HARD AND LAWN COURTS

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1934, Page 10

HARD AND LAWN COURTS

INTER-CLUB EVENT OPENS SOUTH TARANAKI COMPETITION. F. J. PERRY AND MISS D. ROUND.

, (By

“Half-Volley.")

The inter-club competition in South Taranaki will be started on Saturday, and with better luck than was experienced last year it should give a definite impetus to the season. Last year, bad weather and other circumstances combined to reduce the inter-club competition to a farce, and it is to be hoped that this year better success will attend the efforts to broaden the influence of the game. The draw has already been published. . . Meanwhile the Egmont cup competition continues to show its worth and some good tennis has been seen. A Informal Tournament. Members of the Hawer,a club took part in an informal, but none the less interesting tournament on Saturday and there was some good tennis. If the idea could be extended to ' every Saturday when inter-club competitions were not played the benefit to members would be unmeasurable; Coacliing Activities. • Activities at New Plymouth have been centralised on the coach Mr. Fabling, who finished his first series of lessons at New Plymouth yesterday and. is at Stratford to-day. Coaching arrangements at New Plymouth have in the main gone off very successfully and players are now earnestly attempting to adapt themselves to the rules laid down by the coach. Mr. Fabling will be at Eltham on November 17 and will be stationed at Hawera from November 19 to November 24. Ladder Matches. Final arrangements in connection with club ladder matches are in most cases now completed and several challenges have been issued. At Waiwaka the B grade ladder was inaugurated during the week when A. Griffiths successfully withstood a challenge from S. G. Dinniss for second position. Griffiths took the game 9—l, after a long series of deuce games. Free Coaching Scheme. The Linwood club, Christchurch, has adopted a free coaching scheme for beginners. G.- Ollivier, a well-known , coach, has been engaged by the club to coach new members and learners for an hour each Saturday afternoon for four weeks commencing on November 17. He will also take part in games and give advice to more experienced players.

The World’s Leading Player. F. J.- Perry is the leading player in the world at the present' time, writes “Sideline” in the New Zealand Herald. In 1933 he. reserved his best tennis for Forest Hills where he was the first Englishman to win’ the American title for 30 -years. The season just past has seen him do even better, as, in addition to a successful defence of his American title, he won back for England the Wimbledon singles championship which had been held by overseas and foreign invaders since 1909, when A. W. Gore won. Behind Perry are several years of varying fortunes. In 1932 he played five five-set matches and lost all of them. During the first half of 1933 his play was disappointing, but then fortune smiled and he ended the season with a run of successes. No player in 1933 equalled his Davis Cup wins from July on. He did not lose either of his two matches with Australia, and against United States and France he won all four of his singles encounters. These victories he followed up by annexing, the United States, the Australian and the Victorian championships. To-day he occupies the top position in the tennis world with almost as great a margin in his favour as Tilden had in his best years. Miss Dorothy Round.

Spoken of a few years ago as a girl with promise, Miss Dorothy Round today holds No. 1 position on the world’s women's ladder. Her exhibitions in the Dominion have excited the admiration of all tennis enthusiasts who were fortunate in seeing her in action. She firstcame into prominence in 1929 when she won the Midland counties championship. Wallis Myers ranked her as third woman in the world in 1933, when her best performance was against Mrs. WillsMoody, from whom she took a set in the final at Wimbledon. This season after a keen struggle she defeated by 6—2, 5—7, 6—3, Miss Helen Jacobs, who previously in straight sets beat Miss Hartigan. Photographs of her in action show that she can smash like a man with both feet off the ground, and her play at Wimbledon has merited the following appreciation: • “For sheer beauty of stroke, 'whether ground stroke, serve, or volley, Miss Round is to-day perhaps unequalled. She was faced by one of the most gallant-hearted players in the game whose forehand punch, founded on nimble foot-work, never gives her opponent any rest. Fortunately for herself Miss Round had no weak-, ness, and her own powerful game brought victory.” Again: ‘ Meantime Miss Dorothy Round was swinging her long classic drives at the backhand of Switzerland’s No. 1 player, who did not thrive under the bombardment. Miss Round sped about the court with the speed of a boy, and her retrieving powers took the edge off the other’s game.” It is said that Miss Round never defends—she is always attacking, and because of her admirably produced shots, and her undoubted mastery of the game, she alone would be worth coming to see.