INTERNATIONAL TENNIS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2368, 8 December 1908, Page 2

INTERNATIONAL TENNIS.

ViCTORIAN-CHAMPIONSHIPS

AUSTRALIAN SUCCESSES

The Melbourne “Argus” of November 24th contains a fine account of the play in the Victorian Championship finals in which Brookes and Wilding defeated the American pair, Wright and Alexander, in the doubles and Wilding beat Alexander in the singles. Readers will doubtedless pursue with interest the striking accounts of those contests.

A" DAVIS CUP TRIAL

BROOKES AND WILDING WIN

Although there were several championships of Victoria to be decided at the Association tennis-courts all such attractions wero obscured by the prospect of the Davis Cup pairs meeting in the finals for the doubles championship of Victoria. It was a trial gallop for the Cup, and alien the time came for the game every bench around the hew court was occupied. As the Americans appeared in their long white dressing gowns, they had the welcome which was due to sportsmen from a far conn try who had come to us on a sportsmanlike mission. All four players chatted merrily together while waiting for the match and Brookc.s broke off occasionally to have a close look at the lawn, which was heavy after the rains of the forenoon. The moment coats were thrown aside, each player put away his everyday geniality, and took on instead that solemn expression which is by usage the tennis face. One could see at a glance that there was to be no trifling in this game. Broo'kes served first, and the merit of his service all throtigh is shown in the significant fact that lie lost only two of his games in which ho served. He pays liis American opponents the compliment of adopting their stylo, with, it is understood, some embellishments of his own. Wilding lias a service with a side sweep of the arm, which he attempts rarely, but when lie gets exactly wliat he wants it seems to make the ball dizzy with the spin, so that it has for a moment a lazy inclination to sit down upon the turf and stay there. The match opened with a few stinging serves and strokes, from Brookes, and a love game to the Australians. In the opening stages the Americans did all the tossing, and, time and again, it seemed that Broo'kes, wrose “Mine” was a frequent exclamation of the court, had the opportunity offered him for the smash that wins. Given the same chance, Wright or Wilding would have played the overhead smash stroke five times out of six, but this is exactly tile one sparkling, masterful swing in tennis which ever player loves, but Brookes, of all men, avoids. He either realises it as his weakness, or, having worked out the chances, u-s so cool and calculating a player would, lie has come to the conclusion that safety pays him best. He is by choice a singles player, and brilliant recoveries, coupled with - correct placing—which a stranger to his game might mistake for timidity or excess of caution when it is really his system in tennis, and the choice of long experience—are his forte. Wright played a lot of them out at the back in "the early stages. Both the Americans were then a bit erratic. Alexander was. however, serving the better of the two,-frequently getting in a shot which even men of the calibre of those opposed to him found quite unplayable. First impressions as to Alexander’s service are being corrected. Eyerytime he gets in one of those •spins which rose with a low trajectory there was a note of admiration from the crowd, followered by deliberate appreciative/ cheers. The Australians won the first set by six games to three, and they seemed to ho bolting away with the match when the second set also went to them with the ;-.corse of six to two. Towards the end of this set, when the Americans were in a losing position, an incident occurred whicli showed the fine spirit in which the game is played. Alexander returned 011 c to Brookes which ’palpably pitched outside the lino. Brookes saw at, and let it pass' unplayed. The umpire waited for the linesman to call “out,” hut there was no sound, so he did the only thing He could do in the circumstances, and gave it a winning point to the Americans. Brookes looked up inquiringly, several spectators called out what should have been the correct score, but they were, of course, ignored, and Brookes continued to serve. His next ball Alexander simply pushed outside the court. For a few seconds tho majority were unable to understand the weakness of the stroke, but Alexander, knowing that .a mistake had been made at the expense of his opponents, and, being unwilling to take advantage of it. in a match for the doubles championship of Victoria, had deliberately played it out, lost the .stroke, and so equalised the scores. The crowd instantly broke into a storm of cheers, and “Well played, Alexander,” rang round the court. Thus the weakest stroke of the whole match won the most .applause—it won too, the admiration and sympathy of tho onlookers, and it was significant that thence every good shot by the Americans roused increased applause. In the third game of the third set the Americans got the lead for the uirst time in the match, and twice in this bout .Wilding stopped and placed what seemed to he irnplayable shots. They camo waist-high, straight for his body at short range, and the racquet, held close in, and without visable thrust or momentum, turned them back over the net again. The first time it happened there was ap-

