RANKING OF BROMWICH CRITICIZED

Southland Times, Issue 24144, 5 June 1940, Page 10

RANKING OF BROMWICH CRITICIZED

The ranking of John Bromwich as No. 1 tennis player in Australia for the 1939-40 season, with national champion Adrian Quist in second place, is justified on a comparison of performances, but it shows inconsistency on the part of the Ranking Committee when one realizes that last year Mrs Westacott, of Queensland, was ranked No. 1 among women players on one important success—winning the Australian title, writes Harry Hopman in The Herald, Melbourne. In the 1938-39 season, Mrs Westacott played in the Queensland championship, where her only serious opposition was Miss M. Hardcastle, and the Austarlian championship, when she played wonderfully to defeat Mrs Hopman in the final.

I think Bromwich has better performances, but, when making a ranking, I bracketed our two Davis Cup champions, believing that the Ranking Committee (Messrs C. R. Cowling, T. E. Robinson and W. H. Walker) would place much importance on Quist’s effort in winning the Australian title at Sydney in January. He then comfortably defeated Crawford in the final, after the Sydney veteran had accounted for Bromwich in the semi-final.

Whether the national champion should receive his or her country’s No. 1 ranking is a controversial point in most tennis countries. The United States gives No. 1 placing to its champion almost without fail. And that country wants more than one or two performances from its players before ranking them.

For example, Mrs Wills Moody won Wimbledon and a couple of smaller English tournaments both in 1935 and 1938, but she was not ranked in American lists, although placed No. 1 in the world lists of most critics. The Ranking Committee, however, has precedent for ranking the national champion below the No. 1 position. In the 1936-37 list Quist was ranked No. 1 on the strength of his Davis Cup and other overseas performances, although he lost to Bromwich in the national championship which was won by McGrath, who accounted for Bromwich in the final. McGrath that year was ranked No. 2.