His service is a speedy slice.He drives with great speed, if as yet with none too much accuracy, off both fore and backhand.His net attack is very severe while overhead he is deadly.His speed of foot is remarkable, and he is a very hard worker.His limitations are in his lack of a set plan of attack and the steady adherence to any given method of play.He throws away too many easy chances, but this will correct itself as time goes on and Danet has fought through more tournaments.I consider him a playerof great promise.
Max Decugis and Brugnon, the two remaining members of the 1920 Davis Cup team of France, present totally different types.Decugis, crafty, cool, and experienced, is the veteran of many long seasons of match play.He is a master tactician, and wins most of his matches by outgeneralling the other player.Burgnon is brilliant, flashy, hard hitting, erratic, and inexperienced.He is very young, hardly twenty years of age.He has a fine fore-hitting style and excellent net attack, but lacks confidence and a certain knowledge of tennis fundamentals.A few years' experience will do wonders for him.
The French style of play commends itself to me very highly.I enjoy watching the well-executed strokes, beautiful mobile footwork of these dashing players.It is more a lack of dogged determination to win, than in any stroke fault that one finds the reason for French defeats.The temperamental genius of this great people carries with it a lack of stability that can be the only explanation for the sudden crushing and unexpected defeats their representatives receive on the tennis courts.
I was particularly impressed during my visit to France by the large numbers of children playing tennis and the style of game displayed.The sport shows a healthy increase and should produce some fine players within the next ten years.
Keen competition is the corrective measure for temperamental instability and with the advent of many new players in French tennis I would not be surprised to see a marked decrease of unexpected defeats of their leading players.
Japan
A new element has entered the tennis world in the last decade.The Orient has thrust its shadow over the courts in the persons of a small group of remarkable tennis players, particularly Ichija Kumagae and Zenzo Shimidzu, the famous Japanese stars.
Kumagae, who for some years reigned supreme in Japan and Honolulu, has lived in America for the past three years.Shimidzu is a product of Calcutta, where he has lived for some years.
No player has caused more discussion than Kumagae, unless it isShimidzu; while surely no man received more critical comment than Shimidzu, except Kumagae.The press of America and England have vied with each other in exploiting these two men.There was unanimity of opinion concerning these two men in one respect.No finer sportsmen nor more delightful opponents can be found than these Japanese.They have won the respect and friendship of all who have met them.
