VETERANS' YEAR

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 833, 29 November 1929, Page 13

VETERANS' YEAR

TILDEN’S LAST LAWN TENNIS SEASON YOUNGER MEN FLUCTUATE As the years pass the game of lawn tennis, as played in high class competition, makes increasing demands upon those who play it—demands of a physical, mental and moral nature. . Proof of this is furnished by the varying play of the leading contenders for the high honours of the game during the current season. If we select the most important tournaments, this variation will be emphasised. says “American l_.a%\ n Tennis” editorially. He won all sistent winner is Tiltlen. He won all three of the tournaments in which he competed in this country; and in two of the three he was obliged to play live sets. The outstanding feature of Tilden’s play has been his ability to outlast his opponents, to play a waiting game if necessary, and* to reach, the end comparatively lresh and with his game at its best. This is true also, although to a somewhat lesser extent, in the case of Hunter. The farther he went the better he became —at Rye and Forrest Hills; Newport was the exception. This is the most remarkable and outstanding fact of the season's play. The game of the younger men has fluctuated to a very considerable extent. Good one day, less effective another: the winner'of one tournament, dropping down decidedly in another. So it goes. How much is due to physical and how much to mental conditions is a moot point. Only the older men are supposed to be affected by mental cares—such as the demands of business and the difficulty of getting away to play in tournaments. Years ago one prominent player commented on the disadvantage under which he laboured owing to being obliged to spend a busyday on the stock, exchange and then hurry off' —say to Seabright— and play a still more prominent player who had nothing to do but rise in the morning and prepare himself leisurely for the afternoon’s match. The business grind is a handicap, as the young men will discover when it comes to thruturn to have their noses down to the grindstone. A MOOT QUESTION How much the form fluctuations under notice are due to lack of proper physical conditioning is a moot question. It is said that the youngsters won’t train; that they go into a match and soon are run ragged and out of breath, with the result that the fourth or fifth set finds them in great difficulties. Such was the statement of one young player, himself a prominent contender in the championship, and ©no who was as good physically at the end of a match as in its earlier periods. Whatever the cause or causes we have had the remarkable spectacle presented of the three outstanding veterans—Tilden, Hunter and Williams —all of them near forty—finishing their matches in the championship without a trace of fatigue. Hunter was blown at the end of his second set with Mercur, but this condition was due to the fact that he had run more than he supposed; and there arose the necessity for getting his second wind; that he was able to do this and finish the match in perfect condition is eloquent testimony to his being “sound in wind and limb.”

It is Tilden, however, who stands cut 'in remarkable fashion. Unlike some past years, he lias not been overtennised, and consequently he has. with almost unfailing regularity, produced his best game in the fourth and fifth sets ofi a match.