LAWN TENNIS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 173, 21 January 1914, Page 7

LAWN TENNIS.

j TUK TENNIS, CHAMPION. AiTIHX'IATIoX Of ANTHONY WILDING. (By A. K. Crawly hi the Ball Mall " . 'Gazette). Being now', tU'ter his Stockholm vi<tory, world's covered court champion. Mr." Anthony Wilding has no more "worlds' 1 to conquer; bis task henceforward is to retain hi-' conquests, lie is too modest an athlete to sigh like an Alexander because there are "no more worlds" to be annexed, and, though the possessor of the triple championship of the planet, he is not their "proud" possessor. H ever there was a player of any game who deserved such success, it, is the New Zealumlor, who at Cambridge gave up his chance of a cricket Blue, and took to the younger game, then just emerging from a cloud by the help of the, Dohorlys' twin .brilliance. No critic can deny that he would have excelled in any spoil, As a Hug by player he would have been great look at his build and bis footwork; as a boxer he .might have been a fine middlewcignt; us an oarsman be bad, I believe, the great advantage of never 'having been in a boat. At Cambridge they prefer them so, or used to. . . Wilding is finely built, and it is one of his few boasts* that, if beaten, it is mover for lack of litiress. Docs he, I wonder, owe this to his native, land? He has the deep chest and the long shoulders which are infinitely superior to the old Kuropean ideal of wide, square shoulders ami pigeon-breast. He resembles m this another great Australasian, Sammy Woods. His band, j wrist and forearm are enormously pow- i erful; this is at once proved by the j steadiness, power and delicacy (at will) j of his wonderful forehand stroke. Ho has the best characteristics of all the types in the new French morphological theory, not excluding the intellectual, for his shrewd criticism of Jiien and things is well known, and he writes j with personality. | Fencers and boxers depend on skill of leg and foot; so does the supreme ball j player. I know of no one who shows I more skill of foot than Wilding. Every forehand drive, every volley, is judged to an inch; this is due to his perfect stop. The I'salmi.st has warned us not to "delight in any man's legs," but I have always made an exception with the champion, whose, "understandings'' are perfect mechanisms. This is an age of Ibit-fooledness and bandiness. and it is it treat to see limbs like young trees on springs'. But lo turn to his merits as a lawn tennis phn or. It is a regular subject among connoi-scurs whether "ILL II." at bis'best would have beaten Wilding: a. very innorcirj subject, and most futile," withal. Kccb. 'iu their generation, is e gres! player, and sufficient nolo the day is the lawn tennis thereof. Vou canuo; po.-siblv compare epochs. I said Wildinif'de-erved his lri|de ,fiara: at Cambridge lie worked for Circe years in soliiury praeiiee, to acqn.ro n backhand stroll'. His magnificent foreband is natural, perfected by art and exercise; and on Ibis uniipte stroke his | success childly dcpcbils. It is the. cliI max-* the last word, in the top-spin drive, which lawn tennis evolved, and 'which is the only royal road to success |in the game. Many superficial obsorvi ers remark that the stroke is "not pretty." It is a round-arm stroke; it lias to be,..fruv.i the necessity for keeping the. ball in: the apparent ugliness comes from the perfect t'ollow-throimh. without which the stroke is only half made. t Even McLoughlin only half fnl-lows-tllrouuh; hence bis defeat. Besides these two men, and possihlv Froitzbeim. .the more or less invalid Ceinian, no one has ibis stroke in its entirety. They are. all afraid of carrying it to its logical conclusion. S. 11. Smith got Ihe'h.ill. at the psychological moment..at the top of the. bound; at other points be was helpless. Wildingcan control it at any point. Clever, artistic, sport-manlike, chivalrous and courageous, 11. L. Doherty bad never the power of Wilding, just because his forehand was a "reach-me-down." This is great pra : -e: but I am sure it is correct. The lawn tennis of the future will he has,,! on this foreband, as <icrmauv. France and llussia are now b.i-iug it. with immediate success. Authouv Wilding wi'l have added to the evoliiiiun of names.