NEW ERA IN LAWN TENNIS

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1933, Page 3

NEW ERA IN LAWN TENNIS

TREND TOWARDS PROFESSIONALISM (By H. W. “Bunny” Austin.-—Copyright) > For the man Who would become a lawn tennis champion there is an almost never ending round of the game to play. As he climbs the steep ladder tor..-success he must put most other interests' and diversions aside. He must spend a great deal of time practising. He must go to France to become used to the French way of playing, and to America to learn to take the fierce cannon-ball American services. Nor during the winter must he let his game entirely drop. He must play once or twice a week to keep his eye trained and his muscles strong.

I am naturally speaking now of the star lawn tennis player, not the average player who can pick his own time to play and for whom the game still remains a recreation,' but the star lawn tennis player who is chosen for championships. and matches, and, although nominally a free man, is dictated to in a large degree by governing bodies. Naturally there are thousands, who wish to excel at the game they love. But before they start on the hard road of work, and self-denial to achieve their ambition, let them ask themselves what they really wish their future to be and if they think the game is worth the candle.

For, in my opinion, there is too much first-class lawn tennis to-day, and it is almost impossible for the man who is anxious to become a champion to carry on satisfactorily a business career at the same time as he is playing, or to pursue successfully any lucrative pursuit that he may wish to follow. And if he does not work at the same time as he is playing, if he does not build up some position for himself which will support him when his tennis playing days are over, what will become of him? There is only one choice, and that is to become a lawn tennis coach. Who is there that envies the man who, after being cheered by crowds, boomed in the Press, and made almost into a national hero, must needs pat the ball gently over the net for the rest of his life to impossible players in order to earn his daily bread and butter?

In England we have not had a champion for many years, and I believe the reason is, more than any other, that players in the last decade have not been willing to sacrifice their future for the sake of winning championships. There is for an amateur game too much and too keen competition. When every nation in the world plays the game, and. is keen to win the international competition—the Davis Cup—and when every player of every nation is keen to win the great championships no man can become a real champion, a champion of champions, unless he has money of his own, is willing to sacrifice his future, or is paid for playing the game. That is why I believe that lawn tennis stands at the threshold of a new era. We will not return to the conditions of the old days when there were few tournaments and few matches, because I believe that lawn tennis, owing to its appeal to the public, not only as a game to play but as a spectacle to watch,‘is growing rather than decreasing in popularity, and will entice even greater numbers into the ranks of players, and even greater crowds to watch them play. Therefore I believe we will advance to the stage to which the game of golf has already advanced, that is to say that amateurs and professionals will be able to compete in open competition. Already there has been a great removal of players from the ranks of 'amateurs to the ranks of professionals, especial!}' in America. Names such as Tilden, Vincent Richards, Hunter and Suzanne Lenglen were once amateur names which would, in days gone ’ by. have drawn huge crowds to watch them play. To-day they are professional names and do, 1 believe, still draw large crowds to watch their play. Surely that is the first step. Surely if more players join the professional ranks the day will not be far off when they will break down tradition, burst asunder the closed ranks of the amateurs and compete with thorn in those tournaments which have been, since the inception of th? game, reserved for amateurs alone.