DECLINE OF TILDEN

Taranaki Daily News, 14 January 1935, Page 12

DECLINE OF TILDEN

Views Of Professional Lawn Tennis Tourney The professional lawn tennis tournament at the Wembley" Stadium recently did not show anything startling, in the opinion of one of the leading lawn tennis critics in England. W. T. Tilden was no longer the former force, this being brought home when one was able to comoare the retrieving of the veteran with that of H. E. Vines or Hans Nusslein. The fact that Tilden is a worse volleyer than formerly was also obvious, but his campaigns for long have been conducted from the baseline. It is on the backhand that the Tilden of to-day compares poorly with the one of yesterday. Gone is that full-blooded hit, so often taken on the run. the wonderful stroke which was so largely responsible in 1928 for his run of 16 games on end against D. M. Greig, then second only to E. Higgs in England. In its place is quite a good backhand, usually sliced and taken with more arm than body move*ment, but not a great one. Tilden was too eminent a player to die quickly, his decay is gradual, and still his magnetism remains, still he steals the eye. Vines, who won the tournament, is just about where he was when he won at Wimbledon in 1932. He is bigger and heavier, has a great service, a tremendous drive, a delicate drop shot; and devastating smash, but he also has an uncertain backhand and is likely to break down over simple returns. The slow cross backhand return at an acute angle he found difficult to volley, the shot with which J. B. Crawford beat him in 1933. Nusslein is a wonderful retriever, covering the ground in a swift series of tiny steps. He has most of the strokes and heartbreaking regularity, but not the real severity, and against the great forcing game he gives second best. Thus Vines beat him in this tournament and G. Von Cramm. the German and French champion, beat him recently at the Rotweiss Club by three sets to one.

Percy Clifford, a British golfer resident in Mexico City, who had held the Mexican open golf championship for the past five years, lost his title recently to Gus Moreland, the American Walker Cup player, who won by one up in the 36-hole final. ■Jr vr The matches between the New Zealand University lawn tennis team and New South Wales in Sydney, according to the Sydney “Sun,” drew “only a mere handful of spectators.”