DAVIS CUP CONTEST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19419, 30 August 1926, Page 9

DAVIS CUP CONTEST.

FRANCE WINS SEMI-FINAL. DEFEAT OF THE JAPANESE. DOUBLES MATCH DECIDES. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received 5.6 p.m.) A. and N.Z.-Eeuter. LONDON. Aug. 28. In the semi-finals of the Davis Cup contest, France v. Japan, honours were even in the singles, each team winning two. Th© doubles proved the deciding factor, and being won by France gave that team the rubber. The doubles were played yesterday, when Cochefc and Brugnon (France) defeated Tawara and Harada, 6—o, 6—o, 6—2. The match was literally a fiasco, the Japanese being overwhelmed from the very first shot. Play lasted less than 45 minutes. The Japanese showed complete inexperience of doubles play, whereas the Frenchmen, playing directly upon the net every moment, killed or angled every ball out of reach. The Japanese stood bewildered as the Frenchmen went through with their rapid fire play.-Tawara and Harada were compelled to lob defensively, and these were returned too rapidly for them to touch with the racquet. The Japanese made few earned points, gaining only from the Frenchmen's errors. Brugnon was th© central figure in the French attack. His overhead kills were sensational. Tho Japanese struggled ineffectively against a shower of cross-court drives and lightning volleys. It was one of the shortest matches on record. ' * Lacoste Defeats Tawara. In the final singles matches to-day Lacoste defeated Tawara, 6—l, 6 —3. j—2, and Harada defeated Cochet, 6—l, 6—3, 0-6, 6-4. The match betwoen Lacoste and Tawara was for the greater part uninteresting, being nearly exclusively a back court contest, in which the Frenchman was so much more steady than his opponent that he was able to run out the sets in quick succession without at any time being in danger. Tawara broke through Lacoste's service twice in the second set and once in the third, during the Frenchman's brief spells of patchinesss, but at. no time was the Japanese in tournament form." His shots found the net or went out with monotonous; repetition.

Lacoste kept the Japanese on the run by going to the net at intervals to finish off rallies with sharp-angled volleys. Tawara made a plucky effort in tha second set, but Lacoste made a target of his backhand, forcing him into repeated errors,.

In the final set Tawara drove brilliantly to the corners, but Lacoste took the set and the match on the superior force of his low-bounding drives. Gochet Beaton by Harada.

In the match between Harada and Cochet during the last two sets the Frenchman! played the sort of tennis which had marked his match on Thursday. Otherwise his judgment of distance was very bad and his backhand was weak. This enabled tho Japanese to hammer it continuously.

Harada gave a remarkable display of accuracy in the fourth set, when he won the first five games without making a single error. Cochet then recovered to win the next four, but tho Japanese was not to be denied. Harada drove with power and accuracy Securing his place at the net he kept Cochet most of the time jumping to the corneis. Cochet could not keep up the pace. '