LAWN TENNIS BOMBSHELL

Manawatu Times, Volume XLXI, Issue 3490, 27 December 1926, Page 4

LAWN TENNIS BOMBSHELL

PLAYERS WANTED, NO WRITERS TIGHTENING UP REGULATIONS (From Our Own Correspondent) LONDON, Nov. 18. After the secession of Suaaime Lenglen and the move towards professionalism in lawn tennis, it was expected that the authorities would do everything possible to tighten their control, and they now propose to take action in one important matter. In recent years there has been a growing tendency on the part of players to make money out of the game by writing about it As a matter of tact, it was known that some Continental players would not definitely decide to compote at Wimbledon until they had fixed up contracts to contribute articles on the tournament to the press.

Suzanne Lenglen regularly undertook this work, and for the fortnight she was paid as much as £aoo. But she did not write hefself. This was done for her by a “ghost” II is now the intention of the Lawn Tennis Association to put an end to players making money out of the game in tills way. At the annual meeting shortly to be held, it will bo proposed that in future a player shall not be permitted to write articles, or be interviewed, about piaj in a match or tournament in which ho or she is a competitor. This restriction has come as a bombshell to many, and it will bo bitterly opposed. In lone or two cases it may operate harshly, in regard to those players who are writers by profession. but the action of the authorities is timely, and, from facts which must be known to them, they are likely' to press their proposal to the end.