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' THE DAVIS CUP.
That in lawn tennis experience counts for
quite as much as brilliancy, and that when
brilliant players of matured powers meet the
most promising of youngsters the result is
disastrous to youth, u'as convincingly de.
monstrated at Double Bay on Saturday aftcr
noon, when Maurice E. M'Loughtin and Mel.
ville H. Long of America, essayed to defeat
Norman E. Brookcs and Anthony F. Wild.
in, of Australasia.
Quite a representative audience of' some
5ooo people filled tile stands.
Champions in the making our visitors
assuredly are, but they are not up to' Davis
Cup standard yet; that is to say, when the
holders are represented by Brookes and
Wilding. But if we ever sawte two champions
of the futtre, we saw them at Double Bay
on Saturday. To M'Loughlin this applies
with special force, anti tile enthusiast who
hailed him as si coming champion of the
world did not err so much on tile side of
over-optimism as entlhusiasts usually tdo.
But we are discussing the present, and no
matter under what conditions tile match had
been played could the result have possibly
been different; the margin might have been
less, perhaps, illatnis all. That tile Ameri
cans were reatly handicapped by tile court
there can be no gainsaying. Thie special
area rolled out well on Saturday morning
and played much truer than coult ha,-' been
expected. But it was slow, tile balls did
not rise higlh, anti to players almost un
familiar with grass courts anti accustomed
to the fast asphalt, tile change must Ihave
been heartbreaking. Yet tile pace of the
court could not materially affect their vol.
le'ying or overhead work, and here they
failed badly. Take M'Loughlin first. He
seemed to be playing a very different style
of game to that shown in practice. One ex
pected to see a hurricane exhibition, but
instead he restrained himself altogether, and
in only a few instances let go hardl in his
smashes. Towards tile end of the game
whsen he did tit, tie ball wsould drop some
distance beyondl thle base-line. As regards
tile service that was acclaimed by American
critics as superior to Brookes's, it hardlv
justified such a description. Goodl it was,
thie reverse, particularly, but whereas
Brookes mostly got in his first i\'Loughlin
had to take advantage of the second more
,"often than not; whereas Brookes served only
Oln double fault during tile three sets
I'Lougshin sent along four, and was also
foot-faulted on tweo occasions. In Long's
case his particualr weakness seas in the
volleying. He would serve hard, conme into
the net to meet the return, take it low dosw in
.tilt backhandt antd almost invariably net it
Time after time ihe.lost points throuh in
ability to judge the pace of the ba1ll. If
\Vilding- or Broolkes, the latter particularly.
let a ball nass it eas any oddes on that ball
going olut of court. Long would frequently
allows a ball to strop under the mistaken ila
that it eas sure to over-fall only to find
a moment lt
lines. later that it was well within the
Tile results were:
N. E. Rrookes (Australasia) beat H. E.
CI'Loughhis lAmerica 6-2, 6-2, 6-.4.
A. I'. \Wilding (Australasia) beat M. H.
Long (America), 6-2, 7-5, 6--.
$