1938-08-05 — Page 20

THE CHINA MAIL, AUGUST 1988.

LAWN TENNIS DISCUSSED

A New Champion Of Germany

CRAWFORD HIMSELF

AGAIN

(By F. R. BURROW)

LONDON, JULY 28.

THOUGH SO FAR AS WE

THE ECHOES OF WIMBLEDON HAVING ALREADY AL- MOST DIED AWAY, INTEREST

*J. H. CRAWFORD

ARE CONCERNED IT IS ONLY A VICARIOUS INTEREST-Yugo-Slavians will have to visit RETURNS TO THE DAVIS CUP.

PASSED IN SKILL

in the

game..

drastic an alteration in the conditions under which the Cup has been played for ever since its inception" ́ ́ hardly scoms in accordance with the spirit... which Sir Samuel Hoare inculcated at the LT.A.'s annual meeting - last December..

FAR RICHER

It is not as if we could not afford the expense. Our LT.A. is far richer than any other national" association, and can perfectly well shoulder the **k burden, even if part of the expenses were drawn from reserve rather than from income; In any event there is no compulsion on any country to enter for the Davis Cup. If a country 'feels' that it can only afford to enter once every two years, nothing is more simple for it than to make the com- Ber-petition, so far as it is concerned, & biennial event, or even to compete at still rarer intervals. But that is no reason why nations which wish to com-

pete every year, should..not have the opportunity for doing so, even if their chances of any degree of success are infinitesimal.

lin. In either case I think they have But an odds-on chance of success. This week-end the two semi-, try ever to win a Davis Cup match, like cricket, lawn tennis is a funny final matches in the European against France thirty-four years ago,|

in the same year that her two re-

NO BIENNIAL DAVIS CUP zone-France v. Germany and presentatives, Paul de Borman and R. Yugo-Slavia v. Belgium are Lemaire, reached the "last eight" (and

The proposition that the Davis Cup It was inevitable that the U.S.A., taking place. The latter tie, in- de Borman the semi-final) deed, will be finished by the time championship on the old ground at competition should be held only in where the Cup originated, should be Wimbledon the first continental play- alternate years was decisively turned indignant at the idea that any change down at a meeting of the Davis Cup should be made; and they were assured these lines are read, and, short ers to attain that honour.

nations held in London during the of plenty of support by European and of miracles (and miracles in lawn

The proposal other countries to whom the Wimbledon fortnight.

Davis the tennis are remarkably few) the

was supported by practically

Cup contest is one of the chief events Yugo-Slavian team will be in the

whole of the British Empiremem-of-their year, even if only because final, with a fair chance of beat- But Belgium, as Europe woke up to bers-Great Britain, Australia, South matches in it provide a welcome re

by Ger- plensihment of their exchequers. And ing France or Germany, and so the delights of the game, was soon Africa, and Canada-and

passed in. skill by other continental many: the chief countries opposed to in spite of Great Britain's vote on the be very earning the right, for the first countries, and though they have had it were the U.S.A., France, Japan, present occasion, I should

Poland. These five much surprised to find the name of time, of crossing the Atlantic to good players since the early days Belgium, and

not been gathered nine of the smaller countries this country missing from the list of tackle the vinners of the Ameri-notably J. Washer-have able to reach any very

the prominent to support them and defeated the al-challengers for

"International can zone, probably Australia, pos-position in European tennis. The iteration of the conditions by 14 votes Championship" of 1989! sibly Japan.

sue of the Franco-German tie is much to 7. A two-to-one majority ought to With such players as Puncec, Pal- more open, and may very well de-settle this question for some years to GERMANY'S CHAMPIONSHIPS lada, Kukuljevic, and Mitic from pend on the result of the doubles, a) come. whom to construct their team the dress-rehearsal of which (presumab- It is hard to see why this country Fru Sperling continued the run of Yugo-Slavs should find little difficulty ly) was staged in the German cham-should have supported the change at successes in the women's singles cham- in beating Belgium, even though the pionships at Hamburg a week ago, all: but this is not the first occasion pionship of Germany, which she has

vote match is being played in Brussels. when H. Henkel and G. von Metaxa in recent years when the

of enioved ever since, as Fraulein Krah- One could wish a better fortune for defeated Y. Petra and J. Lesueur in Great Britain has been cast in favour winkei, she first won it in 1988. Miss Belgium, a country which was play- the final of the doubles. If France of lost causes. In any case, to seize M. E. Lumb, who played remarkably ing in the Davis Cup nearly twenty wins, the final of the European zone the moment when, after four years well to reach the final. found the years before there even was such a (presuming Yugo-Slavia to be the tenure of the Cup, we have lost it and stone-wall of Fru Sperling's defence country as Yugo-Slavia, and was, other winner), will be ployed at see very little chance. of regaining it quite unassailable, though she used moreover, the first continental coun-Zagreb; if Germany is victorious the for some time to come, to suggest so every device to break it down; and her armoury of strokes is now fairly.com- plete. But Fru Sperling was in her most intransigent mood: and, when she has found one of those days when she can return 99 per cent, of the shots that come to her instead of only ninety, there is nothing to be done except ad- mit defeat...

Kine Exakta

AND

TELE-PHOTO LENSES

The Australian women's team form- ed the doubles, Miss Coyne and Miss Wynne adding another to the list of successes they have gained on their tour by defeating Mrs. Hopman and Miss-Stevenson in the final. The men's doubles, as mentioned previously, went to the home pair, Henkel and von Metaxa; but the surprise of the whole meeting was the victory of 0. Szigeti, of Hungary, in the men's singles, which had quite a good inter- national entry. He beat the young Frenchman, Destreman, in the final after a good fight. It is not often that a man who is beaten--and by an Englishman-in the first round of the singles at Wimbledon goes on to win a big continental championship a fortnight later. Szigeti, ideed, was twice beaten by Englishmen in singles at Wimbledon-by G. R. B. Meredith in the championship and by D. W. Butler in the final of the All-England Plate. Neither of these players was COM- peting at Hamburg.

CRAWFORD REDIVIVUS

It always seems odd to be reading about Test cricket in Australia in the middle of our winter but perhaps even more difficult to realise that when we are trying to enjoy our alleged sum- mer. It is winter on the other side of the world. This has been brought home to us by the news that JH. Crawford has just won the Hard Court Championship of Australia-the first hard court championship ever to be stagged in that country. He defeated V. B. McGrath in the final; so it is fairly evident that the rest which he so badly needed after more than threa years practically continuous tennis has done him a lot of good, LATIN Everybody will be glad of this, for few players of any nation have given as much pleasure to Wimbledon gall- eries as this great Australian, though latterly his game seemed to luck the quality which he showed in dispos sessing Vines of his title at Wimbledon in 1938, thereby, getting his revenge for a beating by the American in the previous year. It may be hoped that we shall see him again at headquar 7. CHATER ROAD. tere; and next time, 17 the "tora

wise, the vwill not lot bbingo:

HELMUTNOCHT

ST. GEORGE'S BUILDING