1942: Tennis

In the face of heavy handicaps imposed by loss of players to the armed forces, scarcity of balls and transportation problems, lawn tennis went through the first year of the war without any great reduction in activity.

Contrasting with 1917, the United States Lawn Tennis Association decided to conduct its national championships as such instead of as a patriotic tournament that carried no title. Frederick Schroeder of Glendale, Calif. won the men's championship and Miss Pauline Betz of Los Angeles carried off the women's crown.

With many of the best-known players in the fighting ranks and in view of the fact that a number of the 1941 leaders, including Robert Riggs and Frank Kovacs, went into professional tennis, the quality of the play was not as high as usual. Nevertheless, the crowds stood up well during the tournament at Forest Hills; the AWVS, which shared in the proceeds, realized a tidy sum; and the final between Schroeder and Frank Parker of Hollywood, Calif. was one of the best the championship has known in recent years.

Parker, who remained out of competition in the East except for this one tournament, played exceptionally well and won over the gallery with his remarkable fight. After losing the first two sets, in which he enjoyed substantial leads, Parker came back brilliantly to take the next two, only to yield to the stronger lasting powers of his younger rival in the fifth. The women's final, too, was an exciting struggle in which Miss Betz turned the tables on Miss Louise Brough of Los Angeles, who had won every other women's tournament of the season on grass courts.

Among the players who were missing from the championships were Donald McNeill of Oklahoma City, who won the crown in 1940; Bryan Grant, Joe Hunt, Elwood Cooke, Charles Mattmann, Frank Guernsey, Wilmer Allison, John Van Ryn, Frank Shields, Edward Alloo, Hal Surface, J. Norman Anderson, and Chauncey Steele. All of these were competing for bigger stakes in the uniform of Uncle Sam. Gardnar Mulloy, J. Gilbert Hall, Gilbert Hunt and Russell Bobbitt, all in service, competed on furloughs, and Schroeder, after winning the championship, entered the Navy. Among the women players who were missing were Miss Helen Jacobs, Mrs. Sarah Palfrey Cooke, 1941 champion, and Miss Dorothy May Bundy.

The absence of these players was felt not only at Forest Hills but also at other tournaments throughout the country. Because of the lack of drawing names and also because gas and tire rationing created problems of transporting the players and the public to the matches, a number of clubs canceled their events. These included the Nassau Country Club, the Rockaway Hunting Club, the Orange Lawn Tennis Club and the Piping Rock Club.

The Seabright Lawn Tennis and Cricket Club, whose invitation tournament has been one of the classics of tennis for many years, limited its fixture to a three-day round-robin doubles tournament for men. The Meadow Club at Southampton cut down the number of players and held a round-robin singles tournament, along with a doubles event, and the Maidstone Club at East Hampton and the Westchester Country Club at Rye reduced the size and length of their tournaments.

The policy of the United States Lawn Tennis Association was to carry on so far as war conditions permitted and to get as many young players on the courts as possible, to keep themselves in shape prior to their being called into service. The clubs were urged to open their courts to the officers and enlisted personnel of nearby camps. Special holiday tournaments were conducted by member clubs to raise funds for the Red Cross.

Outstanding players of the season included Lieutenant (j. g.) Mulloy, William Talbert, Seymour Greenberg, George Richards, Victor Seixas, Ensign Charles Mattmann, Ladislav Hecht and two South Americans, Francisco (Pancho) Segura of Ecuador and Alejo Russell of Argentina.

Mulloy and Talbert won the national doubles. Talbert defeated Schroeder in the Newport final. Greenberg won the clay court crown. Segura won four tournaments in a row on clay, beating Schroeder in one. He defeated Talbert in the championship before losing to Parker in the semi-finals, and won from Mulloy in the Longwood Bowl classic, revived when the Longwood Country Club gave up the national doubles to be held with the singles at Forest Hills.

Russell, playing in this country for the first time, improved so much that he eliminated Wood in the championship and took a set from Schroeder. John Kramer was missing from the lists in the East, owing to an attack of appendicitis. Segura and Hecht were ranked in the first ten, the first foreign-born players so honored since 1927.

