Then the jinx arose again and this time Babe Norton was the victim.Such a match as that challenge round produced! I went on the court feeling far from well and very much run down.Babe was on the crest but very nervous.He ran away with the first two sets with great ease.The third set I improved.Babe, after dropping three games, decided to let it go.The fourth set found the crowd excited and rather noisy.Norton became annoyed because he felt I was bothered, and he blew up.He simply threw away the fourth set from sheer nerves.
The fifth set was terrible.Norton had come to earth and was playing well while I for the first time in the match had some control of the ball.Norton finally led at 4-5 and 30-40 on my service, with the championship one point away.
We had a long rally.Desperately I hit down the line.I was so certain my shot was going out I started for the net to shake hands.The ball fell on the line and Babe in the excitement of the moment put his return out by inches.It was a life and fortunately for me I seized my chance and succeeded in pulling out the match and retaining the championship.Norton deserved to win, for nothing but luck saved me as I walked to the net, thinking my shot was out.Norton is the youngest man to have won the All Comers Singles.He is just 21.
The championships had two sad moments.One was the absence of J.
C.Parke, due to retirement from singles.The other was the retirement of A.
W.Gore, the famous veteran, after 30 years a participant in the championships.
The women's events found an even more unfortunate draw than the men.All the strength was in one eight.Miss Ryan defeated Miss K.McKane in the first round and Mrs.Beamish her old rival in the second.She met Mrs.Mallory in the third.
For one set Mrs.Mallory played the finest tennis of her career to that time and in fact equal even to her play against Suzanne Lenglen in America.She ran off six games in ten minutes.Miss Ryan, cleverly changing her game, finally broke up the perfection of Mrs.Mallory's stroking and just nosed her out in the next two sets.It was a well deserved victory.
Miss Ryan easily won the tournament and challenged Mlle.Lenglen, but her old jinx in the form of Suzanne again proved too much and she played far below her best.The French girl easily retained her title, winning 6-2, 6-0.
The journey of the wandering tennis troupe abroad was far from the most important development of the year.The American season was producing remarkable results.Every year produces its outstanding figure and the early months of 1921 saw Vincent Richards looming large on the tennis horizon.
The first sensation of the year was the decisive defeat inflicted on Kumagae by young Richards at Amakassin Club, New York.This was immediately followed by Kumagae's victory over Dick Williams, avenging Williams' win at Palm Beach some months before.Kumagae scored in the intercity match for the George Myers Church Trophy played in 1921 in Philadelphia.The following day Wallace F.Johnson defeated Kumagae in one of the most terrific battle of the year.
Vincent Richards went through the season to the middle of July without sustaining a defeat.He won five tournaments.
I arrived home from France and England July 12th and journeyed at once to Providence where I took charge of the Rhode Island StateChampionship at the Agawam Hunt Club.Zenzo Shimidzu had accompanied me to America on the Olympic and made his first tournament appearance two days after landing at Greenwich, Conn., before coming to Providence.He went down to unexpected defeat at the hands of S.H.Voshell.
The Providence tournament held the greatest entry list of any event except the National Singles itself.The singles had Shimidzu, Williams, Richards, C.S.Garland, Watson Washburn, S.H.Voshell, Samuel Hardy,N.W.Niles, many young Western collegiate stars and myself.Ichiya Kumagae arrived to play doubles with Shimidzu in preparation for the Davis Cup.
Then the fun began.Shimidzu again fell before the net attack of Voshell, who was himself defeated by the calm quiet steadiness of Washburn.Garland went out at my hands.Williams faced certain defeat when Niles led him 4-0 in the final set, but in one of his super-tennis streaks tore through to victory, only to collapse against Vincent Richards and suffer a crushing defeat 6-2, 6-2 in the semi-final.Meanwhile Washburn had dropped by the wayside to me 6-2, 6-2 and young Richards and I took up our annual battle.
Youth is cruel.The world is cruel.Life is hard.I know it, for Vinnie, with care and discretion, quietly led me along the Road of the Has-Beens, where he deposited me to the tune of 6-1, 6-2, 1-6, 6-0.
Richards, with the scalps of Kumagae, Williams, Voshell and myself dangling at his belt, seemed destined for the championship itself.Alas, pride goeth before a fall.The fall came to Vinnie suddenly.
The following week was the Longwood Singles."Little Bill" Johnston arrived East, together with the rest of his California team, the day the event started.Johnston was the holder of the trophy and was called on to meet the winner of the tournament in the challenge round.
The tournament was mainly Dick Williams.He defeated Shimidzu in the final.Kumagae was his victim in an earlier round.
Willis E.Davis, second string of the California team, was unexpectedly defeated by N.W.Niles, who himself went the long road via Shimidzu.The little Japanese star scored another important victory whenhe defeated W.F.Johnson.
Williams met Johnston in the challenge round with chances bright.Somehow Little Bill has Dick's number these days and again decisively defeated him.Vincent Richards wisely rested the week of Longwood, preparing for the later events.I was off in the woods at Camp Winnipesaukee recuperating from the effects of illness in England.
