Hopes high for SA victory at Hopman Cup

TENNIS

Maud Thorne

AT the time of writing Wayne Ferreira and Amanda Coetzer are flying the South African flag high in the annual Hopman Cup tournament in Perth.

Maybe they can go one further this year after reaching the final in 1997.

The biggest surprise to date is the elimination of the powerful Australian pair of Mark Philippoussis and Jelena Dokic.

They lost to little-known Paradorn Srichaphan and Tamarie Tasasugarn of Thailand.

This was Thailand's first ever tournament and they were thus unseeded.

The Cup is named in honour of Australia's famous tennis coach, Harry Hopman whose reputation and composure at all times instilled confidence in his players.

His record of captaining 16 successful Davis Cup teams is unlikely ever to be bettered.

Hopman was given complete authority of the best Australian players during the 1950s and 60s.

He arranged their physical training and supervised their life-styles even fining them for misdemeanours such as racquet abuse, going to bed too late or misbehaving socially.

He left no stone unturned in increasing his team's chances of winning. It is said that he even went as far as arranging for Malcolm Anderson to win at poker so as to boost his morale on the eve of a challenge round!

The only five American captains to whom Hopman lost in the 21 challenge rounds were Walter Pate (1938), Bill Talbert (1954), Perry Jones (1958), Robert Kelleher (1963) and Donald Dell (1968).

In 1920 and 1930 he captured the Australian doubles title with Jack Crawford.

In 1930 he combined with his wife-to-be, Nell Hall, to win the mixed doubles.

After their marriage they won the mixed doubles crown three more times -- in 1936, 1937 and 1939.

Clearly, he was an advocate of mixed doubles!

BORDER CHAMPS

Harry Harper, former vice-president and treasu-rer of the Border Tennis Association, recalled the 1959 Border championship after reading last week's column.

The tournament was the second to be held at the new Selborne Park Stadium with its 17 all-wea-ther courts.

t was during the 1958 Border tournament that the stadium was officially handed over by the Mayor, Councillor Addleson, to Harper in his capacity of president of the East London Tennis Association.

Previously the courts were of gravel which created havoc with any tournament if it rained.

A wooden pagoda served as the administrative block and tearoom.

A croquet court occupied the area where the centre court now stands.

In those days the grandstands were packed to capacity especially for the finals. The booking plans opened as early as August and fans flocked to get good seats.

The January 5 1960 issue of the Daily Dispatch carried the following report of the finals: "Despite the windy conditions, a crowd of 1 200 packed the grandstands to watch the final day's play in the Border tennis championships at Selborne Park on Saturday. A tense and thrilling finish in the singles duel between Mrs Bernice Vukovich and Mrs Dora Shaw provided a fitting finale to the tournament.

"A magnificent recovery by Shaw, who saved eight match points in her match against Vukovich, turned an otherwise monotonous game into one of the most thrilling of the tournament. Both players played cautiously and it deve-loped into a baseline battle with long rallies characterising the play.

"Shaw was the first to settle down in the strong crosswind and she won the first set before the SA champion recovered to take the next and lead 5­1 and 40-15 in the final set. It was tense, nerve wracking and the crowd applauded every point."

Shaw captured the Wimbledon junior title as Dora Kilian in 1953, while Vukovich won the SA junior title as Bernice Carr. Known for the unrelenting steadiness from the baseline, she eventually triumphed 2­6, 6­3, 6­4.

The coveted men's singles title went to Ian Vermaak, uncle of Border cricketer, Craig Stirk, well-known these days for his cricket commentaries on television.

The reporter continued: "Tall, red-headed Ian Vermaak gave another masterly display when he conceded only two games to Julie Mayers in a very one-sided game to win the singles title. Mayers did not stand a chance with Vermaak playing on top form.

The Springbok never forced the pace and his control was brilliant.

"In the first match on Saturday afternoon Gordon and Jean Forbes, the top-seeded couple, justified their ranking by winning the mixed doubles title from Buster Farrer and Beryl Bartlett."

An interesting result is that the women's doubles handicap was won by Marietjie Smit and Margie Marais.

As Mrs Viljoen and Mrs Bornman respectively, they triumphed in the 1997 national Spar women's doubles competition.

At the end of the tournament the Border team to play Western Province was announced.

It was: Bob Birch, Ivor Phillips, Horace Rheeder, Stewart Dorrington, Barbara Lewis, Joy Tennant (now McMillan), Hendrika van Heerden and Betty Wilson.

TREVOR TILL

Trevor Till, chairman of the East London Veteran's Association, leaves the city this week to take up residence in George.

Till has worked tirelessly for veterans' tennis, serving not only as a committee member of the Border association, but also as a selector.

For several years he has organised a monthly get-together for veterans at various clubs in East London.

Sadly it did not get the support it deserved, but Till carried on and those who turned up enjoyed a wonderful morning's tennis among friends.

Since the inauguration of inter-provincial tournaments, he has represented Border in his age group.

Till and his wife, Colleen, who was a pillar of strength on the administrative side, will be sorely missed and we wish them well in their new abode.

CRONJE

Frans Cronje, head coach of the Border squad, has left for Australia where he will be managing one of the national squads in tournaments.

GONUBIE

The Gonubie men's and women's doubles tournament is scheduled for next Sunday, January 16.

It gives players an opportunity to get in some practice before the start of the league.

Play starts at 8.30am.

The entry fee of R30 includes lunch and supper.

Contact persons are Sally Hartley at 0839596447 and Ross Henderson at 083 3006109.