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About Yale Alumni Magazine | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1899)
wy WOT A ae oO Eee Ae CBNNIS OF THE SUMMER, The Game’s Revival—The Principal Matches—Yale’s Players. By ArtTHuR E. Foote. The tennis season of ’99. just brought to a close by the National Champion- ships at Newport, has been a most stc- cessful one despite the fact that the stimulus given to the game by inter- national matches such as were seen dur- ing the seasons of ’95-’97, has been lack- ine. The American game this year has depended solely upon American players and it is encouraging to those interested in the game to see that a keener inter- est has been taken in tournament play than in several years past. Golf enthu- siasts try to imagine that golf has robbed tennis of its popularity, but proofs of this are not at hand, for tournaments have never been so ntumerous and en- thusiastically attended, and never have the important tournaments developed such a high class of play as this year. Whether or not Whitman, this year’s champion, could in his present form have defeated Sears, Slocum, Campbell or Wrenn, when at their top form, is a much mooted question, but certain it is that the game has steadily advanced and that to-day there are a score of men whose play as a whole would be far in advance of the best twenty men of five or ten years ago. It is thus seen that the growth in tennis skill‘has been healthy. It is to be regr.tted that Wrenn, the champion of ’94, ’96, ’97, did not enter tournament play this year. Last sea- son he and Larned were with the Rough Riders in Cuba, and so Whitman did not meet the two best men in the country. Fever contracted at Santiago has greatly impaired the health of both Wrenn and Larned so that the former has played no tennis at all this year, and the latter has appeared in but a few tournaments where he has shown some very erratic tennis far below his former brilliant form.. With Wrenn and Larned absent, M. D. Whitman ends the season the acknowledged peer of American tennis. His record this season has been a clean one, for he remains unbeaten. His title to the American championship is not disputed. Whitman by his attitude toward tour- nament play has given to tennis a health- ful spirit of sportsmanship which is most creditable to him. Until the present year it has been the unwritten law for the champion to carefully select a few tournaments which shall be so arranged that he shall through them reach his ton form at Newport. His appearance, heretofore, in public has been infrequent. This year however, Whitman has played in every available tournament, meeting all comers and ending the sea- son with the remarkable record of not having suffered a single defeat. Last year Whitman won only the National and Middle States championships, but this season he has not only successfully defended his title to these two events, but in addition has won the Massachu- setts and New York State, Canadian, Longwood (Boston), and Southampton championship, a record never before made in American tennis. THE SEASON’S SURPRISE. The surprise of the season was the meteoric play of J. P. Paret at Newport, where he in turn cleverly defeated M. G.* Chace). "06 Se Po Avery, Re oP. Huntington, ’91; L. E. Ware, and D. F. Davis. For several years Paret has been active in tournament play, but has never been considered more than a good second-class player. played in every important tournament, before Newport he had won no matches of note. Having been defeated by J. C. Davidson in the Southern, G. P. Dodge, 99, in the New England, J. A. Allen, 1901, in the Lenox (N. Y.), E. P. Fis- cher in the Metropolitan, R. Stevens in the Middle States, M. D. Whitman in the Canadian, C. R. Budlong in the Newcastle, H. H. Hackett, 1900, in the Sorrento, and by D. F. Davis in the Longwood championships, he was not thought of as a possible candidate for honors at Newport. His physical con- dition had much to do with his success, as was especially shown in his matches against Chace, Huntington and Ware, who were clearly not in training. Paret’s match with D. F. Davis in the Newport finals was a fine exhibition of steady, careful, heady and at the same Although he had time aggressive play against the speed, brilliancy and dash which when under. control is invincible, but which when not so, falls an easy prey to the steadiness of an inferior player. Davis had been looked upon as the probable winner of the tournament and his matches against Bond and Collins had shown him in ex- cellent form, but he was unable to main- tain the high standard he had set for himself on the. season’s play; however, Davis is entitled to a ranking second only to Whitman. INTERSCHOLASTIC TENNIS. In America the best exponents of ten- nis are either college men or those still in school, and it is but seldom that a player of any ranking is found over 25 years of age. This:is-a pity, for in England, a player does not expect to reach his top form till he is near 30 years old. As tennis is so much of a college man’s game, it is but natural that the various colleges should foster the game among the preparatory schools. This has been done