DAZZLING EXPOSITION BY BOROTRA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19374, 24 December 1932, Page 16

DAZZLING EXPOSITION BY BOROTRA

COVERED COURT CHAMPIONSHIPS AT QUEEN’S CLUB

There was a great gathering at Queen’s Club to see Borotra play his final against H. G. N. Lee in the 1932 covered court championships. Every seat was taken, there was no more standing room, and onlookers in every conceivable uncomfortable attitude occupied the spare floor space. They were there to see Borotra, a Borotra restored to his former pre-eminence on wood, holder of the title for the fourth consecutive year, and they hoped that Lee. the great baseline driver, would fight well enough to extract the best from. Borotra; more, perhaps they did not aspire to. The spectators did not see the be'-t Lee; his shots generally lacked fire, they also lacked precision, and he was much given to error on his backhand, falling away as he made the stroke. One cannot say that Borotra did not allow him to play any better; the Frenchman did not interfere with Lee’s service, nor should there have been much difficulty in making a satisfactory reply to Borotra’s second service. Yet Lee could do little that came up to his own high standard. If Lee disappointed. Borotra did not. The match, as a match, lacked int-erest because it was too one-sided; it was all Borotra.

The Basque gave such an exposition as satisfied and dazzled the onlookers, wrote E. J. Sampson in the “Manchester Guardian.” Those who came to applaud the Borotra at the net were marvelling at the Borotra from the back of the court. Such admirable control, such beautiful angles, such ability to take immediate advantage of an opening. Then in the second set Borotra volleyed more, and it was the same tale of magnificence, the low volleys incisive and angled as they should be, the smashes truly electrifying.

Borotra was killing his lobs with a ferocious energy. Time after time he would fall back with the ball, and just when one thought he was beaten he would spring high into the air, bend that athletic body, and kill with dramatic fierceness. Never did he subordinate pace to direction; nearly always he was happy in their just coordination. After Borotra most other players appear slow, because one carries a mental picture of his rush for the net, his darting this way and that, his ability to check suddenly and, while running one way, hit the ball as it comes the other, a trick that H. L. Doherty also possessed. So long as he maintains this form France has not yet lost the Davis Cup.