Modern tennis should be an attacking service, not necessarily epoch- making, as was M'Loughlin's, but powerfully offensive, with the main portion of the play from the baseline in sparring for openings to advance to the net.Once the opening is made the advance should follow quickly, and the point ended by a decisive kill.That is the modern American game.It is the game of Australia as typified by Patterson schooled under the Brookes tutelage.It is the game of France, played by Gobert, Laurentz, and Brugnon.It has spread to South Africa, and is used by Winslow, Norton, and Raymond.Japan sees its possibilities, and Kumagae and Shimidzu are even now learning the net attack to combine with the baseline game.England alone remains obstinate in her loyalty to her old standby, and even there signs of the joint attack are found in the game of Kingscote.
Tennis has spread so rapidly that the old idea of class and class game has passed away with so many other ancient, yet snobbish, traditions.Tennis is universally played.The need of proper development of the game became so great in America that the American Lawn Tennis Association organized, in 1917, a system of developing the boys under eighteen years of age all over the United States.
The fundamental idea in the system, which had its origin in the ablebrain of Julian S.Myrick, President of the United States Lawn Tennis Association, was to arouse and sustain interest in the various sections by dealing with local conditions.This was successfully done through a system of local open tournaments, that qualified boys to a sectional championship.These sectional championships in turn qualified the winners for the National junior Championship, which is held annually in conjunction with the men's event at Forest Hills.
The success of the system has been stupendous.The growth of tennis in certain localities has been phenomenal.In Philadelphia alone over 500 boys compete in sanctioned play annually, while the city ranking for 1919 contained the names of 88 boys under eighteen, and 30 under fifteen, all of whom had competed in at least three sanctioned events.The school leagues of the city hold a schedule of 726 individual matches a year.The success of the Philadelphia junior system is due to the many large clubs who give the use of their courts and the balls for an open tournament.Among these clubs are Germantown Cricket Club, Cynwyd Club, Philadelphia Cricket, Overbrook Golf Club, Belfield Country Club, Stenton A.C., Green Point Tennis Clubs and at times Merion Cricket Club.The movement has been fostered and built up by the efforts of a small group of men, the most important of whom is Paul W.Gibbons, President of the Philadelphia Tennis Association, together with Wm.H.Connell of Germantown, the late Hosmer W.Hanna of Stenton, whose untiring efforts aided greatly in obtaining a real start, Dr.Chuton A.Strong, President of the Interscholastic League, Albert L.Hoskins, for years Vice-President of the U.S.L.T.A., and others.This plan brought great results.It developed such players as Rodney M.Beck, H.F.Domkin, G.B.Pfingst, Carl Fischer, the most promising boy in the city, who has graduated from the junior age limit, and Charles Watson (third), who, in 1920, is the Philadelphia junior Champion, and one of the most remarkable players for a boy of sixteen I have ever seen.
New York City was fortunate in having F.B.Alexander, the famous Internationalist, to handle the junior tennis there.He, together with JulianS.Myrick, and several other men, built up a series of tournaments around New York that produced some remarkable young players.It is largely dueto the junior system that Vincent Richards has become the marvellous player that he is, at such an early age.Second only to Richards, and but a shade behind, are Harold Taylor and Cecil Donaldson, who have just passed out of the junior age limit.Charles Wood, the Indoor Boys Champion, is a remarkable youngster.
In New England, particularly in Providence, through the efforts of J.D.
E.Jones, junior tennis is rapidly assuming an important place, and many young stars who will be heard of in the future are coming to the fore.By a strange coincidence the list is headed by the two sons of Jones.They seem to have inherited their father's ability.Arnold W.Jones, the National Boy Champion, is a player of marked ability, with a fine all-around game.Following closely on his heels come J.D.E.Jones, Jr., and Wm.W.Ingraham.From the South one finds John E.Howard.Around Chicago a group of men, led by Samuel Hardy, captain of the 1920 Davis Cup team, and assisted by R.T.Van Arsdale, built up a magnificent system of tournaments and coaching.Hardy left Chicago and came to New York in 1919; but the work which he so ably organized will continue under the supervision of the Western Association.The leading juniors developed in Chicago were Lucian Williams and the Weber brothers, James and Jerry.
From the Pacific Coast, the pioneer in junior development, wonderful boys are continually coming East.A boy's tennis game matures early in California.M'Loughlin was about eighteen when he first came East; Johnston less than twenty-one when he won the national title the first time; Marvin Griffin and Morgan Fottrell are in 1920 the leading youngsters in California.
The success of the Californians is due largely to the efforts of Dr.Sumner Hardy, brother of Samuel Hardy, and one of the most remarkable figures in the tennis world.Dr.Hardy practically carries the California Association single handed.He is a big factor in American tennis success.
From up in Washington State, a fine young player, Marshall Allen, has come to the fore.
Charles S.Garland, the Davis Cup star, is a former junior Champion of America, and a product of the junior system in Pittsburg, which is so ably handled by his father, Charles Garland.Other young stars developinginclude George Moreland and Leonard Reed.
