The Art of Lawn Tennis Part 13

5. Zenzo s.h.i.+midzu Beat Wallace Johnson (2), Anderson, Hawkes, Niles. Lost to Johnston, Tilden (2), Vosh.e.l.l (2). Richards (2) (in exhibitions).

6. Wallace Johnson Beat Watson, Washburn, Anderson. Lost to Tilden, s.h.i.+midzu (2).

7. Watson Washburn Beat Williams, Johnston, Vosh.e.l.l. Lost to Wallace Johnson, Tilden, Atherton Richards (a most sensational upset).

8. J. O. Anderson of Australia Beat R. N. Williams, Tilden, Hawkes, Lowe. Lost to Wallace Johnson, k.u.magae, s.h.i.+midzu.

9. S. H. Vosh.e.l.l Beat s.h.i.+midzu (2) , Davis. Lost to Richards, Williams, Washburn, Neer (an upset), Allen Behr (a gift).

10. W. E. Davis Beat Richards, R. Kinsey, Lowe. Lost to Niles, L.

B. Rice (an upset), R. Kinsey, Vosh.e.l.l and Tilden.

These few records show how useless comparative scores may be. If another season like 1921 strikes American tennis, the ranking will need either clairvoyance or a padded cell.

These upsets are part of the zest of the game and it is due to the very uncertainty of tennis that the public is daily becoming more enthusiastic about the game. I believe next year will see even a greater interest taken in it than was shown this.

Second in importance only to the big events themselves was the season in junior tennis.

Little Miss Helen Wills, in her first Eastern season, won the junior champions.h.i.+p for girls and brought to the game one of the most delightful personalities that has appeared in many years.

Her success at her early age should prove a great boom to girls'

tennis all over America.

Vincent Richards pa.s.ses from the junior ranks this year but leaves a successor who is worthy to wear his mantle in the person of Arnold W. Jones of Providence. Jones should outcla.s.s the field in 1922, by as wide a margin as did Richards this year.

Arnold Jones has had a remarkable record. He won the boys'

champions.h.i.+p of America in 1919. In 1920 he carried Richards to a close match in the National junior Singles, taking one set. He was ranked "two" for the year.

This year Arnold had his greatest year of his brief career. He journeyed to France and England, as the official junior representative of America, recognized by the National Tennis a.s.sociation. He played splendidly in France, defeating A. Cousin in the hard court champions.h.i.+p of the world and forced Tegner, the Danish Davis Cup star, to a close battle before admitting defeat. His sensational play in the doubles was a great aid in carrying him and me to the semi-final ground, where we lost to Gobert and Laurentz after five terrific sets. In England young Jones played Jacob, Captain of the Indian Davis Cup team, a splendid match.

On his return to America he carved his niche in the Hall of Junior Tennis fame by defeating Harold G.o.dshall of California, W.

W. Ingraham of Providence and Morgan Bernstein of New York on successive days in the junior champions.h.i.+p. He forced Richards to a bitter fight in final, and again proved beyond question that he is but a step behind Richards today, although he is a full year younger.

G.o.dshall, Ingraham, Charles Wood, Jr., Bernstein, Jerry Lang, Charles Watson III, Fritz Mercur and many other boys are but a step behind Jones. With this list of rising players, need we face the future with anything but the most supreme confidence in our ability to hold our place in the tennis world!

There were two other remarkable features to the tennis season of 1921, both of them in America. The first was the appearance of the Davis Cup team on the court of the White House, Was.h.i.+ngton, in response to a personal invitation from President and Mrs.

Harding. The President, who is a keen sportsman, placed official approval on tennis by this act. On May 8th and 9th, Captain Samuel Hardy, R. N. Williams, Watson Washburn and I, together with Wallace F. Johnson, who understudied for William M.

Johnston, met in a series of matches before a brilliant a.s.sembly of Diplomatic, Military and Political personages. C. S. Garland was unable to accompany the team owing to illness. Julian S.

Myrick, President of the U. S. L. T. A., and A. Y. Leech completed the party.

Rain, that hoodoo of tennis, attempted to ruin the event for it fell steadily for the five days previous to the match. The court was a sea of mud on the morning scheduled, but the President desired play and the word went on "to play." Mr. Leech and Mr.

Myrick, ever ready for emergencies in tennis, called for gasolene, which was forthcoming speedily, and, while the Chief Executive of the United States interviewed men on the destiny of nations, the people of Was.h.i.+ngton watched nearly 200 barrels of gasolene flare up over the surface of the court. The desired result was attained and at 2 o'clock President Harding personally called play. Singles between Williams and me opened the matches.

Then Williams and Washburn decisively defeated Johnson and me, following which Williams and I nosed out Washburn and Johnson to close the program.

The second outstanding feature was the tour for the benefit of the American Committee for Devastated France. The appearance in America of Mlle. Suzanne Lenglen was due primarily to the efforts of Miss Anne Morgan, who secured the services of the famous French champion for a tour of the States, the proceeds to go to Devastated France. Mlle. Lenglen's regrettable collapse and forced departure left the Committee in a serious position. The American Tennis a.s.sociation, which had co- operated with Miss Morgan in the Lenglen tour, found its clubs eager for a chance to stage matches for France but no matches available. Finally, in October, in response to the voluntary offer of several of the leading players, a team was organized that toured the East for the benefit of Devastated France. It included Mrs. Franklin I.

Mallory, American champion, Miss Eleanor Goss, Miss Leslie Bancroft, Mrs. B. F. Cole, Mrs. F. H. G.o.dfrey, Vincent Richards, Watson Washburn, N. W. Niles, R. N. Williams, W. F. Johnson and myself. Matches were staged at Orange, Short Hills, Morristown and Elizabeth, New Jersey, Green Meadow Club, Jackson Heights Club, Ardsley-on-the-Hudson, New Roch.e.l.le, Yonkers, New York, New Haven, and Hartford, Connecticut. They proved a tremendous success financially, and France netted a sum in excess of $10,000.

