EAST VS. WEST IN LAWN TENNIS

A Contrast Between Their Styles of Play

J. Parmly Paret

FOR many years, Eastern tennis experts suspected that the players of the Pacific Coast had hidden somewhere about them greater skill at the game than they were given credit for, but it was not until the second season of McLoughlin's successful invasion of the East that they were convinced of it. The "California Comet" from the first was an uncut diamond, but the refining influences of Eastern surroundings ripened his skill rapidly, as we had good reason to appreciate when he gradually developed into the most brilliant exponent of the game in the world.

Almost the same estimate might be made to-day, with possibly the same predictions, for Lindley Murray, John Strachan, Elia Fottrell, and possibly for William Johnston. All these players are Californians who have shown marked ability with the same rugged, unpolished, impetuous, aggressive attack which needs only the polish of other more finished styles of play to round it into championship form.

MANY consider Murray's service to be even more wonderful than McLoughlin's. He doubles into a knot during the process and hunches up like a kangaroo, with his left knee bent nearly double in his effort to get started fast for the net. McLoughlin, on the other hand, resembles a human catapult in serving, for he literally hurls himself at the ball, bending backward like a rubber man, and uncoiling to strike like a snake. Strachan, whose play is less familiar in the East, is said to be even more violent in his attack than either McLoughlin or Murray. Fottrell is of the same mould. One Eastern expert who played both last season declares that Fottrell's service is harder to handle than McLoughlin's.

This Western style is a law unto itself in many ways. Grass courts are almost unknown on the Pacific Slope and "dirt" courts are scarce. Nearly all of the play out there is on asphalt courts, whose high bound and difficult surface drives the base-line player so far out of court that ground strokes are thrown to the winds by the Californians. Worshippers of the volley stroke, they concentrate all their energies in a volleyed attack with a persistency that would do credit to a Prussian general.

WITH the exception of Melville Long, William Johnston, and one or two others, there is no element of defence in the typical Western game. McLoughlin has no defence. This is practically the case with Murray, Strachan and Fottrell. It is aggressive play first, last and all the time—attack with the service, and attack with volleys and smashes that must win quickly or the game is up. But in this style of play they are unexcelled; their attacks show virulent vigor that is not present in the Eastern game, and they are able to meet most efforts of the other styles to dislodge them from the all-important volleying position. McLoughlin waiting for the service is like a caged tiger ready to spring. To emphasize the simile, he even waves his racket in short loops with all the appearance of the tiger's lashing tail.

If they are once driven back to a defensive position, as they must occasionally be, the whole style of the Western players changes. McLoughlin becomes fifty per cent, weaker at once. He lobs poorly and his backhand, unsound in grip and execution, is woefully weak. If it were not for his service and forehand drive, the "Comet" would be a second-class player, not a champion.

IN the East, on the other hand, we are inclined to have too much refinement in our strokes. The cultivation of perfect form has progressed at the expense of aggressive vitality. We are better in defence than in attack, and the winning power of the game has suffered in consequence. Take the American twist service, for instance. It was invented by Holcombe Ward here in the East, and there is not a player in this section today who serves it as well as Ward did ten years ago.

Although Williams is a Philadelphian and a Harvard man, he learned his tennis in Europe, and the same handicap of too much refinement has weakened his attack. He does not go close enough to the net to attack with the same vigor shown by the Westerners; and his greatest successes have been due to the perfect timing of his strokes, and to his ability to take a rising ball and stroke it before his opponent has time to anticipate him.

The tests of the Western against the Eastern players will not be confined this year to the California matches at the big Exposition. The Coast men have planned another invasion of the East, and the struggle is to be renewed at Longwood, Seabright, Southampton, Newport and Forest Hills. Strachan and Johnston have formed a new combination in doubles that is believed by many Californians to be even stronger than that of the champions, McLoughlin and Bundy.

IN doubles, it is difficult to find any pair in the East whose chance to beat either of these teams looks very rosy. Church and Mathey, who were the challengers last season for the championship in doubles, were among the Eastern players who took the Coast trip for the Exposition matches this season, but it is doubtful if they or any of the other Eastern pairs can stand off either of the two crack Coast teams this season.

In singles, one can only guess at the possible outcome of the transplanted championship matches that begin next month at Forest Hills. In the East, there does not seem to be a single figure to challenge Williams' hold on the title, but no one can safely predict what the younger Westerners may do in the championship matches. Omitting McLoughlin momentarily from consideration, Strachan, Murray (if he comes East), and Johnston are all possible contenders in the final struggle for the title, and any of them may furnish as difficult a problem to solve as McLoughlin did a few seasons back.

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Williams and McLoughlin are still pretty evenly matched, so that the chances all favor another final round between these two old rivals. Before the recent matches on the Coast, they had met six times, and Williams had won only once, in that sensational final at Newport last August, when, contrary to every expectation, the Harvard man beat the conqueror of Brookes and Wilding in straight sets. There is no doubt that Williams' play is improving all the time, while McLoughlin may have reached the limit of improvement— certainly his service last year seemed to have attained the highest pinnacle possible—but with McLoughlin in his International form and Williams in his Newport form it would be difficult to choose between them. The fact that both players have used asphalt courts in the West can be discarded at once from consideration, as the championship matches will be played on grass, and the play of both men will necessarily change to meet the changed conditions.