LAWN TENNIS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19800, 27 May 1926, Page 5

LAWN TENNIS.

By Smash.

Those who control the game in Christchurch are not necessarily more progressive than the members of the local association, but in the matter of the encouragement of the game during the winter months a leaf could well be taken out of Canterbury’s book. In past years the winter competition in Christchurch has been devoted chiefly to men's play, but this season the Match Committee lias decided to run a corilbined event, the teams to include four men and four women. Mr J. Longton, a member of the committee, has, however, evolved a scheme under which the players would be divided into first and second divisions, each subdivided into A and B grades. The first division would consist of the first 24 men and the first 12 women on the Canterbury ranking list. The players would be divided into six teams, as nearly as possible, of equal strength. Thus, the leading players would obtain the best practice, and more interesting matches would result. The first-grade matches would be clayed between June and July, on hard courts, and between December and January on grass courts. Referring to the B grade, Mr Longton said that it would take in 40 men and 40 women, and would draw on 10 clubs, each of which would enter a team of four men and four women. The 22 courts at Wilding Park would be fully occupied. This section would play off between August and September and February and March respectively. There is no reason why some such scheme should not be adopted in Dunedin, ns there are not a few players in this city who keep up the game during the winter months.

The quarterly meeting of the Council of the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association will be held to-morrow evening. The usual business is on the order paper (says “Huka” in the Evening Post), and it. is possible also that the report of the Now Zealand team’s tour in New South Wales may be open for discussion. So far nothing has been disclosed as to where the next New Zealand championship meeting is to be held, but Auckland may apply for the 1926 gathering, and, provided that the necessary appointments are in order on that association’s ground, will have little opposition to its application. Mesdames Austin and Parkinson defeated Misses Tracey and Macassey in the final o*f the Wellington Club’s championship doubles, and Miss Tracy won the final of the ladies’ chompionship singles from Mrs Parkinson, 6—3, 6—5. The fight for the championship singles was a very good one (says “Huka”), Miss Tracy holding command in the first set, her footwork, in particular, being most pleasing. In the second set the fight was a closer one, Mrs Parkinson becoming more accurate. The score was oven up to s—all, where Miss Tracy, with the service, took the odd game and set 6—5, for match. Championship sets should always be advantage, as otherwise it gives the server too great an advantage. Mrs Parkinson's play was of high merit, and would easily entitle her to a place in a Wellington’s representative team. M. J. G. Ritchie, who will be 56 in October, and C. P. Dixon, who became 53 a few weeks ago, played their fifty-second singles match against each other in the Magdalen Club. Wandsworth, open lawn tennis tournament early in April. Both veterans are ex-Davis Cup players, and have been competing in tournaments for over 30 years. Of tbeir previous 51 contests, Ritchie has won 27 times and Dixon 2v,

Last year New Zealand had a direct interest in (he Davis Oup competition owing to the fact that the Dominion had entered a team, and although our representatives were defeated in the first round there remained tha fortunes of the Australians to follow to the final round. This year there were 24 challenges for the cup, or one fewer than last year, and speaking in general terms it may be said that every important nation in the world has at some time or other participated in the competition —a striking evidence of the universality of the game. The chief interest in this year’s contest lies in the fact that the American supremacy, which has been clearcut and definite since she won the cup in Auckland in 1920, is likely to be seriously challenged by the young French players, Lacoste and Borotra, who within the last season or two have advanced to the very forefront of the game. As it is virtually a foregone conclusion that France will reach what is known as the challenge round, the preliminary matches this , year are rather lacking in interest. In the opening games in the European zone Holland had a narrow victory over Belgium by three matches to two. and Italv defeated Rumania and then Holland. The British Isles beat Poland without the loss of a match, and is now playing the tie with Italy, while South Africa has placed to its credit a victory over Portugal. France, weakened by the absence of Borotra owing tc a strained tendon, had a hard-fought match with Denmark, and has now beaten Czechoslovakia, which defeated India in the third round. The date for the final match of the European zone, which, on appearances, should be played between Britain and France, is July 27, and after that the sphere of interest will be transferred to the other side of the Atlantic. New Zealand’s prospects of again taking part in the Davis Cup matches are promising, according to Mr Murray Kean, who was manager of the Dominion team which recently visited New South Wales. In a statement to a Sydney paper Mr Kean expressed hopes that in another three rears the Dominion will be represented in the Davis Cup by a team that should extend the holders. He was pleased with the showing of the New Zealanders against thc best in New South Wales. Andrews’ display was excellent, but according to Mr Kean,"he is not the most promising player in the Dominion. In Malfroy. a 10-year-old schoolboy, he thinks that New Zealand has a coming world's champion. Resides, Mr Kean stated that there were about 10 juniors of Wilson’s standard in the Dominion. Wilson was beaten by H. Hopman in the semi-final of the State junior championships, but, nevertheless, made a favourable impression in Sydney. In referring to the probable American team, American Lawn Tennis states that there is every reason to s”ppose that it will he the same as 1925—Tildcn, Johnston, Williams, and Richards. All except Richards are men in the early thirties, and therefore considerably older than their probable French opponents. They are due, many think, for their period of decline and fall. On all sides have been heard queries as, to whether this one or the other is “slipping.” It is the answer to these questions that most of us are interested in, and if we can get the right line on the matter we shall have an indication of the outcome of the present year’s contest for the most famous trophy in the lawn tennis world. One has merely to survey Johnston’s Davis Cup record to realise what a great tower of strength he is in the United States’ defence of the cup. He has won all except one of his singles matches, and has won them by margins largo and absolutely convincing. Last year lie heat Lacoste in four sets ami Borotra in three. His game presents far greater difficulties to players in other countries than Hint of Tilden. His play against them bristles with confidence, and be hits hard with absolute certainty. There is no reason whatever to assume that Johnston this year will not play the fame superb game in the 1920 challenge tie ns in the previous ones. The "slipping” of Tilden has often been predicted during the past six years Some day he will either stop or begin to decline. There is no indication that that day has come. The supreme expression of the genius of the champion is his ability to roach the highest altitudes in his game when the need is greatest. That ability still exists. No one who saw him beat Borotra last month in a whirlwind finish is likely to lose sleep over his decadence. The doubles match in the cun contest retains its outstanding importance. With two such teams ns Williams and Richards and Tilden and Johnston to call up on the United States are not likely to worry overmuch about that point. They have in Richards, a reserve player who has beaten both Lacoste and Borotra within a year. He has youth and a genius for the game, and it has been shown that he is strengthening the departments tlrt need it. There is no need to call attention to the great strength potentially and otherwise, o, France. Lacoste and Borotra are undeniably in the front rank, and arc quite capable of breaking e*en with the United States in the singles. Lacoste appears to lie the more dependable, while Borotra has greater and more inspired moments. Tennis is a game in which the unexpected always looms large, and United States jind France aro so rlosely matched that* the issue might well hinge on the doubles rubber. as it has so many times in the history ef the enp. There the advantage is with ie United States.