Sport: Rubber Czech

Having played two matches in Europe to determine the unofficial world’s professional tennis championship, Vincent Richards and Karel Kozeluh were to play three more in the U. S. But since Kozeluh had won the first two he had only to win the third to clinch the series. This, last week, in Manhattan, by scores of 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, Kozeluh did. The match was played on Sunday; as soon as it began, Kozeluh and Richards were served with summonses. After that they went on playing.

Everyone knows about Vincent Richards, who used to beat Tilden more often than anyone else till he became one of Cold Cash Pyle’s pro’s. Nobody, in the U. S. at least, seemed to know much about Karel Kozeluh. Admitted by most experts who have seen him play to be the greatest tennis player in the world, Karel Kozeluh prefers the game of hockey at which he is almost equally expert. He is a member of a family famous in Prague for their sporting activities; when 12, he had saved up enough money which he made from serving as a ball-boy to buy himself a tennis racquet. In 1919, not having touched a racquet for five years, he lost a five-set match to Washburn; since then he has not lost any match which he wanted to win. Lacoste, Cochet, Borotra, Tilden—these he has not played because they are, so to speak, amateurs. Kozeluh is a small brown man, as flexible as rubber, as quick as a squirrel; he speaks English badly; he is 32 years old.

The match in which Kozeluh beat Richards last week was not characterized by that tense, almost insane hunger for points with which amateurs excite galleries and rattle their linesmen. Both men seemed to be enjoying their game; Kozeluh would explain “Bed lock!” to the gallery when Richards dropped a volley. His game was distinctively that of a professional; he carried his racquet awkwardly at his side, played from the base-line with, a long follow-through and a short backswing, ran for nothing which he could not get and got practically everything he tried for. His returns were never purely defensive. He coaxed Richards, the best volleyer in the world, to the net so that he could win points passing him. This week, at Forest Hills, will be played the U. S. Professional Championship Tournament. Until amateurs gain enough nerve to enter professional tournaments, the winner of this is only unofficially the open champion.