Evening star., 1933-01-24
FRENCH STAR HELD
SUPERIOR TO VINES
Henri Defeated Because He
Underestimated Yankee,
TiIden Believes.
BY ALAN GOULD,
Associated Press Sports Editor.

n 6W 1OIh, JANUARY "a
M Bill Tilden agrees with his
i Y professional tennis asso-
ciate, Vincent Richards,
that the United States of America
will find it very difficult indeed to
dislodge the Davis Cup from the
French this year, but for a differ
ent reason.
Where Richards believes the present
policy of furnishing year-round ac-
tivity for Vines, Allison, Van Ryn and
other American aces will take the edge
of their game by Summer, Tlden
sticks to an old guardsman's belief that
the real obstacle to our success at Paris
will be Henri Cochet
Notwithstanding Cochets two de-
feats by Vines at Auteuil and Forest
Hills and the Frenchman's subsequent
displacement as world No. l player by
the American champion. Tilden thinks
it will be different story when they
meet again this year. Big Bill says
Cochct underestimated Vines on both
oSSdolOilS lC hdS UNdOCll ldSG yCol, buI
will not repeat this mistake.
THERE were, of course, extenuat-
i ing circumstances both times Vines
licked the little French stylist. The
Americans Davis Cup victory came
after Jean Eorotra had beate1 Wilmer
Allison in the singles for the deciding
point. At Forest Hills, Cochet was
obliged to battle Vines shortly after
finishing the fifth set of his semi-final
with Allison. He was tired and a bit
disgruntled.
On that afternoon, however, Cochet
hardly would have been a match for
Vines under any circumstances. Henri
admitted this, even though he felt he
was entitled to "SquaWk" about the ar
rangcments.
Our boys have now missed at least
two good chances to recover the Davis
Cup. Even with the French dynasty
slipping, they have no reason to be
overconfident. They will do we'll to
concentrate their resources for the big
campaign and pay no attention to the
ballyhoo.
THERE will be a good deal of Off
L clal scoftlne at Gene SaraZen's
radical suggestion for increasing
the size of the golf cup from 414 inches
TO inches, but Old John Duffer and
his pals, it seems to me, will be very
much in favor of experimenting with
II to see whether it would really be as
helpful as it sounds.
The answer to the official scoffers is:
Why not experiment with larger cup?
The esteemed gentlemen who are
pledged to safeguard the sanctity of
the royal and ancient game were suf-
nclently radical to do a lot of eX-
perimenting with the size and weight
Of the ball.
Not content with that, our American
authorities defied the parental British
rulers by sending up the balloon ball"
Then they hauled it down, as result
OF insurrection in the ranks, and sent
up another one, heavier but still the
"balloon" size of 1.68 inches in diameter.
So, II the larger ball is here to stay,
as now seems likely why not be con-
slstent and enlarge the cup?
WE would be satisfied to compro-
w mise on 6-inch cup, as means
toward ending a few of our wor-
ries on the greens, but JOHNNY Farrell
thinks larger hole would have too
much tendency to standardize the pro-
ceedlngs
AS one OF our better putters. Johnny
doesn't believe the larger cup would in
crease very much the percentage of
puts dropping from $3.50 feet or more.
AS he sees the prospect. on the other
hand the player who failed to reach
the green would be able to chip I'D more
often to halve the hole.
Maybe SO, but that also is worth an
experiment to see what actually is
likely to happen with bigger cup.