TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19209, 24 December 1925, Page 13

TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS.

THE VICTORIAN HAEGE. NOT IN GOOD PRACTICE. {BY TELECRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] CEKISTCHURCH, Wednesday. Interest in the New Zealand tennis championships to be commenced in Christchurch on Saturday has been stimulated by the entry of Mr. Paul Haege, of Melbourne, who arrived in Christchurch today. His form will be watched keenly in practice during the next day or two. Although he is not yet twenty years of age Haege is one o'i the leading players of Victoria; in fact, if there were a State ranking list in Victoria his name would probably be seventh or eighth. In the course of a talk Haege said he first played for Victoria last July, when he was fifth man in the team which visited Sydney and played New South Wales. The first four men in the team were O'Hara Wood, Schlesinger, Wertheim and Dickenson. This team, which was beaten by New South Wales, was not a very strong one, Patterson and Hawkes being away with the Davis Cup team. Last month Haege was first man in the second Victorian team which played South Australia. Victoria had two teams of six men each, hut O'Hara Wood was not available for the first team. Asked how he thought he would get on in the New Zealand championships Haege said he did not think his prospects were very bright.. There were cmite a number of good players in New Zealand and he had not had much practice of late, as he had been studying hard for his university examinations. Haege is a student at Melbourne University, and at the inter-university tennis tournament in Australia this year he played with McInnes, the Davis Cup player. Victoria won the tournament, defeating Sydney University signally. Another success that Haege secured this vear was the winning of the under 21 championship at the Melbourne championship meeting last March. He has won the Victorian schoolboys' championship twice, and also numerous handicap events.

Haege first learned to play tennis iu Switzerland. This is not his first visit to New Zealand. He was here two years ago, find on that occasion was entered for the New Zealand championships, played at Christchurch, but did not take part S3 ho arrived later than ho had at first expected. Tennis is making a lot of progress in Australia, Haege said. It was tremendously popular in Melbourne and Sydney. A feature of the game in Sydney was the nnmber of night tennis courts, where play was kept up till a late hour.

NEW ZEALAND PLAYERS.

COMMENT ON PROSPECTS. [BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] CHRISTCHURCH. Wednesday. The Misses Macfarlanc are practising assiduously at the United courts, where their volleying and smashing are more vigorous than that of the Canterbury ladies. „ G. Ollivier is not at his best, an " )i .• L. Bartleet is looked on as a "snag m his way. Seay has a very favourable draw in the lower half, and looks like finalist.