AMERICAN TENNIS 



253 



in these the first ties, it appeared that 

 Austria was the weakest of the four, and that 

 while Wilding was of mediocre strength on 

 the Australian team, Brookes' brilliancy gave 

 them a chance to score against the Ameri- 

 cans, though there appeared little chance of a 

 win. This is how the tie worked out. 



Brookes played magnificent tennis, and 

 Wright was quite up to his standard. The 

 contest be- 

 tween the two 

 was the best of 

 the tourna- 

 ment, even in- 

 cluding the fin- 

 al title round. 

 Wright's play 

 was of the 

 highest order, 

 but that victory 

 rested with him 

 at the end was 

 as much due to 

 his great head- 

 work as to any 

 other fact. In 

 America he. has 

 frequent 1 y 

 shown great 

 work at fore- 

 h a n d off 

 ground strokes 

 and volleying, 

 but he has 

 never shown 

 such backhand 

 work, while his 

 overhead 

 strokes were 

 amazing in 

 their force and 

 accuracy. „ 



He deter- 

 mined at the 

 start to keep 

 Brookes in the 

 back court. He 

 drove at his 

 feet, at his 

 backhand and 



close to his body, and never appeared to mi r> 

 his aim. On not more than live occasions 

 during the matches did the Australian suc- 

 ceed in reaching the net, but when he did he 

 was splendid, but Wright lobbed and Brookes' 

 overhead work was weak and Wright never 

 allowed him to remain at the net long. 



Brookes took the lead at the start and had 

 the games 5-4 in the first set, but Wright 

 took the vantage game, but never could pre- 

 vent Brookes from winning his service. With 

 the score ten all, Wright broke through his 

 service, then took his own game and the set. 



Again in the second set, Brookes led at 5-4, 



H. L. DOHERTY. 



and Wright made it games all, but the Aus- 

 tralian was not to be denied, and won the 

 vantage and the following game and the set. 

 Then followed a repetition of the first set, 

 with the games all following each interchange 

 of service until each had scored ten. Again 

 Wright broke through the service and won 

 his own game and the set. The trial proved 

 too much for the Australian, while Wright's 



staying q u a 1 i- 

 ties kept him to 

 the fore. He 

 interchanged 

 games with his 

 opponent, scor- 

 ing the odd un- 

 til the ninth. 

 Then Brookes 

 missed his 

 chance to even 

 it up, and the 

 match went to 

 Wright. 



Meantime 

 Larned had no 

 trouble at all in 

 winning in 

 straight sets 

 from Wilding, 

 and Brookes 

 was not strong 

 enough in the 

 doubles to car- 

 ry D u n 1 o p 

 along to victory 

 over Ward and 

 Wright. They 

 made a good 

 fight in the sec- 

 ond set, but 

 lost 5-7. In the 

 third set 7-5 for 

 the Australians, 

 but the Ameri- 

 cans came into 

 their own again 

 in the fourth 

 and won the 

 match and tie 

 handily. 

 Wright and Wilding agreed to decide 

 their match in three sets, and Wright 

 won the first two easily. Again Brookes 

 played brilliant tennis against Larned, and 

 it took all the ex-champion's skill to over- 

 come him. 



The first set went longer than the match 

 with Wright. It was give and take until 

 games all had been called to twelve. In 

 the fifteenth game it looked like a win for 

 Brookes, since he had the vantage game and 

 led 30-love, but Larned saved the game bril- 

 liantly and the tie continued. On the twenty- 

 fifth game Larned broke through and won 