After Miss Betz and Miss Brough, the leading women players were Miss Margaret Osborne, Miss Helen Bernhard, Miss Mary Arnold, Miss Doris Hart, Mrs. Patricia Todd, Mrs. Helen Pedersen Rihbany, Mrs. Madge Vosters, Miss Kay Winthrop and Miss Hope Knowles. Miss Brough and Miss Osborne won the doubles championship.

Professional tennis was definitely a war casualty. The tour of Riggs and Kovacs with Donald Budge and Fred Perry was bedeviled by injuries and finally had to be abandoned owing to cancellations, with Budge well in the lead. Budge won the national professional championship at Forest Hills, defeating Riggs easily in the final after Riggs had put out Kovacs in the semi-finals.

Perry, the big man in professional tennis in 1941, injured his arm so badly on the opening night of the tour at Madison Square Garden in New York that he later announced his permanent retirement from tournament play. Kovacs went into the Army and Budge dropped out of competition to become a physical fitness director.

1941: Tennis, Table

Call it table tennis, or ping pong, the game is the same — played with wooden paddles and white celluloid balls, on a regulation large green table, with white lines, and a low net across the middle. Millions play the game annually in the United States, and it has been elevated to a national title sport. The national champions for 1941 repeated, Louis Pagliaro winning the men's event and Miss Sally Green again taking the women's crown. The title events, held in the grand ballroom of Manhattan Center, New York, attracted top players from all over the country. Large crowds attended the matches.

1941: Tennis

Despite the fact that international competition for the Davis Cup and the Wightman Cup was suspended for another year and the tournament lists were almost devoid of foreign talent, tennis enjoyed a flourishing season in 1941. Interest in the important grass court fixtures and championships showed no let-down and only an occasional event was cancelled. A few players were called up in the draft, but the ranking stars were active almost without exception.

Robert L. Riggs, Jr., of California, Chicago and Clinton, S.C., and Mrs. Sarah Palfrey Cooke of New York and Boston were crowned as national champions at Forest Hills, L.I. Riggs, winner of the title in 1939 and beaten in the fifth set of the 1940 final by Donald McNeill of Oklahoma City, came back to regain the championship by defeating Frank Kovacs of Oakland. Calif., in a four-set final. Kovacs eliminated the defending title holder, McNeill, in the semi finals and was generally favored to beat Riggs in the concluding round but after winning the opening set the lanky, temperamental Californian slumped badly and was never in the running again as Riggs ran out the next three sets.

Mrs. Cooke, after almost fifteen years of striving in the national championship, was finally rewarded for her perseverance. In the final round she defeated Miss Pauline Betz of Los Angeles, who had defeated her in their three previous meetings of the season, and thereby became the first native Eastern player to win the championship since Mrs. Maude Barger-Wallach triumphed in 1908.

Mrs. Cooke succeeded Miss Alice Marble of California as the title holder. Miss Marble entered the professional ranks with Miss Ruth Mary Hardwick of Great Britain after winning the crown in 1940.

Riggs and Kovacs followed the example of Miss Marble. The two finalists signed professional contracts in November, to go on tour with Donald Budge and Fred Perry, opening in New York, Dec. 26.

The national doubles championship was successfully defended by John Kramer and Ted Schroeder, the youthful Californians who became the youngest pair in history to win the title in 1940. Mrs. Cooke and Miss Margaret Osborne of California carried off the women's doubles, succeeding Miss Marble and Mrs. Cooke as the holders, and Mrs. Cooke also annexed the national mixed doubles with Kramer.

Budge Patty of California won the national junior championship. Arthur MacPherson of New York became the new veterans' title holder and Jacques Brugnon, formerly of the French Davis Cup team, and Meade Woodson of California won the veterans' doubles. Mrs. William V. Hester Jr. of Glen Cove, L.I., carried off the women's veterans' crown and Miss Edith Sigourney and Mrs. Hazel Wightman of Boston took the doubles honors.

The national intercollegiate title was won by Joe Hunt of the United States Naval Academy. Midshipman Hunt was unable to take the time off to compete in the men's championships, in which he played a great match against Riggs in 1940. Frank Parker won the clay court title, climaxing a remarkable season on clay. Wayne Sabin, out of competition in 1940, came back to defeat Riggs at Rye in the Eastern championships as one of several fine victories for him.

