The early season of 1921 saw a significant and to my way of
looking at it, wise move on the part of New Zealand when the New
Zealand tennis association withdrew from the Australasian tennis
association and decided to compete for the Davis Cup in future
years as a separate nation.
No one can deny the great help Australia has been to New Zealand
in tennis development, but the time has come now for New Zealand
to stand on her own. Since the regrettable death of Anthony F.
Wilding, in whose memory New Zealand has a tennis asset and
standard that will always hold a place in world sport, the New
Zealand tennis players have been unable to produce a player of
skill enough to make the Davis Cup team of Australasia. It has
fallen to Australia with Norman E. Brookes, to whose unfailing
support and interest Australasian tennis owes its progress since
the war, G. L. Patterson, W. H. Anderson, R. L. Heath, and Pat
O'Hara Wood to uphold the traditions of the game.
The Davis Cup challenge round of 1921 was staged in New Zealand
in accord with the agreement between Australia and New Zealand
and also in memory of A. F. Wilding. The tremendous interest in
the play throughout the entire country showed the time was ripe
for a drastic step forward if the step was ever to be taken. So
after careful consideration the split of Australia and New
Zealand has taken place. What will this mean to New Zealand?
First it means that it will be years before another Davis Cup
match will be staged on her shores, for it takes time and plenty
of it to produce a winning team, but at the time, the fact is
borne in on the tennis playing faction in New Zealand that as
soon as they desire to challenge, their players will gain the
opportunity of International competition.
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