WIND SPOILS TENNIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27569, 11 December 1950, Page 8

WIND SPOILS TENNIS

Professionals At Wellington PA WELLINGTON, Dec. 10. Two thousand people at Central Park yesterday sympathised with the visiting professional tennis players—Frank Parker. Pancho Gonzales, Dinny Pails and Don Budge—as they strove manfully, and often successfully, to master the lash of the worst wind any of the four has ever plaved in. Sixty-mile-an-hour gusts often made the ball bounce backwards or at right angles to the line of flight, and caused most perfectly-produced shots to be carried out of the court, the hardest hit lobs to fail to clear the net and the server’s throw-up to be blown yards wide Consequently, none of the players was able to settle down to show the peak form to which the New Zealand tour has brought him, and Gonzalzes's straight set Singles win over Pails was possibly not a true reflection of their merits. Budge found the efficiency of his game more upset than d'd Parker, and only in the second set showed the form which still enables him to beat Ted Schroeder. the American Davis Cud plaver. in practice. Parker, the least ruffled of the four, was again the genius of the Doubles match and preserved his record of having been on the losing Doubles side once on the tour. The detailed results were' Paikei heat Budae 6—2. I—6, 6—o; Gonzales beat Pails 6—3. 6—4; Parker and P.iils beat Budge and Gonzales 6—o, 6— i.