Evening star., 1933-04-23
HAS EVERY ASSET
But CONSISTENCY
Promised Davis Cup Sub Job
if UnaccountabIy Spotty
Game Is Improved.
BY LAWRENCE PERRY.

n YEW YORK, April 22.-Hope
M is held out to Frank Shields
l Y that if he lifts his game of
tennis to a more consist
emily satisfactory plane this
Spring he may be taken to France
and England as a supplementary
member of the Davis Cup team.
The constant wonder about this
young man is that right at the present
time he does not rate pretty close to
Ellswoth Vines
The reason he doesn't is because of
the frightful Inconsistency of his
game, E. tendency to lapse at wrong
times, which is the more inexplicable
because he seems to have everything
that makes for greatness in the game
superb bu.lG, gsmaness, command of
strokes, speed, power and most ingra-
tiatlrg court manners. Yet he can
lose more heavily in form in a match
than any ranking pla, er in the game.
FOR purposes of explanation, say
- tAiot NC 1stC pCIlCII E1uIe OI
tennis at 100 per cent Now,
men like Tilden, Lacoste. Cochet and a
few others may be relied. upon to pro-
duce IS or IS per cent tennis at their
very worst. In other words. their
games never fall more than Is per
cent below perfect.
Ellsworth Vines is yet too young in
the game to b. rated in the matter of
fluctuation. He is nc. yet settled, but
every theory concerning him inciiles
to the belief that within a year or two
he will be as consistent as any one.
For he is sober, serious youth, the
sort of player who it is believed will
most certainly establish his game.
Now. Shields may go out and turn in
a f1awless game Of tennis. He has, and
he will. But take his average of play
throughout the season. and you find it
to be no better than SIS or 60 per cent.
This means he has not been able to
lift his game to a dependable level
Any player chosen for Davis Cup play
must be dependable. There is too much
able as that of Shields. Our national
prestige in tennis depends upon the
Davis Cup team, and besides it costs q
lot of money to send a tennis player
abroad.
CHIELDS might well beat any OF the
~ boys selected for the Davis Cup
team, then go to Paris and blow his
matches. In his present form this is
the chance that would be taken on him
if he were manned as Davis Cup player.
Some day he may round to. and If he
does he will be one OF Americas grand
est tennis assets.
In connection with this game of ten
mis-, one of the officers of the United
States Lawn Tennis Association WON
ders what would happen If our players
were willing to employ at least some Of
the more elementary methods of train
ing for their matches. None of them,
Vines excepted. do. He is the easiest
man in the world to handle and will
do anything that any one in authority
suggests.
But most, If not all, of the rest pre-
pare for tennis as an indulgent man
of middle age might prepare for 18
holes of golf. Their diet is literally
amazing in its quantity and wide
choice of dishes. They smoke all they
want and in general are as deeply en-
crossed in the social adjuncts to the
game they play as in tennis itself
Yet. abroad they must have seen the
intensive manner in which Cochet
trains for important matches, and they
must know of Lacoste's seriously scien-
tific methods of preparation, just as
they know that Bill Tilden never even
smoked a cigarette until his waning
days as an amateur.