Evening star., 1914-08-07
AUSTRALASIA LEADS|
Brookes and WIIding Beat
Parke and Lowe.
HARD FIGHT At LoNGWooD
Britisher Within One Point of TAX
ing Match From Worlds
Champion.

BOSTON, Mass. August 7-As a re-
suit of the first days play in the final
round Of the Davis cup contest yesterday.
Australasia has two out Of the needed
three points, which means victory over
the mother country and the right to
challenge America for the trophy of in
ternational supremacy.
The result of the opening days con-
test came as a bitter blow to the hopes
of England's svmpathizers, for it prac-
/ tically spells defeat for their team. More
over. the second point came at a time
when they were saying, We'll. half a
loaf is better than no bread" for al
though Lowe had lost the first match In
straight sets. as anticipated, their idol
Parke, who won the cup for England in
1912 by scoring wonderful victory over
the mighty Brookes. was three separate
times within solitary point of repeating.
only to have their Joy turned into lamen-
tation by succumbing at last to the mar
velous play of his rival. Australasia thus
walking off with the second victory.
Perhaps never in the history of the
famous Longwood Cricket Club have two
more sensational matches. two contests
hlled with more amazing ups and downs
and furnishing such thrills, been staged
on the exhibition court
In the first battle after Lowe was ap-
parently beaten by the ex-world's cham
pion, Wilding. he came to life with a
wonderful rally and forced the third and
hnal set to thirty games-a Davis cup
competition record-all filed with tennis
OF the most sensational nature imagin-
able
Remarkable Victory.
In the second contest. after Parke
had carried the score to two sets all
and had run up a lead of 5-3 and 10
80 In the deciding one-just one single
point needed to tie the score-Brookes
made one of the greatest stands in
tennis annals, and although twice more
within a point of losing. fought the
match out with bulldog determination.
and finally plucked victory out of the
very fire of defeat.
Thus the master mind once more es-
tablished his supremacy as the worlds
Loughlin. the American champion, can
rise above him next week.
In both matches the British stars out
placed their respective rivals material
ly, but the latter's consistent steadiness
and control proved the deciding factor,
as had been expected. In the first
match 1t was contest between two
great back court artists, but with Lowe
hitting the ball with far the greater
pace and scoring 45 places to his op-
ponents 26. but making a correspond
lngly greater number of misplays; in
the second 1t was q battle between the
greatest baseline player in the world
and man who plays the net continual
" and wonderfully, and again the
English star outplaced his rival 53 to
30. only to lose on errors.
In each case the Australasian demon
strated the superiority of perfect con-
troll over speed without that sureness.
Wilding, by keeping the ball in play
and within bounds, and Brooke. by ex-
hibiting masters ability to send the
sphere where he wished, chiefly from
yolleys, by a most deceptive twist of
the wrist.
War Hurts Attendance.
Thus the two contests were essen
TALLY different and. as such, appre-
ciated to the full by the enthusiastic
gallery, which nearly filled the three
stands. That there were more empty
seats than had been anticipated, arose,
according to the committee. chiefly. as
result OF the war, more than a hun
dFed applications from New York alone
having been Cancelled on account of
business troubles. Conditions and
weather were IDEAL the work of the
lfnesmen perfect. and everything went
70 make the day memorable one in
Boston tennis.
In the fret two sets of the wilding-
Lowe match. the Australasian driving
from deep court had his opponent run
ming about after impossible balls
Oniy tnree deuce games were played in
these two sets, all of which went to
Wiidings account, while each player
scored two love sets on his opponent
with the third set conditions under
went complete revolution. Lowe led
at the end OF the third game, to /.
stood all. Both players scored love
games. and deuce was called fire.
quently. The contestants alternated
in the lead until the twenty ninth
game. when the Australasian won a
point, Ga, on his service and followed
this success with the deciding point
on loves serve.
FIVE sets were required to reach a
decision in the contest between the
worlds champion and Parke. and an
entirely different line of tennis was
displayed. Each ran in both on service
and the return. and the exchanges at
the net were fast. In the last set
Brookes was fading rapidly and took
the heart out of the Irish player with
his stanch net play.
The champion was very weak on his
back hand, but his forehand and net
play more than retrieved it. His gen
eralshiD at all times was superb. and
he frequently caught Parke off his
foot. In the fourth set he saved him
Aelf for the supreme encounter and
came within an ace of losing it. The
point score and summary:
WILDING VS.. LOWE.
FIRST SET.
p. G.
Wilding ~ Q o 6 20 q
Lowe ....... 4 2 2 1 3 pa 3
SECOND SET.
Wilding ............. 4-26 8