Tennis.

Southland Times, Issue 18822, 15 May 1920, Page 9

Tennis.

(By Pennon.)

Captain A, E. Beamish, of the British Isles lawn tennis team, is very interesting in his notes and comments on the Davis Cup play in Sydney, which appeared in The Field on March 6. Among other cool, clear, discerning non-partisan comments are the following:— "Brookes decided to stand down in favour of Anderson, who had beaten all the others in practice singles and done remarkably well ia doubles, too. He is a fine young player, armed with excellent ground strokes of the English school, and, in addition, he can volley close to the net and produce shots in the Australian manner. Altogether ho is a rare find for Australia, and if lie can get to England and enjoy a greater variety of tournament play he will be extremely good in a year or two.” On the Anderson-Kingscote match he writes; — "In the third set. Anderson rallied well, and" at one time led by four games to three. There were now more level exchanges, and a curiously uneven series of strokes by Kingscote, who struck a very bad patch, quite unaccountably in the course of the 7 th game which Anderson won to love with hardly a correct stroke on the Englishman’s part. But this was the full extent of Anderson’s success. Kingscote recovered well, and made no further mistakes in winning the set comfortably at six games to four, and the match in excellent style by

three sets to love. Anderson had played in practice as well, if not better, than any of the others, not even excluding Brookes himself, but he appeared in this match to play without sufficient regard for his opponent’s weaknesses and limitations. He played his own game ail the time, and, good as it was on the day, found himself equipped to deal with an opponent whose great speed of foot, accuracy of driving and volleying, not only made the game extremely fast, but eventually brought about inaccuracy and faults from over-eagerness which were at the end the undoing of the Australian player. It was a brilliant match, well contested in the first and third sets. The first might have gone quite fairly on the p}ay to Anderson, with good footwork and fine driving by both men. The extra consistency and steadiness of Kingscote was later the decisive factor.” “The doubles tie was played on Monday after a blank day on the Saturday through rain," he continues. “The play lasted 38 minutes, and the Australian pair won easily by 6—o, 6—o, C—2, in a match made remarkable in more ways than one. Both Brookes end Patterson played well. Brookes was excellent, and during at least a set and a half hardly made a stroke from which the English pair could or should have scored. His return of service was beautifully placed and varied, while some delicately placed push volleys which are specialities of the greatest Australian player, were made with ail his former skill and judgment. He served well, too, and always had his opponents wondering where the ball was coming next. Needless to say, he let off nothing on the volley which could be scored from. Patterson was brilliant, severe overhead, but with some of the faults and inaccuracies of the player whose shots must either kill or miss every time. His much-advertised ‘ backhand shot was not very successful, but his rather labored top-spin forehand was good, and did some useful work in the rallies. Ho served and smashed well during the whole match. The match was remarkable for the extraordinary foot-faulting of Kingscote by a linesman, Dr McElhone, who has, I believe, a mania for detecting foot faults by servers, and conscientiously endeavours to stop these infringements by acting as a base linesman whenever possible. I had a talk with him and he told me how sorry ho was, and that ho had not slept all night in consequence. I assured him we bore him no ill-will, but blamed the committee of management, if we thought about it at all. The whole affair caused the greatest excitement, the Press was full of it, and the public, as is their way out there, were very outspoken in their comments of the linesman and sympathetic to ourselves. Throughout the disturbance Kingscote was quite calm and collected and kept on serving in the din as well as possible. The episode made no difference to the result of the match, which. Brookes and Patterson thoroughly deserved to win.” There will be a great collection of players at Wimbledon at the end of June, chiefly on account of the fact that it seems likely riiat all preliminary rounds for the Davis t.up will be played in England, and that the representatives of the nations will, of course, got into form for (item by playing at Wimbledon. Johnston and Tilden, who are ranked first and second respectively in America, are expected over, and, if they do .-o, the challenge round will probably be played between the former unci Patterson, v.'ho has recently left England to defend his U'uo. In the, event of his meeting John-.-aon, Patterson will probably come off the v.innor, notwithstanding his defeat, by the rame player in the American singles last year. The English climate suits him better, and Johnston will not have the undoubted advantage of playing on his own ground before thousands of his enthusiastic supporters. Interesting participators will ; ruOabiy be the t wo famous Japanese wielders of tile racquet, chief of whom is Ichiya inn ague, who is rlinked as high as third the American list. The other is N. Shi- .. irr, a recent winner of the Bengal cham- , whose strength is signified by the ■ ■t- ■ i - Ltmbsft Chambers (who was b;.iien m :;i, .vngiss by Mdclle. Lenglen last ; . - very stiff contest I is to be his partner In the mixed doubles. It is i Keiy in n ; -. A ..i fir's record of 128 entries m the Singh- ■ be surpassed, as there will also be ;-it■ ■: from Prance, Belgium, Holland, Cuuiiciu South Africa.