TEACHING TENNIS.

Observer, Volume XL, Issue 8, 25 October 1919, Page 14

TEACHING TENNIS.

WE in New Zealand go a lot on sport; mostly football. Tennis we like; but don't go in for extra much, so this, written by an Englishman, may be of interest:—

"The best way to teach tennis is to have a blank wall with asphalte, and to play a sort of squash fives. Then you can teach strokes and balance of body, and the primitive idea that it is necessary to hit a ball underneath in order to send it into the air may be disposed of at the earliest moment. Just as you must have really good practice pitches for cricket if you are going to teach bowling and batting, so you must have a good court to teach tennis on. If there is not a good pitch, boys will not learn to bowl. They will simply bang the ball down, and trust to the ground to do the rest. The young bowler gets knocked about, and is no good. Similarly at tennis you cannot hope to teach the game where the ball may go squirming on big plantains. I know many a man who mourns that he only learned cricket. He would have been good enough for first-class cricket if he had had the time. He has never had it, but he has time for tennis. Having been good at one game he realises his infirmities at the other. He appreciates what he could have done if he had had the chance. He may be a Triton amongst his. club minnows because of his natural aptitude for games, but he knows he is really no real class. And if he would improve, where would he go? There are no professionals to teach him. A man may take fees for handicapping and refereeing, but he may not teach the game on covered courts. Many a man would give a decent fee if he could be trained decently. But he cannot find the teacher or the court." * « » The Australian Tennis Players. Pluck of the sort that won undying fame for the Anzae forces on Flanders fields, was displayed in the singles championship of the United States on the courts on the West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills, writes "N.T.," when Gerald Patter.son, who was a captain in the artillery during the war. once more made' a thrilling finish and held his place among the sixteen who survive the original 128 who started m the thirty-eighth renewal of the blue ribbon racquet event of America. Watson Washburn, who also played the big game on the other side, had a battle royal with the Antipodean, and it took the limit of five sets before the issue was decided, The score Nvas 7-5, 1-8, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1. All but two of the other matches were won in straight sets and all the favourites were winners. Ine r"at-terson-Washburn match completely overshadowed all of the other doings of the day,although there was a medley of tennis such as has never been «een in championship week in this country before. The seven ages of man, " almost, were represented. Championship matches for boys, juniors and veterans in singles and doubles for father and son combinations were staged in all corners ot the grassy arena. The biggest crowd of the week, about 7,WK), vatched the contests. * • • The fact that the veteran Alexander had forced Patterson, champion of England, to-five sets in the sec-

ond. round led many to believe that Washburn.would take his measure. The American began well enough by winning the opening game on his ■service, and the pair alternated for four games, until Patterson broke through on the fifth game because of some magic placing by the Australian. Washburn came right back and evened the score in the next game. Then they zigzagged in the lead up to the tenth. Washburn had a great chance to win this, and the set when he was within a point of it, but Patterson kidded a high bounder which also killed the Yankee's chances. Patterson broke down Washburn's service in the eleventh game, chiefly on Washburn's wildness, and won the twelfth and the set in the same way.