The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-12-19
TENNIS CONVENTION
HERE FEBRUARY 5
Award of Championships and
Rule Changes on Programme
for Decision.

The annual meeting Of the United
States Lawn Tennis Association will be
held In New York on February s. &C.
cording to an announcement yesterday
by the associations executive commit
tee. The business session will begin at
80 p. M. IN the hope that all the mat
tiers requiring the delegates attention
may be disposed of at one sitting. The
executive committee will meet the pre-
ceding evening.
While the annual meeting customarily
transacts an immense amount OF routine
business and generally finds plenty OIL
additional current problems requiring
attention, II now appears that this SEES
SION will be somewhat less puroeneo
with detail than In recent years Last
year, for instance, in addition to I'M
portant changes in the National Asso-
cations constitution, there were revis-
ions of the rules to be debated. which
entailed g. long programme. A Few
changes In the nst-tution are recon-
mended, but these are mainly of minor
Importance, so that they can hardy
occupy much time.
The meeting doubtless will be inter-
ested chiefly m the award of the ma
tional championships and discussion Oh
plans for next years schedule than IN
the matters requiring legislation that
will be brought to Its attention.
To Remedy Default Evil.
One innovation that will be laid be-
fore the delegates is the draft of a
tournament circular to be issued by the
association for its members Information,
outlining the material that should be in
cluded in the announcement OF sane
toned tournaments. This is the out
come of dfficulties that developed last
season when some tournaments were
mar-ed by an unusual number OF de-
faults.
The executive committee In studying
this problem. concluded that II Is much
better to have a tournament OF forty
bona fide entries. rather than one "a
twice that number in which half the
competitors default. Accordingly It Will
recommend in it's proposed circular that
tournament committees consider only
those entries which are submitted IN
writing accompanied by entry fees. the
Increase In tournament play throughout
the country and the anticipated addi-
lions to the 1921 schedule of sanctioned
events make it necessary that the man
agement of these events be carefully
supervised II they are TO succeed.
The Davis Cup Committee of the
United States Lawn Tennis Association
will meet tomorrow afternoon to con-
slider proposed revisions OF the Davis
cup regulations that have been sub
mitted by the French Lawn Tennis AS
ISOLATION. These relate to the rules
which shall be applied to such matches
raising the question whether these
should be the rules of the international
Federation or of the champion nation
as Is required by the present regula-
lions. The French authorities also ad-
vocate n revision of the present regu-
lations regarding expenses. their idea
being to have a definition OF the ex-
penses which may properly be charged
against Davis cup match so that ma
lions may know with some degree OF
certainty In advance Of a match what
their probable financial returns from II
will be. The Importance of some such
provision for international competition
involving so much travelling as does the
Davis cup contest is apparent and their
suggestion has found favor here.
May Charge for Sanction.
S. w. Merrihew. as chairman of the
schedule committee. has brought to the
attention of the executive committee
the practice followed in Eneland OF
charging for the sanction of events that
are listed on the associations schedule
The British organization also takes a
small percentage OF the entry fees In
these tournaments. so that Its revenue
is increased considerably each year In
recommending that such plan be fol-
lowed in the United States. Mr. Merri-
hew states his belief that only small
part of clubs holding sanctioned tourna-
ments would possibly object to such a
charge, which might be $40 for some
events and 50 or Sc for those of lesser i'm
portance. Each application for sane
ton would have to be accompanied by
the fee II his recommendation were
adopted In order to be considered by the
schedule committee. He argued that
such a practice would tend to empha-
size the Importance Of having official
sanction for such events. Although the
proposal was not approved by the exec
utive committee It's advocates are SO
confident that II would be desirable
change that they plan to bring 1t before
,ha tapnfa nttblic In the hope OF winning