THE DAVIS CUP

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 190, 28 August 1937, Page 18

THE DAVIS CUP

jgsE , rROPHE GOES BACK TO U.S.A. BRTTAIN MISSES PERRY ' THE ASCENDANCY OF BUDGE 1 _ Supremacy in all games comes and goes in cycles of short durations. When the competition of ihe world has to be met I think this is inevitable, says the Auckland Star's London . representative. So the time had come for Britain to* surrender the Davis Cup. Lawn tennis players tried to believe that the absence of Fred Perry would be madc good, but from the moment that the l&tter decided to commercialise his skill in exhibition matches and by making instructive films the supremacy which had been held for four years was at an end. * But the lawn tennis countries of the world are in a curious state. None has more than one really outstanding player. Donald Budge, the new Wimbledon champion, was the cup winner ; for America, and how marked was his superiority as compared witli Frank Parker, his second string, was Seen when the latter was defeated in three straight sets by H. W. Austin. The position is much the same in Germany. If Henkel, useful player as he is, had attained the standard of G. ,Von Cramm, they would have triumphed. And if Britain had had an adequate supporting singles player for j Austin the cup might have been re- i tained. Australia had perhaps the best balanced team and it would have been much stronger if Adrian Quist had been able tc^play, but their allround form was not quite high enough. The play of men from all parts of the world lxas this season been marked by one pronounced feature. This is the development of the sliced or chipped return from the back of the court, and it is, of course, largely relied on for defensive purposes. It almost 'seems as though the -pace of the attacking shot has become so severe th^t the reply can only safely be attempted in this' manner. It w,as significant, however, that Budge employed the cut stroke less than any of his rivals except, perhaps, Austin, who remains as orthodox as ever, and that his fiat diives gathered more pace off the ground than the strokes oi his opponents. Budge Rattled . It is never an agreeable task to compare one champion with another, but those who proclaim Budge as the greatest player since Ellsworth Vines may have failed to take into account the strength of the opposition. None of his rivals had the pace of Perry, and it was seldom that he was pressed for time to make the strokes as he wished to do. „ Indeed, 'when Budge was • battling for an hour to win the first set with Charles Hare, and succeeded only in the 28th. game, he did not appear the same all-conquering player as in former matches. He was, in fact, obviously" rattled by ihe persistent way in which he was attacked, and he had to rely to a large extent on his wonderful service to keep the game alive and pull him through. Hare raced to the net with great courage and he - not only volleyed Budge's best returns brilliahtly, but by his hustling tactics forced him into surprising mistakes. But, having staked all on the first set and lost it, one was prepared for a reaction on the part of Hare, and he went down badly in the next two sets. Wilde and Kare's Baptism of Fire Although Budge and Mako captured the doubles by three, sets to one to put America one up, Wilde and Tuckey fought them almost stroke by stroke, and the Amerlcans had an advantage , of pnly five games out of the 59 played. It was Wilde and Hare's first cup mateh ,and they created an extremely good impression. Wilde is, in fact, a hne doubles player, despite a rather weak service. The Americans had made sure of the cup before the Budgc-Austin match and it was played in such a light-hearted style that it could not he regarded as a complete test of the men. Austin had overwhelmed Parker [urther emphasising the difference between the first and second string, and his win was so decisive as to suggest that, if the result had depended on his meeting with Budge,- he might have been successful.