STATUS IN TENNIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23320, 13 April 1939, Page 20

STATUS IN TENNIS

AMATEUR SPORT DEFENDED TILDEN'S REMARKS CRITICISED W. T. Tilden thinks that amateur lawn tennis is dead, and that the whole game will bo dead in five years unless the amateurs and professionals get together. He mado this rather violent pronouncement to a Fleet Street audience a few days ago. At first sicht, writes an English critic, this looks like sour grapes, sinco professional exhibitions have never really been successful in this country, and Tilden was speaking chiefly of a big £ISOO tournament which ho, Cochct, Nusslein, Maskell and others are staging at Olympia. But there never was a player with a greater lovo of tho game for its own sake than Tilden, and his remarks may be accepted as an expression' of genuine concern. Whon Tilden says that tho amateur game is dead, ho must be thinking of tho class of the men at the top now that Budge has joined tho professionals—if not, ho can know nothing of the strength and life of the clubs in this country, and has ignored the fact that this year's Wimbledon bookings aro again over-subscribed. If things go on as they are, it is the modern professional game of the examateurs that is likely tot die first. They must depend all tho time on' the Wimbledon champion, and an outstanding champion at that, for the infusion of new blood, and even in a vast country like America the day seems bound to come when the public will enough. Tilden is on much firmer ground in advocating the "open" tournament, and there are whispers that many of the diehards in the councils are being won over to his view. He would like to see a new tournament at Wimbledon or elsewhere on the lines of the British open golf championship.