neither state is especially conducive to good tennis. When I realised that most of my matches in- Cannes were either scheduled for 3 o’clock or very late, around the club, I hired a car to take me to the club. That expense was not legitimate in the opinion of the Tennis Federation, so it automatically went on my personal expense account. If we are going to take our player through the tennis season there is one

This is the picture most of the sporting public would Tike to have of amateur tennis. The host of incidental considerations that never occur to the public, make amateur tennis the thing it really is. In the first place there is the gate. In the 1932 final of the men’s national singles championship between Ellsworth Tines and Henri Cochet, in America, close to 15,000 people attended the match. The seats averaged around 7s fid apiece. These two *pl a y ers > responsible for the money that went into the treasury of the United States (Lawn Tennis Association, received a certain amount for their expenses. What a hue and cry is put up by certain ones of the Press, and the public, too, at the thought that these amateur players receive expenses allowances, possibly liberal ones! There is one answer to that. Is there any reason /why amateurs should pay to make money for any organisation? The answer of those who, have done it is “no.”

Not Sufficient Expenses Allowed

Enormous Profits Go To Association

thing wo must consider: his practice. During the major European tournaments, the championship of Prance and England, it is* impossible to rely upon one’s fellow-players for practice.

It may happen that those with whom he wishes to play are not at liberty to do so when he is; or his possible practice partner might have other matches later on, or difficult ones the next day, and not care to practice. Automatically he turns to the professional, whose fees abroad are not particularly reasonable. This can sometimes run into quite an expense.

The last time I played in the French championships I had a rather difficult draw. During the first week, which is devoted solely to doubles, I sought singles practice wherever I could find it. I felt that one of my strokes was going badly and I wanted all the practice I could get, in the hope that I could bring it into shape by the semifinal, provided I got that far. By the end of the second week, which included the singles, my bill with the professional was almost as much as my hotel bill! NO ACCOUNT. When the English Wi'ghtman Cup tedm goes to America it is not given an expense allowance. The manager of the team is given the players’ hotel money’and he pays the players’ hotel and transportation expenses. I know several players of promise in England

who have said that they could not