Official Organ of the United States National Lawn Tennis Association 



All eyes in the tennis world center on 

 Wimbledon for the first indication of the 

 strength of the English team that will de- 

 fend the Davis trophy in the International 

 tournament which starts on July 9. The re- 

 ports at this writing from the other side re- 

 cite the serious illness of H. L. Doherty, the 

 champion, and the probability that he will be 

 unable to do justice to himself in the cham- 

 pionships and in the international games, if 

 he is able to play at all. Should this prove 

 to be the case it will be most regrettable, for 

 while- it would likely insure the success of the 

 American team's effort to regain the Cup it 

 would be a disappointment to every one on 

 this side to win it in that way, particularly 

 as the managers having the trip in charge 

 believe we have a splendid chance of bringing 

 back the trophy with Doherty in top form. 

 Not to be able to conclusively test the rela- 

 tive strength of the representatives of the 

 two countries in an equal contest would be 

 the occasion of lasting regret to all true 

 sportsmen. 



The American team has sailed and by the 

 time this appears will have arrived on the 

 other side. It was not the intention on start- 

 ing of any of the team to contest in either 

 singles or doubles in the Wimbledon cham- 

 pionships. Holcombe Ward might be seen, 

 it was thought, in the mixed doubles, with 

 Miss May Sutton, who has gone over to try 

 to win the English woman's title, but it was 

 improbable that any other of the men would 

 play at all. They expected to try out in 

 one or two of the smaller contests, but none 

 felt that they wanted to jeopardize their 

 chances in the international tournament by 

 undertaking the strain of such hard play as 

 would be required to win honors in the 

 championship. All expect hard practice to 

 occupy them during the two weeks in Eng- 

 land prior to the start of the internationals, 

 so that each of the four men would be in first 

 class shape when the time came for the start 

 of their games. 



The invitation tournaments held on this 

 side before the men sailed were beneficial in 

 the extreme. They played for ten days at 

 Norfolk among themselves to warm up for 

 the match play to follow. They were seen at 

 Orange, at Philadelphia at the Germantown 

 Cricket Club, at Knollwood and . at Bay 



Ridge. In these four tournaments some line 

 could be gotten on the men, though they 

 were still raw in the final games. 



There was much that these games were ex- 

 pected to clear up and in nearly every case 

 they developed satisfactorily. Most import- 

 ant was the question of how the accident to 

 Larned's ankle would affect his play. It was 

 feared that the break it sustained in the win- 

 ter might seriously interfere with his ac- 

 tivity and might render him susceptible to a 

 breakdown under the severe strain of cham- 

 pionship play. Fortunately there is ho evi- 

 dence that either effect will appear. It now 

 seems likely that he will be able to do full 

 justice to himself when the time comes. 



His play in the preliminary games was a 

 bit ragged, although he is fairly quick to con- 

 dition in the early season. It is expected 

 that with the two weeks on the other side he 

 will round into form without much trouble 

 and be up to his full strength when the final 

 tests are held. Clothier seemed to be better 

 than any of the others for the early date and 

 ought to be in fine form if he is called upon 

 to play any of the important matches. Ward 

 was quite up to his early standard and gave 

 every evidence of reaching his last season's 

 high estate again. There need be no fear 

 as far as can now be seen about leaving the 

 defense of the honors in the singles to these 

 three men. 



The showing of the doubles team was not 

 so satisfactory. Here America must show 

 better form than she has ever shown before 

 to defeat* the Dohertys up to their top notch. 

 That the Dohertys now are not the Dohertys 

 of three years ago is the firm conviction of 

 tennis experts on this side, even before the 

 disconcerting news of H. L.'s illness came to 

 hand. Nevertheless, unless Ward and 

 Wright played at best and beyond their aver- 

 age there appeared small chance of their car- 

 rying off the match. It is disappointing, 

 therefore, that they did not show at best in 

 the early games, although their troubles 

 ' seemed to be simply lack of sufficient prac- 

 tice. Ward was as good as ever, but Wright 

 seemed off color on several occasions, and 

 the two did not work together up to their 

 usual form. At Knollwood a scratch team., 

 Alexander and Hackett, beat them, while 

 they had hard work to win on several pecas- 

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