LAWN TENNIS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19196, 12 June 1924, Page 4

LAWN TENNIS.

By Smash.

At the lost quarterly meeting of tho New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association the cuestion of allotting the throe centres at which the New Zealand championships will be held in future was deferred. It was, however. decided that the next championship should bo allotted to Auckland where it will lie held during the Christmas holidays. Whether or not the next championship tournament will be hold in Dunedin will depend very largely on the arrangements which the local association is able to make with the directors of the Exhibition, but local enthusiasts can rest assured that the matter will not be lost sight of as Dunedin has just claims for consideration on several grounds. Nevertheless the, time must inevitably come when a permanent centre will have to bo found for the New Zealand championships, and as has been previously pointed out in this column Wellington forms the natural location for a New Zealand Wimbledon, and when the Miramar scheme is completed it will be able to afford ample accommodation. The advantages of having a fixed location for the annual tournament are obvious—both from the point of view of the association and the players—and the sooner the council makes up its mind on the matter the sooner will New Zealand’s Wimbledon begin to gather around it associations and traditions which will add a glamour to the game in this country and be an inspiration to tho players of coming generations. Tho Davis Cup matches in the European 7,o ne are now in full swing and the most gratifying feature that has so far emerged is the fine showing which the British team is making. During the last year or two the Old Country (in which tho game virtually took its rise) has been regarded as rather a “back number,” but the defeat which Britain last week inflicted upon Spain will cause that idea to tie revised. The British players, too, it has to he noted, won clearly on their merits. M. Alonzo, despite his recent first-class practice in America, was extended to five sets by J. B. Gilbert and to four sets by J. D. Wheatley, while those two players both won their singles games against J. Alonzo and E. Flaquer. The greatest surprise, however, was the victory of Godfreo and Woosnam over Alonzo and Flaquer in the doubles. Ho far France has only defeat eel the weak Irish team, which made its debut in the conflict, but last year she was the dominant nation in Europe, and may again )>o expected to reach the final in that zone. On present appearances the British team — now in the third round—should have an excellent chance of meeting France in tho final. The (wo zone winners will meet in the final round at Boston on September 4,5, and 6, and the winner will meet America, the holders, at Philadelphia on September 11, 12, and 13. A cable message, which appeared on Tuesday, outlined the process by which Patterson hopes to got hLs team in form for the momentous match against China, -that is, if our former Allies decide to send a team to America. Tho showing of the Australians against the Californians last week was not impressive, but the result of these matches does not represent their true form, and Patterson and O’Hara Wood will yet have to be seriously, reckoned with bv the Americans in the National Doubles at Lougwood. and also—it is more than likely—in the challenge round of the Davis Oup. What is known as the “player-writer controversy” in America is over. The outcome of the discussion is officially described a s a ‘‘compromise,” but..Tilden claims a victory, and most likely Tilden is right, folic has been asked to join the United States Davis Cup team. The terms of the agreement’ have not yet been disclosed, but evidently the authorities have decided to modify their definition of an amateur, which was the cause of tho trouble, and which threatened to produce wholesale defections from tho official ranks of the game in America. Writing under obvious restraint in a recent number of American Lawn tennis, the champion expressed his own viewpoint in the following words, which at the same time convey a dignified reproof to the National Association :—“Lawn tennis players arc not raw material to weave into a certain pattern which pleases the taste of the National Association officials. They are individual, conscious, responsible, thinking men and women who are capable, and in some cases determined to shape their own decisions, even in sport, lime passes, and the game changes, advances and progresses. The ideals and ethics need not seriously alter in the fundamental idea of amateurism and clean sport, but the press of life, the growth of inte< - sectional competition, the demand of the public, for first-class tennis all over America, make necessary and sensible a relaxation of certain standards which grew up in 'the days when lawn tennis was a game of the idle rich.” B. I. C. Norton, in the course of a recent article, discusses the various strokes in lawn tennis, and names those players who in his opinion produce them most effectively. His conclusions areas follows: The service—(». L. Patterson 1, W T. Tilden 2, R. N. Williams 3; the forehand drive—J. 0. Anderson 1, W. T Tilden 2, W. M. Johnston 3; the backhand drive—\V. T. Tilden 1, P. O’Hara Wood 2, R. N. Williams 3; the volley—W. M. Johnston 1, V. ■ Richards 2, S. A. Doust 3; the smash—R. Lycett 1, G. L. Patterson 2, P. O’Hara Wood 3. After an absence of some years from (ho Riviera, Monsieur Daninos, the ediloi of lennis et, Golf, recently had occasion to revisit this “Province Anglaiso.” In an article entitled “The French Riviera” he remarks that after leaving Marseille he heard out one word of French spoken, and the atmosphere was so thoroughly un-French that he congratulated himself at having esca]ied the unpleasant preliminaries ol procuring a passport, for certain it was that he felt himself a stranger in a strange land. M. Daninos deplores the atmosphere of the Riviera, which is antagonistic to everything French. Like (he prohpets of old, the French on the Riviera are without honour, although among their own kin, for tho Riviera is still France despite its English atmosphere. The “comniercanls,” avaricious for the glittering sovereigns so freely spent by the visitors from across the Chanel, scorn the valueless francs of their own countrymen. M. Da-unos recounts having asked a lv telkeeper for special rates at his hotel on behalf of some excellent lawn tennis players from Paris who desired to participate in the coming tournaments, and quotes the following response: "They are not interesting. The French always find everything too dear! They do not drink. The sport itself interests me little, the client with two or three Hundred francs a day, Voila! That is what I’m after.” Far bo it from M. Daninos to resent thp English invasion on the Riviera. He does speak regretfully of the fact, however, that among tho players there appear but five or six French names, and he is justly indignant at the discrimination against tho French.