LAWN TENNIS.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 April 1927, Page 5

LAWN TENNIS.

THE GAME IN SOUTH AMERICA. Chatting with a lady who has just returned from South America, I learned that the craze for lawn tennis in that part of the world was becoming, if possible, keener than in those hectic two years after the war. Not only do the British residents make it a part of their open-air religion; but the better class coloured folk are also numbered among the zealots, says a London writer. Even the coloured driver of your motor or taxi talks volubly and well about the game, and he does it without any suggestion of cbtrusion. But the tact and efficiency of the coloured servant are qualities well known to travelled Englishmen. It may not bo generally known that for many years Sir Thomas Lipton has relied upon a faithful coloured servant, and that he sets more store upon him than any number of American Cups. THE BOUNDING BASQUE. This is what an American writer has to say about the intention of Jean Borotra, the French tennis star, to contest the American national tennis championships:—“Hardly had the tennis world recovered from the shock of seeing the outdoor tennis crown tilted at a rakish angle, after the fashion of a French beret, on the proud brain-con-tainer of Rene Lacoste, when the news came from abroad that a certain famous Bounding Basque would soon be here to continue where his countrymen left oil’. That certain person is Jean Borotra. He is called the Bounding Basque because it is good alliteration, and, besides, he does bound. The coming of Borotra does not increase the comfort of any young or old American citizen who enjoyed dreaming about, being burdened down by a fictitious sapphirestudded crown. Borotra has a good record for American competition during 1926 to look back upon with pride. Of course, looking back upon a past may not help him far in 1927, but it | serves to give a line on what can be expected in New York.”