ENGLAND’S HOPE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 83, 29 June 1927, Page 11

ENGLAND’S HOPE

MISS FRY THE SURVIVOR By “RACQUET” Of the four ladies left in the women’s singles at Wimbledon. Miss Joan Fry survives as England’s hope, but it looks as though the Californian girl, Helen Wills, will be the utimate champion. One thing the tournament has done — it has shown that in point of international interest and tennis prestige Wimbledon stands alone. The galaxy of brilliant players now assembled there has never been equalled, for aggregate talent, since before the war, and the eyes of the entire tennis world are now closely following the struggles determined on the historic centre court. THREE NATIONS The four semi-finalists in the women's singles represent three nations. Miss Ryan and Miss Wills are Americans, Senorita D’Alvarez is the talented daughter of wealthy Spanish people, and Miss Joan Fry is a pretty English girl, 21 years old. To-day’s cables chronicle the defeat of Mrs. Peacock, the last of South Africa’s candidates, the downfall of the 16-year-old phenomenon, Betty Nuthall, and the elimination by the tenacious Miss Ryan of Mrs. Godfree, forferly Miss K. McKane, and long the foremost lady player in Britain. Miss Fry, on whom Britain’s hopes are now centred, was cl ssified eighth player in the world in the list formulated by A. Wallis Myers, but she has hardly received corresponding recognition in her own country. Touring South Africa with the British team in 1925, she was not one of the leading strings on that tour. Miss Ryan, who was winning tournaments long before the war, is a veteran of the courts, an extremely crafty player, and is ranked fourth among the lady players of the world. AMONG THE MEN Among the men the most sensational happenings to date have been seen in the doubles, in which the defeat of Borotra and Lacoste by the British pair, Eames and Crole-Rees, comes as an agreeable . surprise. Myers ranks Lacoste as fourth among the world’s men—considering he has whacked Tilden twice in succession, this is not an over-generous estimation —and Borotra is classified sixth, so that the performance of the English pair, neither of whom are ranked anywhere near the world’s best ten, is a memorable achievement. Another surprise, with the Union Jack waving triumphantly, was the defeat by Lester and Higgs, the former considered Britain’s most promising player—of Harada (Japan), and Watson Washburn, the bespectacled American.

Cochet’s defeat of the hard-driving Hunter is another blow to America’s hopes, which will now be concentrated on Tilden. The latter, it is interesting to note, recently remarked that he considered Cochet to be the world’s best player. Modest William!