The most improved player of the year was Schroeder, who carried Riggs to five sets in the championship semi finals. McNeill had the most disappointing season, being unable to regain his 1940 form. Francisco (Pancho) Segura of Ecuador and Ladislav Hecht, formerly of Czecho-Slovakia, distinguished themselves during the season, Segura's match with Bryan Grant furnishing some of the most thrilling moments of the championship, and Hecht defeating McNeill on clay.

Next to Mrs. Cooke, the outstanding women players were Miss Betz, Miss Helen Jacobs, Miss Dorothy Bundy, Miss Helen Bernhard, Miss Osborne, and Miss Hope Knowles.

Three nationally known officials passed away in 1941. They were Joseph W. Wear, Vice President of the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association, of Philadelphia; Paul W. Gibbons, a power in national tennis for many years, also of Philadelphia, and Benjamin H. Dwight, of New York, national chairman of the Tennis Umpires Association. Mr. Dwight, who officiated in national championship and Davis Cup matches, passed away during the tournament at Forest Hills after helping to conduct a tennis clinic.

Fred Perry displaced Donald Budge as the top man in professional tennis. The former Briton won the national professional championship and also carried off the honors in the round-robin tournament held at Forest Hills.

1940: Tennis

Despite the fact that the war in Europe brought international competition to almost a complete standstill and compelled the cancellation of the British and French championships, lawn tennis enjoyed a healthy season in the United States in 1940.

There was no play for the Davis Cup, and Australia, which won the cup from the United States in 1939, remained in possession of the trophy without defending it. Similarly, the women's Wightman Cup matches between Great Britain and the United States were called off, and the United States retained possession. The only big foreign championship which was conducted was the Australian. John Bromwich, the ambidextrous favorite, met with a surprising defeat at the hands of the veteran Jack Crawford in the semifinals, and Adrian Quist won from Grawford in the final to become the new champion.

No player set foot on the priceless turf of Wimbledon. Instead, the premises were given over to the raising of pigs, as an emergency war measure. The tennis world was saddened to learn that Wimbledon was not spared by the bombing planes and suffered considerable damage.

The cancellation of the Davis Cup matches and the absence of outstanding men players from overseas was expected to blight interest in tennis in the United States, but the quality of the play was good and the attendance held up unusually well, both in the invitation turf court fixtures and in the championships.

A new champion succeeded Robert L. Riggs Jr. in the men's division, while Miss Alice Marble retained her women's crown, remaining invincible in both singles and doubles throughout the season and going through the all-comers at Forest Hills without the loss of a set. In the final of the men's tournament, Donald McNeill of Oklahoma City and Kenyon College defeated Riggs after yielding the first two sets.

In a thrilling finish to a match that had been lacking in distinction for the most part, the 22-year-old McNeill played brilliantly to overcome the obstinate resistance of the defender, who was the victim of two damaging decisions in the late stages. Both McNeill and Riggs had played much better tennis in other tournaments than they did in the championship. Riggs was still feeling the effects of a cold when he met McNeill and also of his exhausting five-set match in the semifinals with Joe Hunt, the best of the tournament.

McNeill's other conquests for the season included the national clay court and intercollegiate championships and the Newport and Southampton invitation tournaments. He lost to Riggs in the national indoor, the Pacific Southwest and the Eastern turf court championships.

Features of the national championship were the excellent play of Hunt and of John Kramer, the 19-year-old Californian. Kramer defeated Frank Parker, Henry Prusoff, Sidney Wood and Gilbert Hunt before losing to McNeill in four sets, and he also won the national doubles with Frederick (Ted) Schroeder of California, the youngest team within memory to come to the crown.

Joe Hunt and Frank Kovacs of California were parties to the first sit-down strike in tennis history. Kovacs, who played some of the most remarkable tennis ever seen in losing to Riggs in the final at Seabright and in defeating him in the semifinals at Southampton, was given to clowning antics. Hunt was so upset by the disturbance in the stands created by these antics at Forest Hills that he requested the umpire to appeal to the gallery for silence. The umpire declined to do so, and when the noise continued Hunt sat down on the court to wait for it to abate. Kovacs followed his example, and it was several minutes before the play was resumed, Hunt winning in three sets to reverse the result of their semifinal meeting at Newport.

