The War is over, please God never to return, and the men are back from their marvellous task.The game of War is done, the games of Peace are again being played.Tennis suffered the world over from war's blight, but everywhere the game sprang up in renewed life at the close of hostilities.The season of 1919 was one of reconstruction after the devastation.New figures were standing in prominence where old stars were accustomed to be seen.The question on the lips of all the tennis players was whether the stars of pre-War days would return to their former greatness.
The Championship of the World for 1919 at Wimbledon was anxiously awaited.Who would stand forth as the shining light of that meeting? Gerald Patterson, the "Australian Hurricane," as the press called him, came through a notable field and successfully challenged Norman Brookes for the title.Gobert and Kingscote fell before him, and the press hailed him as a player of transcendent powers.
The Australian team of Brookes, Patterson, R.V.Thomas, and Randolph Lycett journeyed home to the Antipodes by way of America to compete in the American Championship.Meanwhile R.N.Williams, W.
M.Johnston, and Maurice E.M'Loughlin were demobilized, and were again on the courts.The American Championships assumed an importance equal to that of the Wimbledon event.
The Australian team of Brookes and Patterson successfully challenged the American title-holders in doubles, Vincent Richards and myself, after defeating the best teams in America, including W.M.Johnston and C.J.Griffin, the former champions.Speculation was rife as to Patterson's ability to triumph in the Singles Championship, and public interest ran high.
The Singles Championship proved a notable triumph for W.M.Johnston, who won a decisive, clear-cut, and deserved victory from a field never equalled in the history of tennis.Johnston defeated Patterson in a marvellous 5-set struggle, while Brookes lost to me in four sets.M'Loughlin went down to Williams in a match that showed the famous Comet but a faint shadow of his former self.Williams was defeated in sequence sets by me.The final round found Johnston in miraculous form and complete master of the match from start to finish, and he defeated me in three sequence sets.
Immediately following the championship, the Australian-American team match took place.In this Brookes went down to defeat before Johnston in four close sets, while I succeeded in scoring another point by nosing out Patterson by the same score.Thus 1919 gave Johnston a clear claim to the title of the World's Premier Tennis Player.The whole season saw marked increase in tennis interest throughout the entire world.
I have gone into more detail concerning the season of 1919 than I otherwise would, to attempt to show the revival of the tennis game in the public interest, and why it is so.
The evolution of the tennis game is a natural logical one.There is a definite cycle of events that can be traced.The picture is clearest in America as the steps of advancements are more definitely defined.It is from America that I am going to analyse the growth of modern tennis.
The old saying, "Three generations from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves," may well be parodied to "Three decades from ground strokes to ground strokes." The game of tennis is one great circle that never quite closes.Progress will not allow a complete return to the old style.Yet the style, without the method of thirty years ago, is coming back in vogue.It is a polished, decorated version of the old type game.It is expanded and developed.History tells us that the civilization of the old Greeks and Romans held many so-called modern luxuries, but not the methods of acquiring them we have to-day.Just so with tennis; for the ground.stroke game was the style of the past, just as it will be the style of the future; but the modern method of making ground strokes is a very different thing from the one used by the old-time stars.
We are on the brink of the upheaval.The next few years will show results in the tennis game that were not thought of before the War.Tennis is becoming an organized sport, with skilled management.Modern methods, where efficiency is the watchword, is the new idea in tennis development.
Tennis is on the verge of the greatest increase in its history.Never before has tennis of all types been so universally played, nor by such great multitudes.Its drawing power is phenomenal, hundreds of thousands of people witnessing matches the world over, and played during the season of 1920.
There are more players of fame now before the public than at any previous time since tennis became established.The standard of play of the masses and quality of game of the stars have risen tremendously in the last decade.No less an authority than Norman E.Brookes, whose active playing days cover a period of twenty years, told me during the American Championships, last year at Forest Hills, that in his opinion the game in America had advanced fully "15" in ten years.He stated that he believed the leading players of to-day were the superior of the Larneds, Dohertys, and Pims of the past.
The most remarkable advance has been along the lines of junior play: the development of a large group of boys ranging in age from thirteen to eighteen, who will in time replace the Johnstons, Williams, andM'Loughlins of to-day.
