Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Saturday 30 November 1935, page 30


FRANCE'S WIN

-5

DAVIS CUP AT LAST Great Season Recalled

By HENRI COCHET,

Former World's Tennis Champion.

France's first victory in the Davis Cup final is described by Cochet in this article. The win was received by the remarkable enthusiasm in Paris.

IV

(Cap right)

THE season of 1927 was a glorious one In

French tennis, for in that year we Four Musketeers Lacoste, Borotra, Brug-non, and myself successfully completed

an invasion of the United states and

took the Davis Cup from the American players The cup had remained in American hands for seven years the Aus trillans having lost it to that nation in

1926

The victory created the utmost enthusiasm In France particularly in Paris We. started our seasons. campaign at Wimbledon where I won the singles defeating F T Hunter W T Tilden and J Borotra although in each month I lost the first two set- In the doubles I had Brugnon as my partner but we lost to Tilden although we had a match point Those performance"! gave us every confidence

for the approaching Davis Cup matches

We won all our Davis Cup matches and qualified to meet, the United States in the final round Lacoste beat V M Johnston on the first day but I lost to Tilden at 8 6 in the fourth set though he had to work hard for the fourth set We had hopes of Borotra and Brugnon beating Tilden and Hunter especially when after losing the first set they won the next two But the Americans were irresistible in the fifth set taking it to move That leave the defenders a 2 1 lead On the third day I costs s machine like time proved too much for Tilden the veteran being perhaps a little tired and jaded after his third successive day of

tennis

The match between Johnston and myself

was therefore the vital one of the series as the winner would give his team the cup We had based our cup prospects

on Johnston for we knew that he had lost a lot of keenness for the game and was not he the best physical condition for a hard match He started well but I held him taking the first set 6 4 losing the next 4 6 and then winning the last two for the match France had won its first Davis Cup

A few days after the Davis Cup final the French players were routed in the United States championships We did not seem able to concentrate And well if you do not concentrate you cannot play tennis However with Miss Eileen Bennett as my partner we won the mixed doubles chain pionship

Glorious Day

The next six j cats were glorious in our tennis history We repelled America on four occasions and Britain twice But then some of the four musketeers began to show signs of being past their best Lacoste withdrew from the side and Jean Borotra considered himself too old to play singles while Brugnons hand lost some of its cunning and he was not able to cover the court as quickly as he desired We realised that our tennis supremacy was gradually drawing to a close for we did not have the men to take the places of older players

The year following our Davis Cup victory was one of the best in my career I won the French championship beating Hunter and Lacoste in the concluding rounds Hunter was a big man with a peculiarly uneven style but got speed into his shots and was developing into a player difficult to defeat

It was always hard work against Lacoste who won this game on his opponents errors Rene could keep returning the ball for hours and rarely attacked But on this occasion my game was too severe for him and I took the net to beat him Borotra and myself won the doubles at Wimbledon and then we visited America again

For the third year in succession a Frenchman won the national singles championship of America Lacoste had won it in 1926 and 1927 and it was my him in 1928 In between helping to de-fend the cup I won at Wimbledon in 1928 beating Borotra in straight setBut mv best performance was to beat TO

den after he had won the first two sets and led 5 4 in the third The position seemed hopeless for me and Tilden thought the match was all over He had played beautiful tennis scoring points with wonderful shots and placements But he had tired himself while I was still fresh as although he had such a big lead his play had been so decisive and the rallies so short that I had not been bustled But then he faltered and I won 17 points in succession to level the scores I won that set and the last two for he was very tired

We had some great battles to retain the cup first against America and then later Great Britain We had resisted several strong challenges from the United States The British pair Ferry and Austin were beginning to give us some concern and when your own Jack Crawford beat me for the French championship in 1933 we knew that we had not much longer to hold the cup We beat Great Britain in 1931 by three matches to two and as it was one of my last years as an amateur I am pleased to say I won both my singles and with Brugnon the doubles The following year we beat the United States Borotra being superb for France but I lost to Vines who was too severe and speedy for me

But he 1934 Me cup was won by Great Britain France was not dismayed and perhaps in the not very distant future we will have that cup back again Winning the cup made tennis in France and it has helped in Great Britain also