Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-02
COCHET NO. |, NEXT
four NEARLY EVEN
Austin, Perry, Wood, Shields
Trail Davis Cup Hero.
Britons Feature.
BY WILLIAM T. TnDEN, I'd,

Worlds Professional Tennis Champion.
avery year after the Davis
~ Cup, with the big events Of
IL the American season at
hand and most Of the lead
ing foreigners coming to our
shores, midSeason worlds rank
ing is offered. The positions at
this time are subject to great
alteration by the results in Ameri-
can championships, so an inter-
esting comparison can be found
by the list at the end of the sea-
son.
Never has any year had so muddled
a situation. One can justify almost any
order Of placement among the first five
players-in fact, almost the sixth, too.
The first five consist of Henri Cochet
OF France, Henry w. Austin and Fred
Perry of England, Sidney Wood and
Frank Shields of the United States in
some order, with Jean Borotra immedi-
ately below. The remaining members
of the first 10 would be made up Of
@. P. Hughes, Jiro Satoh, Christian
de StefanE John Van Ryan or H. @. N.
Lee.
am not considering such players as
Ellsworth Vines, Clifford Suffer, Wilmer
Allison, John Doeg and the other lead
ing United States stars who have not
competed abroad. The coming weeks
will give them their chance to supplant
some of the chosen.
COchet, Austin Close.
I place Henri Cochet at No. I, by
by virtue of his winning his two singles
matches in the Davis Cup challenge
round. I do this Notwithstanding his
not playing in the French champion
ships, and with full recognition that his
claim can be disputed on the grounds
of his defeats by G. P Hughes at Milan
and Nigel Sharpe at Wimbledon in the
first round. I still think his Davis Cup
performance plus his past record gives
him No. /.
place Bunny Austin as No. on the
strength of his Davis Cup victories over
both Shields and Wood, his defeat of
Borotra in the challenge round and the
fact he held two match points against
Shields at Wimbledon. His record all
most gives him precedence over Cochet,
who has the shade only by his victory
over Austin in the challenge round of
the Davis Cup.
believe that Frank Shields must
take precedence over Sidney Wood and
go into third position, Notwithstanding
Wood holding the Wimbledon title.
Shields lost only to Austin, while Wood
dropped matches in the Davis Cup to
Austin, Perry and also to Marcel Rain
vile of Canada.
Woods Wimbledon win should give
MIN slight edge on Fred Perry, but
one could almost bracket the two at
and 5. Only Jean Borotra's victory
In the French championship holds him
at 6, but, notwithstanding his disap-
pointing Davis Cup showing, I feel the
great French star deserves this posi-
ton.
G. P. Hughes, with a victory over
Henri Cochet and a fine win from
George Lott, plus a sound year all
around, certainly is the seventh man,
with Jiro Satoh of Japan. who car
RED Borotra five sets at Paris in the
French championship. at eight.
christian BouSSus as finalist at Paris
against Borotra, from whom he won a
set, must have precedence over the re-
naming contestants, while I believe
that on record George de Stefani of
italy should be accorded tenth place.
However, Lee, who beat Lott at VIM
bledon; Lott and Van Ryn are almost
equal to Stefani on record.
Makes Meteoric Rise.
Looking over the present list the
outstanding feature is the rise of the
English. England holds 2. S. 7 and
has a chance for 10 in the list. France.
with a questionable hold on l and with
and follows. The U. S. A., with
and 4, has not its usual power. Japan
returns to prominence with 8. and
Stefam holds Italy's place with 10
am greatly impressed by the wide range
OF the nations and the evident leveIine
OF the ability of several leading con.
tenders.
No longer is French victory in anv
event an assumed fact once her stars
enter. Today England and the United
states are almost on equal terms with
France. Our golden Jubilee tourna-
ment should do much to iron out some
OF tnese conflicting records of the mo-
ment. I look to see Austin, Perry and
Hughes OF England, Borotra, BouSSIIs
and possibly Cochet of France. with
q remote chance of Satoh of Japan and
Ste!anl OF Italy in our championships
II SO, then look to see our bovs'
particularly Shields, Wood. Doep,
vines, Lott, Van Ryn and Allison. break
up the foreign domination and change
re face Of the first 10.
'NopyrlgnL, 1881. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance, Incl
RUGBY OLD AT HARVARD.