piause, but behind it there was the seeling that luck was behind the striker. But when it was repeated more than once, and accepted, not as a lucky shot, but as one of Wilding’s specialities in tennis, if won unstinted admiration. It needs a fine eye, fine judgment, and a strong hand to place one of those white flashes so correctly. At this stago of the match the Americans had realised in Brookes too tough 'a problem. They paid most, -attention to Wilding, played for him at every opportunity, and for a time Brookes was calling “yours” instead of “mine,” And the more Wilding got of'them the better tennis ho played. His smash was effective, though it never equalled that of Beats Wright, who hungered for it, sought to force it, and played no other stroke half so well. When the Australians saw it coming each sprang to his own side of the court, and through the inviting gap thus left Wright drove it. At times it looked as if his opponents were getting out of the way. It was “all you know” at that stage. Tho Americans took the risk of forcing it, played some of tho most brilliant tennis of the match, and, to the same tunc of rousing cheers, won the third set by G to 4. Wilding put on his most resolute look ; Brookes never changed a muscle —still, in waiting for the service, lie looked so indifferent with liis racquet held loosely across his chest, the hand gripping it close to the rim. There was a change in tactics, however, the moment the fourth set commenced. The Australians tossed them high, kept the Americans well to the hack of the court, where Alexander’s slashing cross stroke, fine ias it is, runs greater risk of going out rather than of finding the net. There was one magnificent rally early in the fourth set, both pairs, right up to the net, staring into each other’s faces, and short volleying at lightening puce. Then the onlookers knew wKat international form meant, and were stirred to great enthusiasm. It was a tour-tie-force to be remembered—honorable to the losers _as to the winners. Wright’s service improved towards the end of the match, but his best game came a little hit too late for any hope of victory. Two games the Americans got in this set, blit further Hi an that they could not go, though Alexander’s lips were clamped very tight, and Wright, whenever he came Hose to the net. took position with- a little jump that set both feet firmly down and wide apart—tho action of a determined man who has come there to stay. As the heavier muni, who takes a desperate plunge after a lost hall, he was more seriously handicapped by the slippery, sodden turf than any of the others. Wright needs a fast lawn, and a firm footing. The Australians won the fourth set by 6 to 2, with it the match, in which they scored 22 games to their adversaries’ 13.

On the day the better pair won, and in their returns especially owed tlieir victory to safe tennis rather than fireworks. The impression at the finish amongst those who have not been too long at the game to allow their judgment to he biassed by partiality was that Brookes was in a class of his own. Few champions in any game have so imbued those who know with so firm a faith in him. His force—taking it as ■ lie equivalent of “strength” in billiards—is very fine, and was shown to greatest advantage when he had to follow a high toss to the hack of the court, and wait for it to pitch on the chance of winning a negative point. If still in play lie scoops it quite calmly straight over the hack of hi.s own head, and thus with his hack to the not, and trusting wholly to the sense of touch, rarely plays such a shot out. There is no magic in such accuracy-—it must bo the result of long and careful practice hacked by a judicial calm and self-confidence.

It was noticeable that in heating Parker for the mixed doubles trophies, Doust, of New South-AVales, played any number of side-cuts that seemed quite as brilliant as anything from the champions. The difference in the class of tennis wholly explains it. These showy winning strokes were generally scored off a lady’s return, and they were of little use to Doust when the day before he met Alexander in the singles. Then lie lost three sets on end 1 to the American though Doust is at all times an active, determined, and clever player. As a preliminary flutter for the Davis Cup, the meeting of the champions on Saturday afternoon was all that could be desired—an anchovy or a piquant morsel of fish-roe to sharpen the appetite for tho tennis feast to follow.

SINGLES . CHAMPIONSHIP. WILDING DEFEATS ALEXANDER. Apart altogether from its interest as a display of championship form,' and its value as an object lesson in the methods of champions, significance in another direction attached to tho meeting of A. F. Wilding and F. B. Alexander at the association tennis courts. Not only - was tho match to decide whether the Singles Championship of Victoria was. to be won by tho New Zealander or the American, hut it would serve to show that Wilding' would he almost certain to be Brookes’s .partner in the Davis Cup. The result showed that there is more than a sentimentaL reason to support Wilding’s selection. His form of Saturday went far to convince doubters, and the additional argument supplied by his victory yesterday will add to the number of those who have hitherto l supported him. He is a player to whom the attainment of that exact concert-pitch, known tas “form,” is not a matter of prayer and fasting, but of six weeks’ conscientious and consecutive pruc-

