Spain
A new factor entered the arena of world tennis in 1921 in the appearance of a Spanish Davis Cup team.Among their number is a star who bids fair to become one of the greatest players the world has ever seen.A scintillating personality, brilliant versatile game, and fighting temperament placed this young unknown in the first rank in one year of competition.
MANUEL ALONZO
Seldom have I seen such wonderful natural abilities as are found in this young Spaniard.Here is a player par excellence if he develops as he gives promise.Alonzo is young, about 25, slight, attractive in personality and court manners, quick to the point of almost miraculous court covering.He is a great attraction at any tournament.
His service is a fairly fast American twist.It is not remarkable but is at least more severe than the average continental delivery.
Alonzo has a terrific forehand drive that is the closest rival to W.M.Johnston's of any shot I have seen.He is reliable on this stroke, either straight or cross-court from the deep court but if drawn in to mid-court is apt to miss it.His backhand is a flat drive, accurate and low but rather slow and in the main defensive.
His volleying is at once a joy and a disappointment.Such marvellous angles and stop volleys off difficult drives! Yet immediately on top of a dazzling display Alonzo will throw away the easiest sort of a high volley by a pitiable fluke.
His overhead is at once severe, deadly and reliable.He smashes with speed and direction.It is not only in his varied stroke equipment that Alonzo is great but in his marvellous footwork.Such speed of foot and lightning turning I have never before seen on a tennis court.He is a quicker man than Norman E.Brookes and higher praise I cannot give.I look to see Alonzo, who today loses matches through lack of resource, become by virtue of experience and tournament play the greatest player onthe continent.
His brother, J.M.Alonzo, although nowhere in Manuel's class, is a fine all court player as are Count de Gomar and Flaquer, the remaining members of the Cup team.If Alonzo and his teammates are an indication of the type of players Spain is developing a new and powerful factor in the tennis world is entering the field to stay.
Some Other Champions
There are some individual players of interest from the countries where tennis as a game has not reached a place worthy of national analysation but who deserve mention among the great players of the world.
First among them comes Nicholas Mishu of Rumania.
N.MISHU
What can I say of Mishu? As a tennis player he defies analysis.His game is a freak.He adores to do the unusual and his game abounds in freak shots that Mishu executes with remarkable skill.He has many and varied services, underhand cuts, fore and backhand, a "push" off his nose, and even one serve where he turns his back on the court and serves the ball back over his head.
