LAWN TENNIS NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 21, 22 December 1937, Page 2

LAWN TENNIS NOTES

The international matches at Brisbane and Sydney seem to point to the fact that Australia lias a level chance of winning the Davis Cup next season, in spite of the strong team tllat America can put against them. YVhen the Australian boy Bromwich met the Wimbledon and U.S.A. champion, Don Budge, at Melbourne the latter won in straight sets B—6, 6—3, 9 —7. hut in the test match at Sydney, Bromwich, who is only just eighteen, turned the tables on his Melbourne conqueror, winning on his merits 6 —2, .0 —3, B—lo.8 —10. 6 —4, and with the improvement that he is constantly making mav well be able to heat Budge in the Davis Cup next season. Although he heat von Gramm in Germany none of the critics, have included him in their lists of the “World’s Best Ten.”

As Bromwich and Quist beat the Wimbledon and Davis Cup champions, Budge and Mako, 3 —6, 6 —4, G—3, G —2, Australia’s chances in next season’s Davis Cup are greatly strengthened.

Though Mako is only ranked eighth in singles in America, he is Budge’s regular partner in doubles, yet it may he that a better will be found next season, possibly Sabin with whom Budge won at the Berkeley Tennis Club’s tournament, beating the German pair, Henkel and von Cramm, 6—3, 6 —4, 6—3, in the final. America’s second ranked player is the 19-year-old Robert Riggs, who heat von Cramm at the same tournament in three straight sets, and has won the singles at all the leading American tournaments except when Budge was a competitor, in which ca'se he got into the final each time. The result of the test matches in Australia shows what an uncertain thing doubles are. Budge and Mako won at Wimbledon and in the Davis Cup, and were acclaimed as the world’s best pair, but since then they have suffered defeat after defeat. They were beaten on two occasions by Henkel and von Cramm, one of these being in the U.S.A. championship. Then they lost to the English pair Hughes and Hare, and now they have been beaten by Quist and Bromwich, while the holders of the American championship were beaten at Brisbane by Crawford and McGrath.

That Australia could play two international matches simultaneously against the two reputed strongest pairs in the world, and win them both —though one of them only went by default in the deciding set —shows the great strength of Australian tennis at present. It is curious that two of the four successful players, Bromwich and McGrath, are quite unorthodox and play their backhand shots with both hands. The Manawatu L.T.A. has received two challenges for the Christie Cup, from Hawke’s Bay for February 5 and from Taranaki for February 12. It will be awkward to have representative matches on consecutive Saturdays and so Hawke’s Bay have been asked to name a later date. So far Manawatu has never met Taranaki in a Christie Cup match, and with so many of last year’s successful players no longerveligible, new talent will have to be discovered before the end of January. Of course Baddy and Chisholm will retain .their places, while Jack Cope and Hobin are still well up on the list, but at least two places in the Manawatu team will have to he filled by jslayers who were not included last reason. Of these O’Brien, McMurray, Christie, <, and Goodwin were all ranked in Manawatu first ten and will be available if wanted. Spragge, who played third for Manawatu in 1932, is again resident here, and challenged R. Tapp, ranked fifth in 193 G but not included last season, the latter just winning 6 —4, I—6, B—6. Miss Howe, who was second to the New Zealand champion. Miss D. Nicholls, in last year’s Wellington list, has been residing in Levin for some months, and it was hoped that she could be available for Manawatu, but she has returned to YVellington and will naturally represent that association again.