Tennis

At Glencoe, Ill. William T. Tilden II, lean-faced histrion, dearly loves to make a great gallery prickle with the delicious belief that it is about to see the defeat of a champion, dearly loves to astound that gallery with a crashing, irresistible rally.

He thus indulged young George Lott in the finals of the Clay Court championship (TIME, July 27). Last week in the Illinois State tournament at the Skokie Country Club, Glencoe, Ill., he mocked Harvey Snodgrass, No. 6 on the ranking list, in the same fashion, permitting him to come within two points of winning. Score: 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.

In his semi-final match against Howard Kinsey (No. 4 nationally), the crowd soon saw that he was at it again. For the first two sets he played idly but effectively, led at 6-4, 7-5, then dawdled, flapped his serve like a chef turning a meatball, made clownish errors so that Kinsey won the third and fourth sets, 6-2, 6-3. In the fifth set, with Kinsey leading at 5-2 and the gallery becoming demoniac, he decided that his moment had come.

Briskly he walked to the umpire's chair, removed, for the first time at Glencoe, his shaggy sweater. He called for a pitcher of ice-water, dashed its contents over his head. Rolling up his sleeves, he prepared to serve. "Ooh," gasped the crowd. Tilden put down his rocket, called for a towel that he might dry his hands. A famed actress cried out helplessly: "That man is immortal." Then, deliberately, he served. A great cheer went up. Kinsey, unnerved by this mummery, bungled; superbly the champion swept up the set, the victory, 8-6.

Next day he won the finals from

William M. Johnston, his Davis Cup teammate and rival, whom he has defeated so often since he took the national title from him in 1920. The score was 6-4, 6-3, 9-7. Johnston stood the grilling pace (which lasted an hour and a quarter) well. He came off appearing fresh, which was more than he did after his defeat by Tilden at Forest Hills last year (TIME, Sept. 8). But he did not have the drive to meet the drive. Tilden said of himself that he played the best tennis that he has ever played at Chicago. Sandy Wiener of Germantown, Pa., protege of Tilden, lived up to his patron's hopes by taking the Junior Championship 10-12, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 from Berkeley Bell of Austin, Tex.

In the doubles, Howard Kinsey and his brother Robert (No. 16 in ranking) were leading Tilden and Sandy Wiener when Robert crashed full length to the court with cramp in the abdomen. The match went to Tilden and Wiener by default, but Johnston and Clarence J. ("Peck") Griffin overcame them in the final, 6-4, 6-3, 6-0.

The preliminary playing of the tournament was spiced by the elimination of George Lott, 19-year-old Chicago boy, by one Wray Brown, ranked 13 places under him. Score: 6-1, 6-24

At Manchester. Playing with the rigid overeagerness of one whom victory would somewhat surprise, Mary K. Browne bowed to Helen Wills in the finals of the Essex County Country Club tournament at Manchester, Mass., 6-2, 6-1.

Uniform Ball. In accordance with the report of a committee appointed last March to determine what hardness, what softness was proper to a tennis-ball, the International Lawn Tennis Federation last week passed a regulation standardizing the resilience of balls in the U. S., England, France and Australia. "Under a pressure of 18 lb., the ball shall not be compressed more than .315 of an inch or less than .290 of an inch."