with excellent re- sults, for Wrenn; Chace, ’96S.; Bud- long; Ware; Fincke and Wright have in turn been interscholastic champions. The winners of the various inter- scholastic tournaments this year were: Harvard—B. C. Wright of Hopkinson (Boston). ; Yale—Miller of Hotchkiss (Lake- ville). Princeton—M. Thompson of Law- renceville. : Missouri—Adams of Smith Academy. Maine—Bradford of Thornton. Columbia—W. C. Grant of New York. It has been the custom for the winners of these tournaments to meet at New- port and there play for the Interscholas- tic Championship of the United States. Harvard and Columbia were alone represented this year and the title was won by B. C. Wright, Harvard’s repre- sentative, who is acknowledged to be the most promising of our younger players. It, is to be regretted that neither Yale’s (Miller) nor Princeton’s (Thompson) representatives put in an appearance. : STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS. It was originally planned by the United States Tennis Association that only act- ual residents of the states in which the tournaments are given shall be eligible for entrance, but this excellent rule has lapsed and now we find it possible for one man to hold several state tourna- ments. These matches serve an excel- lent purpose in stimulating local tennis and large entry lists usually result, as for example the Massachusetts State Championship, in which 32 men played, among whom were eight ranked men, Whitman, Ware, Davis, Ward, Wright, Codman and Marvin, a coterie of bril- liant Harvard players. The winners of the more important State championships were: Massachusetts—Singles, M. D. Whit- man; Doubles, None. New Jersey—Singles, R. Stevens; , Doubles, W. A. and E. P. Larned. Pennsylvania—Singles, Dr. N. T. Wil- son; Doubles, Wilson and Carpenter. New York—M. D. Whitman; Dou- bles, None. Maine—Singles, H. H. Hackett, 1900; Doubles, Bond and Fischer. SECTIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS. Next in importance to the National comes the sectional tournaments which are held all over the country. The play in these is often quite as good as that seen at Newport, for the first few ranked men usually make the round of the. tournaments during the Summer. The Longwood tournament is always very attractive to all players and this year its entry list was swollen to 48 singles and 19 pairs of doubles. Messrs. Campbell and Huntington, the United States double champions of ’91 and ’g2, here re-appeared after an absence of several years. They both showed ex- cellent form considering their lack of practice. While well in the midst of an important match, Campbell sprained his ankle and the match went by de- fault. . The Middle States tournament held at Orange brought together Larned, Davis, Stevens and Whitman in an entry list of 44. Larned showed a bit of his old brilliant form, but lost to Whitman in the challenge round. The results of the more important Sectional Champion- ships are as follows: SINGLES, DOUBLES, Southern...._.._J. C. Davidson__ : : 2, ee sie New England._..A. E. Foote... | H, H. Hackett. J. A. Allen, Pacific Coast....G. F. Whitney. Middle States ...M. D. Whitman. | H- Ward. . FE, Davis. Western ______.. Cy Neel se 2y- 3 ; ed dain Longwood...... M. D. Whitman. / eae ene CHAMPIONSHIP DOUBLES. The plan adopted by the National Committee of having the Western championship decided at Chicago and the Eastern at Longwood is a good one, and although the doubles have usually been held by Eastern men, the Neel Bros. of Chicago have shown us that good doubles are also played in the West. Hackett, 1900, and Allen, 1901, have played together in a number of the tour- naments, in some of which they have shown excellent form and it was no sur- prise to have them win the Western dou- bles. The Eastern championship was hotly contested at Longwood, where Ward and Davis won over Budlong and Wright. The match at Newport be- tween the East and -West to decide which pair should have the honor of challenging Ware and Sheldon, ex-’g9 for the United States Championship, re- sulted in a victory for Davis and Ward; considering the fact that Allen was play- ing with an injured ankle it must be said that the Yale pair put up a very plucky game. Ware and Sheldon, the holders of the championshp, were in very poor condition to defend their title, as they had had no previous practice to- gether, and Sheldon especially, was in poor form. The Vouble Championship of the United States therefore fell to Ward and Davis, after a comparatively easy three set match. OPEN TOURNAMENTS In addition to the State and Sectional Tournament, which as a matter of fact are “open,”’ there have been the usual number of “open” tournaments in which local payers have more _ particularly played. Perhaps the most important has been that held at Hotel Wentworth, New Hampshire, where Wright the In- terscholastic champion carried off first honors. The doubles were won by Bond and Fischer. During the latter part of June the Lenox Club of New York held an interesting tournament, where some good play was seen _be- tween Allen, 1901; Hackett, 1900; Paret; Davidson; Grant and Wright. Allen by a strong aggressive game won the tour- nament, defeating