TENNIS

Southland Times, Issue 20002, 16 October 1926, Page 18 (Supplement)

TENNIS

(By

“Chop.”)

Practically all the clubs have now held their annual meetings. Last Saturday Riverton and Gladstone opened and on Wednesday Gore. It has been decided to commence both the A and B grade competitions on Saturday, October 30. The probability that the Invercargill Club will enter two evenly-matched teams in the senior competition should make the matches interesting. Winton will have its usual strong team and the other town clubs have plenty of promising material. Southland's senior players are nearly all strong in stroking but weak in courtcraft. There is rather too much force and not enough science about the game of some of the leading players. Another deficiency is length. Pace is not v.ery effective unless the ball lands near the back lint*. The revival of the Christmas tournament should do a lot of good to local tennis, especially if some northern visitors elect to participate. Some years ago many "f Dunedin’s leading players used to play in the tournament and they not only added interest to the competition but provided the local exponents with a variety of play. The North Otago Association, in its annual report, expresses the hone that a representative match with Southland will be arranged this season. Two years ago Southland approached North Otago with the suggestion that a match be played at Dunedin. The northern body had reluctantly to decline the match that year as it had already played Otago and Sqilth Canterbury twice and Canterbury once and its [’layers could not obtain the necessary leave to make another trip. The writer knows that it was with, the deepest regret that North Otago did not accede Io the request, and that the Oamaru players are most anxious to try conclusions with Southland this season. It is highly diverting to read all that is at present being written on the subject of profession-alism at tennis. Some writers applaud the good sense of the stars who have “gone over”; others admire their honesty in refusing to accept clandestine remuneration; others again bewail the changing times and are pessimistic concerning the gate receipts. It seems inevitable that tennis should have professionals just as have golf, cricket, football and running. A professional class of lawn tennis players should do the game good rather than harm and in future there will be open tournaments in which amateurs and professionals will compete just as they do in golf. Any drastic change in the world is the signal for a great outer}’. Farmers in England worked themselves into little short of a frenzy when the railway engine first appeared. The man who drove the first motor car in the streets of Chicago was arrested either as a maniac or a disturber of the peace—l forget which. There will continue to be a wail from all parts of the world about famous tennis players turning professional until the new status is taken as a matter of course and professional contests will draw bigger crowds than the meetings of amateurs. Judging from the receipts at the first professional clash the shrewd Yankee promoter will not starve. There’s something in having a name like Pyle. “Lacoste,” says Vincent Richards, “actually keeps a card catalogue of all the players of the world, and after he meets them he notes in his catalogue their weaknesses and their strength. Each time he plays with a champion he adds to these notes, and he studies these records constantly in order that he may plan his own game in such a way as to defeat each of those with whom he plays. He has me down in his little book and I smiled ruefullv when he showed me the entry. It takes only one sentence to size me up and finish me off: ‘One must drive deep to Richard’s backhand and come to the net? for a volley.’ That is all there is to it; almost anyone can do it.” A new tennis star is rising in the west

' coast of the United States, a successor to [ McLoughlin and W. M. Johnston. This is I Edward Chandler, who has recently beaten I all the champions, even including Johnston. He is the inter-collegiate champion, having won that title last year and is almost certain ;to retain it this year. Cranston Holman is close on Chandler’s heels. VINCENT RICHARDS.

The most recent entrant into the professional class is Vincent Richards, the third ranking player of the United States. He is described as “perhaps the greatest natural genius that lawn tennis has yet seen.” Though he has been for at least six years in the very top flight of the world, he is still only 23 years of age. He was doubles champion of the United States (with Tilden) at 15. He was then but a stripling of 5 feet 5 inches, weighing seven stone; he now stands 5 feet 10 inches and turns the scale at over nine stone. “He suffers,” said Tilden, “from laziness of temperament.” But more hampering still was his lack of really offensive ground strokes. Despite the constant and emphatic advice of Tilden, his original mentor, he still continued to make the chop stroke the staple of his back-court game. At 19 he was the third best player in the world, with victories over Tilden. Richards has for some years been the greatest menace to Tilden, because of his sense of anticipation and the fact that he handles Tilden’s service with greater ease than any other player. The result is that Tilden has to fight unusually hard for his service games, which entails a loss of confidence.

The sheer artistry of Richard’s play has been described as without equal. His volleys, it is stated, flow with the liquid smoothness of running water from his racquet, controlled by a wonderful touch. “His volleying,” according to a critic, “is a model of good form. He gets round to the side of the ball instead of facing square to the net, knees bent, and his left arm well out from the side for balance. Most fascinating and spectacular of all is his faculty of reaching a dipping drive that has apparently passed him, and flkking it from behind his back with incredible accuracy of touch right on to the opposite side line near the net. He makes the half volley, the most difficult of all shots, look the very simplest. Like all his shots, save only that flat racquet forehand drive, his volleys are sliced, which makes them the more difficult to retrieve. Overhead he smashes with tremendous speed for so slightly built a player. His speciality, however, is not the orthodox smash, but a leaping smash off the ground—he will let a deep lob bounce, and then leaping in the air clout the ball, right to the opposite base line. So deep and rocket-like is its flight that it is unreturnable. His first service is a very fast slice, and its superb placing wins many aces or compels a weak return, but his second hitherto has been neither fast nor with difficult break. His ground shots he takes on the rise, and thus gains a volleying position before his opponent can make the return. To take even the fiercest service he stands, unlike Tilden, on or just inside the base line.