Miss Marble defeated Miss Helen Jacobs in the final of the women's championship by a crushing margin to win her fourth title. She and Miss Sarah Palfrey (now Mrs. Elwood Cooke) retained the women's doubles crowns.

Miss Louise Brough of California won the girls' national championship and Robert Carrothers of California won the junior championship. The tennis world was shocked by the tragic death of Carrothers in an automobile accident at the close of the season.

Amateur tennis said farewell to Miss Marble and to Miss Mary Hardwick of Great Britain in the fall. Miss Marble signed a contract to go on a professional tennis tour in 1941 and Miss Hardwick, who played through the American season with Miss Valerie Scott, Miss Nina Brown and Miss Rita Jarvis, all of Great Britain, signed up for the tour also with the purpose of contributing to British war relief.

Donald Budge, who, with William Tilden, was signed for the same tour, won the American professional crown. He defeated Fred Perry in the final.

1939: Tennis

In a remarkable repetition of history, Australia won the Davis Cup from the United States in 1939, the crowning achievement of a season that was not particularly distinguished for the quality of its tennis. Twenty-five years ago, as the war clouds gathered in Europe in 1914, Norman Brookes and Anthony Wilding defeated Otto Froitzheim and Otto Kreuzer of the Kaiser's imperial staff of officers in Pittsburgh and then went on to win the cup from the United States at Forest Hills. Last September while Germany was invading Poland, President Norman Brookes of the Australian Lawn Tennis Association looked on as another pair of Australians wrested the trophy again from America.

The matches in 1939 were held at the Merion Cricket Club, Haverford, Pa. To make the victory all the more notable, the Australians achieved it after losing the opening two singles matches. Their feat in winning the next three for the series by the score of 3 to 2 marked the first time such a comeback had been made in a Davis Cup challenge round. Adrian Quist and John Bromwich represented the Australians, with Harry Hopman serving as captain of the team and Jack Crawford in reserve. Robert L. Riggs, Jr., Frank A. Parker, Joe Hunt and Jack Kramer played for the United States. J. Donald Budge, the world's leading amateur in 1937, when he brought the cup back to the United States after its ten-year absence, and again in 1938, when he led the successful defense, was not available for the American team in 1939. He was in the professional ranks, and so the Australian victory came as no surprise except that it was achieved after all seemed lost for the challenging team.

Parker defeated the veteran Quist on the opening day to give the United States a victory it had not counted on. Riggs did more than some had bargained on when he disposed of Bromwich in three sets with a carefully thought-out exhibition of crafty tennis, and so the United States led 2-0 at the end of the first day. Quist and Bromwich defeated Hunt and the youthful Kramer in the doubles, as had been taken for granted, on the second day. On the final day Riggs lost to Quist in a punishing, fluctuating struggle after the former had lost the first two sets and seemed to be headed towards victory in the fifth; and Bromwich crushed Parker in a colorless concluding match. Thus Australia won the cup for the first time since 1919.

Excepting the Davis Cup games, the most important competition in tennis, American players swept all before them. The British, French and national championships fell to them; and for the ninth successive year the United States defeated Britain in the women's Wightman Cup matches. Riggs succeeded Budge as the American vs. British champion, though he was beaten in the French competition by Donald McNeill, who carried off the championship. Miss Alice Marble established herself as the unrivalled champion in women's tennis. The blonde Californian won the American championship for the third time and the British for the second time. She also won the women's doubles with Mrs. Sarah Palfrey Fabyan and the mixed doubles, both at Wimbledon and Forest Hills.

The only player to threaten her supremacy was Miss Helen Jacobs, who gave her two bitter three-set battles at East Hampton and Forest Hills.

The national doubles championship fell to Quist and Bromwich, who defeated Crawford and Hopman in an all-foreign final at Longwood. The Australians did not fare well in the national singles. Quist was beaten by Wayne Sabin; and Bromwich, who was regarded by many as Budge's likely successor as world's champion, fell before the 19-year-old Welby Van Horn. Van Horn was the sensation of the championship, in which he gained the final against Riggs. He and Kramer, both stalwart youngsters who play the hard-hitting tennis characteristic of Budge and Ellsworth Vines, stand as America's two leading hopefuls for the future. The future of tennis is not very bright, with the world afire, and unless the war comes to an early conclusion, international play in 1940 is unlikely.