tice. That he is still on the up-grade is shown by the sequence of his play .in Saturday and Monthly, exhibiting as it did a gradual crescendo, which, t is not too much to hope, will reach its height when the Davis Cup contests aro played. Contrasted afresh as they walked on to tho court, the comparison 'between Alexander and Wilding flacked nothing in interest. Alexander has the keen gbanco and the incisive manner of ono who has been trained; to tho aise of instruments of precision, and the occasional carelessness—almost 'recklessness—-which yesterday was observable in his play holies the impression of hairspring accuracy which his demeanour at the opening of each game conveys. His foot is pressed to the service line us if it were to he a fulcrum for tho nervous force which arm and body are to develop. He recalls nothing so much as a how drawn to its full extent, the a rrow at the ear of the archer before it shoots from the twanging string. Ho seems of the typo that docs its work, if need he, on hare nerves; but ho has brains to hack them, and if, as nervous men do, lie at times takes risks, he will show no appreciation of their success or dishcartenment at fclieir failure —none, that is, which any spectator can see. His opponent, to tho casual glance, is of different type, both in physique and temperament. Broad and heavy -by comparison with Alexander Wilding does not present that combination of whalebone und wliiptliong which the movements of his opponent inevitably suggest. But no tennis player need be told that he as no mean adversary—he has acquitted himself with distinction in England and Europe, as well ms in Australia, and if it fails to him to help in tho defence of the Davis Cup liis partisans need not worry—much. He is by no means phlegmatic —no good tennis player isj but his play hears out the impression that before ho can reach his best his opponent must take the lead. With that incentive,’ as was the case yesterday, he wiikes up and extends himself —-even, it may be, to the limit of six games in succession. Then, indeed, his adversary must needs do his best to hold his own, for, in. spite of liis agility, there is a massive -relentlessness about Wilding when he comes to his own that neither whalebone nor wliiptliong can utterly wear down, do it befell in the sunlight of that afternoon, when, glistening with perspiration and flushed and panting with their exertions, the contestants arrived at the knowledge Ms to which, for that time at least, was the better man.

That Wilding was a little worried was obvious in. the first game, which was won by Alexander. That clean limbed player, who seemed more at home to Wilding’s service than did Wilding to the swift and beautifullyplaced returns, dealt- with the hall to such purpose that ho won the first four games, the third being especially short and sharp. There were those among the spectators who began to wonder whether it was already a foregone conclusion—but these were few, tor they comprised the men who did not know Wilding. The fourth game had given a slight indication of Alexander’s inclination to take risks, and an opportunity was afforded of comparing the course of a ball which was placed with masterly speed and precision with the ignoble fate of ano•hcr whose career was stopped by the not. This game, too, ovas the first in which Alexander opened with a double fault. But by this time. Alexander had given Wilding the lead, which was going to bring out all that was best in the New Zealander. Wilding began.to find himself, and his. victory in the next game was liis mfimation of the fact. But, although lie pulled up to a total of four games, Alexander had gained too substantial an advantage, and won the first set by six games to lour. By the time the second set was fairly under way Wilding had dropped into liis stride, and played with an alert- confidence which secured him two love games in succession. The tennis of both men at this period was beautiful to watch. There was little applause from the crowd, tho sharp

"Oh!” of excitement or the longdrawn “A-ali!” of disappointment hearing sufficient testimony of their interest in (ho play. Hut gradually Wilding, who seemed to lie- wearing down Ids brilliant opponent, drew ahead. In the fifth game there was v sudden halt, which was explained by Alexander calling out. “Excuse me —l’ve broken my racket.” The racket was exchanged' for a now one, but the exchange, as might have been ex. pected, was not for the better. The new racket had to be humored a little and its individuality learned—this in the very heart of the contest. How far it affected, the result is difficult to say—but that it was a handicap is beyond doubt. The feeling grew that Wilding was more than holding his adversary, and would continue to do so until the end of the game. And this time the prophecy was ominous, for, although it was made by watchers who knew little of either player, yet those who knew them both heard it in silence. Beals Wright, who was among the spectators, kept on looking hopeful. The players changed ends at the conclusion of the first game in the third set. But. perhaps, owing to the fact that Alexander had not yet gauged with exactitude the peculiarities of his new racket, he failed to bring off several of his characteristic strokes, and, 'although in the sixth game there was a rally which roused the spectators to .demonstrative enthusiasm, and secured the game for the American, the set ended soon afterwards in Wilding’s favor by six games to two. The result of the final set was the same. Alexander, although he played gamely and well, and at times recovered to the full his early accuracy in timing and his rfrill in placing the ball, seemed to be overpowered by sheer weight of metal. Three games had been won by Wilding before Alexander was successful, and he won only one more game during the set. His play had lost some of its sting,i and Wilding was neither worried nor nervous now, having apparently learned his opponent by heart. But there were exceptional strokes of bis opponent’s, which showed Wilding that even yet he was not absolutely secure, and the game was played keenly to a finish by both men, who were doing “all they knew” right up to the end..