Paret in the finals. The doubles were won by Hackett and Allen. INVITATION TOURNAMENT. In former years these have been by far the best class of tournament, both from the players and spectators stand- points, for each match was sure to be well contested and free from the “weed- ing out process.” Had a team of Eng- lishment been with us this year, invita- tion tournaments would have been held at West Newton, Hoboken, Chicago and Manchester (Mass.), but as no English team appeared plans for most of these were given up. Sia Bond demonstrated his superiority over seven other first-class Western players by winning the Chicago Invita- tion with seven victories and no defeats. Through the efforts of Judge H. E. Howland, ’54, an excellent tournament was given at Southampton. A surprise almost as great as Paret’s victory at Newport occurred there when J. D. Pell, the Champion of Columbia College, de- feated W. A. Larned in three straight sets. Larned was clearly out of con- dition and after this match decided to give up the game for the remainder of the season. The tournament. went to Whitman, who defeated Ware in the finals. 3 LADIES CHAMPIONSHIPS. It must be frankly admitted that the popularity of golf and its adaptability to ladies’ exercise has accounted for the few ladies who now play tennis. The only tournament of importance which has been held was that at Wissahickon Club, Philadelphia, where Miss Marion Jones defeated Miss Banks and won the title owing to the non-appearance of Miss Atkinson, who has been the acknowledged pgs years, e doubles were won by Miss Cr and Miss McAteer and the mixed do bles by Miss Rastall and Mr. Haskins. woman champion for INTERCOLLEGIATE TENNIS. This tournament will be held in New Haven soon after the opening of college and should arouse much interest, as this will be the first year of play for a new: cup, Harvard having won the necessary points by her victory last year. to give her final possession of the old trophy. Yale’s strongest men will be H. H. Hackett, I9g00, and J. A. Allen, 1901, who should give a good account of themselves both in singles and doubles. It. is hoped that they will meet Ward and Davis and reverse the result of Newport. Harvard is very strong in singles and with Whitman, Ward and Davis should obtain first place. Princeton will send Little (Champion of College) and Thompson, two fairly strong men. YALE TENNIS, The college class tournament all aroused much interest this Spring and the revival seems to be of a healthy nature. The results were as follows: 99 Championship won by Noyes. 1900 Championship won by Walworth. 1901 Championship won by Allen. 1902 Championship won by Childs. In the final series. Allen defeated Childs and won the College Champion- ship from H. H. Hackett. Below will be found individual records of Yale men in tournaments this year as well as the winners of the most im- portant tournaments throughout the country. R. P. Huntington, ’91, defeated D. R. Hooker; Galpin; Prof. Chase: R. Stevens; McKittrick and R. D. Little. R. P. Huntington, ’91, was defeated by C. P. Dodge, ’99; D. F. Davis; M. Whit- Mant and...) ...P.; Pavet. : H. H. Hackett, 1900, defeated G. H. Nettleton, ’96, and E. W. Lewis. H. H. Hackett was defeated by A. E. Foote, 96; J. W. Allen, 1901, and W. C. Grant. M. G. Chace was defeated by J.. P. Paret at Newport. This was his only match of the season. A. E. Foote defeated Henderson, ’99; Trowbridge, ‘99; Noyes, ’99; Hackett, 1900; Hooker, ’99. and Dodge, ’99._ His only tournament was the New England. J. A. Allen, 1901, defeated N. A. Simyeh,..073 «J.B. Wines: Ko De Little; HH -Pallant: J.~ G. Davidson: VWwooe, - Tomlinson; Cutter; Carlton, Richard; H. H. Hackett, 1900; Wadsworth; O. M... Bostwick: « 1h. B -Parets. 2) Forbes; H. Avery; S. Millett and J. D. Pell. | J. A. Allen was defeated by J. P. Paret (twice); W.. A. Larned and M. D. Whitman. H. H. Hackett and J. A. Allen de- feated E. E. Hall and H. S. Galpin; L. Sanford and Dr. Chase; R. Hooker and A. E. Foote; N. Noyes and G.. P. Dodge; Brooks Bros and W. A. and E. P. Larned. H. H. Hackett and J. A. Allen were defeated by Ward and Davis. R. P. and F. Huntington defeated D. R. Hooker and E. W. Watrous. R. P. and F. Huntington were de- feated by Noyes and Dodge and Whit- man and Ware. EASTERN AND WESTERN TENNIS. Since the end of the Newport.tourna- ment the most important event in the tennis world has been the contests be- tween representatives of the East (Whit- man, Davis, Ward and Wright) and of the West (the Whitney Bros. and Hardy Bros.) on the Del Monte courts, Monterey, Cal. For a number of years futile attempts have been made to bring together representatives of the best ten- nis of the East and West. The con- tests this year have been hard fought, but have proven without the question of a doubt that the standard of Eastern tennis is far above that of the West, for out of the 16 matches played, the East- ern players won 14 matches and the Western 2; these last being both won by Sumner Hardy over Wright and Ward. In doubles Wright and Ward easily defeated the Whitney Bros. in straight sets. The results of the third and fourth rounds were as follows: [Continued on 8th page.]