Professional tennis was marked by the successful debut of Budge at Madison Square Garden before more than 16,000 spectators. Budge defeated Vines and, on a return appearance, beat Fred Perry, to establish his world supremacy. He maintained this supremacy over Vines and Perry in cross-country tours with them and went to England to beat the best professionals there, including William Tilden, 47-year-old marvel of the courts. His plans for a world tour had to be canceled owing to the war. The national professional championship, in which Budge did not compete, was won by Vines.

Until a new figure emerges from the amateur ranks to stand as a challenger to Budge, professional tennis is not likely to offer much appeal to the public. It is Budge's misfortune that he is too good for his own good — a player without a rival. Until international competition is resumed on a large scale and a new box-office magnet is built up to throw down the gauntlet to him, his great talent is not likely to profit him much.

1938: Tennis

The year in tennis was featured by the victories of J. Donald Budge of Oakland, California, the first amateur champion to hold the four major tennis titles of the world simultaneously. Both Jack Crawford of Australia and Frederick Perry of England held three of these titles at one time but never captured the fourth.

In the finals of the Davis Cup matches, held Sept. 3-6, at Germantown, Pa., Budge defeated both John Bromwich of the Australian team, 6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, and Adrian K. Quist of the Australian team, 8-6, 6-1, 6-2. Victory was assured to the United States team when Robert L. Riggs, Jr., of the United States defeated Adrian K. Quist in a surprising match with a score of 4-6, 6-0, 8-6, 6-1. In the doubles, Budge and Gene Mako were defeated by the Australian team of Bromwich and Quist, 0-6, 6-3, 6-4, and 6-2; while in the singles between Bromwich and Riggs, the Australian player triumphed 6-4, 4-6, 6-0, 6-2. The United States thus won the Davis Cup Championships for the twelfth time, three matches to two. In the United States-Australian women's matches played on the same dates, at East Hampton, Long Island, the Australian women won on the number of sets captured, 15 sets to the American women's 14 sets, after the matches won were tied at 6 to 6.

In the fifty-eighth All-England Tennis Championships, held July 1-4 at Wimbledon, England, Donald Budge captured the men's singles title, overwhelming Henry W. Austin of England, 6-1, 6-0, 6-3. In the doubles, Budge and Gene Mako defeated Henner Henkel and Georg von Metaxa of Germany, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 8-6, and in the mixed doubles, Budge and Miss Alice Marble of San Francisco defeated Henner Henkel and Mrs. Sarah Palfrey Fabyan, 6-1, 6-4. The high point of the Wimbledon games, however, was the match between the former rivals Mrs. Helen Wills Moody and Miss Helen Jacobs. Mrs. Moody defeated Miss Jacobs, 6-4, 6-0, to win at Wimbledon for the eighth time. In the finals of the women's doubles, Miss Alice Marble and Mrs. Sarah Palfrey Fabyan defeated Mme. René Mathieu of France and Miss Adeline York of England, 6-2, 6-3.

In the finals of the fifty-seventh United States National Tennis Championships, held Sept. 24 at Forest Hills, Donald Budge captured his fourth major title, the United States National Championship, defeating Gene Mako, 6-3, 6-8, 6-2, and 6-1. Budge then held the Australian title (won Jan. 28, when he defeated John Bromwich, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1), the French hardcourt title (won June 11, when he defeated Roderick Menzel of Czechoslovakia, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4), the British and the United States titles, an unprecedented feat in the history of the sport.

In indoor tennis, the National championships, held March 3-5 in New York, were won by Donald McNeill of Oklahoma City, when he defeated Frank Bowden of New York, 9-7, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. The women's title was captured by Miss Virginia Hollinger, who defeated Miss Katherine Winthrop of Boston, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. Frank Bowden and John Pittman won the men's doubles, beating Gregory Mangin and Wayne Sabin by a score of 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 9-11, 6-3.

In intercollegiate outdoor circles, the national intercollegiate singles title was won by Frank Guernsey of Rice Institute, by defeating Morey Lewis of Kenyon College, 6-4, 6-1, 6-0, in the finals held at Haverford, Pa., on July 9. Joseph Hunt and John Wetherell of Southern California captured the national doubles title, overwhelming Morey Lewis and Donald McNeill by a score of 6-2, 6-2, and 6-4.