PART IV: SOME SIDELIGHTS ON FAMOUS PLAYERS

INTRODUCTORY

P. T. BARNUM immortalised Lincoln's language by often quoting him with: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." P. T. was an able judge of the public, and it is just this inability to fool all of the people all of the time that accounts for the sudden disappearance from the public eye of some one who only fooled all of the people for a little while. That person was a sham, a bluff, a gamester. He, or she, as the case may be, had no personality.

Personality needs no disguise with which to fool the people. It is not hidden in a long-hair eccentric being. That type is merely one of those who are "born every minute," as the saying goes.

Personality is a dynamic, compelling force. It is a positive thing that will not be obliterated.

Personality is a s.e.xless thing. It transcends s.e.x. Theodore Roosevelt was a compelling personality, and his force and ability were recognized by his friends and enemies alike while the public, the ma.s.ses, adored him without knowing why. Sarah Bernhardt, Eleanor Duse, and Mary Garden carry with them a force far more potent in its appeal to the public than their mere feminine charm. They hold their public by personality. It is not trickery, but art, plus this intangible force.

The great figures in the tennis world that have held their public in their hands, all have been men of marked personality. Not all great tennis players have personality. Few of the many stars of the game can lay claim to it justly. The most powerful personality in the tennis world during my time is Norman E.

Brookes, with his peculiar sphinx-like repression, mysterious, quiet, and ominous calm. Brookes repels many by his peculiar personality. He never was the popular hero that other men, notably M'Loughlin and Wilding, have been. Yet Brookes always held a gallery enthralled, not only by the sheer wizardry of his play, but by the power of his magnetic force.

Maurice E. M'Loughlin is the most remarkable example of a wonderful dynamic personality, literally carrying a public off its feet. America and England fell before the dazzling smile and vibrant force of the red-haired Californian. His whole game glittered in its radiance. His was a triumph of a popular hero.

Anthony F. Wilding, quiet, charming, and magnetic, carried his public away with him by his dynamic game. It was not the whirlwind flash of the Comet M'Loughlin that swept crowds off their feet, it was more the power of repression that compelled.

I know no other tennis players that sweep their public away with them to quite the same degree as these three men I have mentioned. R. L. Murray has much of M'Loughlin's fire, but not the spontaneity that won the hearts of the crowd. Tennis needs big personalities to give the public that glow of personal interest that helps to keep the game alive. A great personality is the property of the public. It is the price he must pay for his gift.

It is the personal equation, the star, who appeals to the public's imagination.

I do not think it is the star who keeps the game alive. It is that great cla.s.s of players who play at clubs the world over, who can never rise above the dead level of mediocrity, the ma.s.s of tennis enthusiasts who play with dead racquets and old b.a.l.l.s, and who attend all big events to witness the giants of the court, in short, "The Dubs" (with a capital D), who make tennis what it is, and to whom tennis owes its life, since they are its support and out from them have come our champions.

Champions are not born. They are made. They emerge from a long, hard school of defeat, dis- encouragement, and mediocrity, not because they are born tennis players, but because they are endowed with a force that transcends discouragement and cries "I will succeed."

There must be something that carries them up from the ma.s.s. It is that something which appeals in some form to the public. The public may like it, or they may dislike it, but they recognize it. It may be personality, dogged determination, or sheer genius of tennis, for all three succeed; but be it what it may, it brings out a famous player. The quality that turns out a great player, individualizes his game so that it bears a mark peculiar to himself. I hope to be able to call to mind the outstanding qualities of some of the leading tennis players of the world.

Where to start, in a field so great, representing as it does America, the British Isles, Australia, France, j.a.pan, South Africa, Rumania, Holland, and Greece, is not an easy task; but it is with a sense of pride and a knowledge that there is no game better fitted to end this section of my book, and no man more worthy to lead the great players of the world, that I turn to William M. Johnston, the champion of the United States of America, and my team-mate in the Davis Cup team of 1920.

CHAPTER XII. AMERICA

WILLIAM M. JOHNSTON

The American champion is one of the really great orthodox players in the world. There is nothing eccentric, nothing freakish about his game.

Johnston is a small man, short and light; but by perfect weight-control, footwork, and timing he hits with terrific speed.

His service is a slice. Hit from the top of his reach Johnston gets power and twist on the ball with little effort. He has a wonderful forehand drive, of a top-spin variety. This shot is world famous, for never in the history of the game has so small a man hit with such terrific speed and accuracy. The racquet travels flat and then over the ball, with a peculiar wrist-snap just as the ball meets the racquet face. The shot travels deep and fast to the baseline.

Johnston's backhand is a decided "drag" or chop. He hits it with the same face of the racquet as his forehand, and with very little change in grip. It is remarkably steady and accurate, and allows Johnston to follow to the net behind it.

Johnston's volleying is hard, deep, and usually very reliable. He crouches behind his racquet and volleys directly in to the flight of the ball, hitting down. His low volleys are made with a peculiar wrist-flick that gives the rise and speed. His overhead is accurate, reliable, but not startling in its power. Johnston's game has no real weakness, while his forehand and volleying are superlative.

Johnston is a remarkable match player. He reaches his greatest game when behind. He is one of the hardest men to beat in the game owing to his utter lack of fear and the dogged determination with which he hangs on when seemingly beaten. He is quiet, modest, and a sterling sportsman. He gets a maximum result with a minimum effort.

R. N. WILLIAMS