Sport: Racketeers

For several years there was very little doubt about who would win the National Singles Championship at Forest Hills, L. I. Tilden would swing lazily through the first rounds; in the third and fourth rounds it became easier to see that he would win the last. In late afternoon matches his huge shadow would creep and flicker toward the clubhouse. By the time his opponent’s shadow was in the middle of the press marquee, Tilden’s shadow had gone upstairs. It was a terrifying shadow, with steps like dark lightning, enough to frighten any opponent.

This year, Tilden, suspended from amateur play for writing signed articles, attended the matches in a grey suit after he had left the vaudeville theatre where he was doing a turn. Henri Cochet was picked to win and would have been even if Tilden had been playing. Nevertheless, the tournament was a series of upsets.

In the first round Dr. George A. King took three straight sets from John Hennessey who has been regarded as the best of the U. S. amateurs, in this melancholy season.

The next round proceeded without untoward victories and defeats. Cochet, waggling his head from time to time as if he were baffled by the problem of what to have for dinner, put little Junior Coen out of the running.

Four of the eight matches in the third round were upsets. Hunter beat “Bounding Basque” Borotra, 0-6, 5-7, 6-0, 6-4, 6-2. Australian Jack Crawford eliminated John Van Ryn, Princeton star. Brugnon beat Dr. King who had slumped after his match with Hennessey, Disconcerted, Cochet captured three out of four listless sets from menacing Mercur.

In the quarter finals, Frank Shields, the U. S. Junior Champion who lives in Brooklyn and has a serious face, beat famed Jacques Brugnon, the veteran of the French contingent, 7-5, 6-1, 6-0. Abruptly people realized that Shields had not yet, in his six tournament matches, lost a single set. Would he beat Cochet in the semifinals? Basing their predictions upon the failure of previous predictions, the experts admitted that he might. Shields didn’t. In the finals, Hunter met Cochet.

Hunter came out first; Cochet seemed to be nervous as they stood in front of the cup for the camera men. Hunter went through the first set, Cochet took the second, Hunter the third. After the five-minute rest, Cochet came out in a knitted shirt, his eyes looking huge and tired in his little pale face. He spurted five games; Hunter caught him; Cochet took the set and then, speeding up his game to somewhere near its peak, the last one. The scores: 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.