Tennis

At Seabright, N. J. David of Israel, on the day when he sent a round pebble into the dim, appalling brain of Goliath, was doubtless a thin, supple little man like William M. Johnston, onetime (1915, '19) national champion. Johnston's accuracy, in his heyday, was doubtless superior to that of the Israelite champion, but they both made the same appeal to a gallery--the appeal of skill, of courage, hazardously sustained by slight flesh. In 1921, 1922 and 1923, Johnston won the Seabright Lawn Tennis Bowl. Last week he got off a train from Chicago and within four hours began to play against Dr. George King of Manhattan. Dr. King is no Goliath --in fact, he is placed at No. 12 in the national ranking, but he was dazed by neither the slimness nor the prestige of Johnston. He played a steady, stubborn game; Johnston drove out, netted and, though twice within a point of victory, was beaten 7-9, 6-0, 7-5. (Dr. King was eliminated later by Cranston Holman, who yielded in turn to James O. Anderson in the semi-finals.)

In the finals, lank James O. Anderson of Australia gazed bitterly but with a certain sardonic resignation at the balls that bounded past, around and over him; occasionally he waved his racket at one, but for the most part he was content to let his opponent, Vincent Richards, have his way with them. In the first two sets, it is true, he had tried more vigorously, even winning the second. But his own apathy and the brilliance of Richards conspired to give two love sets, the match, in Seabright Men's Singles, to the latter.

P:Helen Wills stepped out to despatch Miss Elizabeth Ryan in the women's finals. The court was juicy as buttered asparagus with a recent rainfall, a circumstance which boded ill for Miss Wills. Both players wore spiked shoes, but before the first set was six games old, Miss Ryan was taking off her shoes. The gallery giggled. She tried on a pair with soles of crape rubber. They skidded. She tried on a pair borrowed from William M. Johnston. The gallery tittered again. Miss Ryan removed her footwear altogether, began to scuttle about the court in stocking feet. The score at that point was 4-2 in her favor in the first set, and Miss Wills was just beginning a rally with which she obviously intended to take the set. But ho! Miss Ryan led the national champion up to the net with short chops, trapped her with deep chops to the baseline, won the set, 6-3. In the next set, she again carried the attack to Miss Wills. Her low, back-bouncing chops on the wet court made the champion scoop up returns as if with a trowel, kept her lumbering from baseline to net until she was breathless. Miss Ryan chopped right, chopped left, chopped off Miss Wills' head, 6-3, 6-3.

P:In the men's doubles, William M. Johnston and Clarence ("Peck") Griffin, onetime (1915, '16, '20) doubles champions of the U. S., defeated the Kinsey brothers, present U. S. doubles champs. This victory gave them permanent possession of the Seabright Men's Doubles bowls.

P:In the mixed doubles, Miss Ryan and Gerald Patterson, sleek Australian, defeated Mrs. Marion Zinderstein Jessup and J. B. Hawkes, to whom Helen Wills and Vincent Richards had defaulted in the semifinals.

P:Ably supported by Eleanor Goss, Miss Ryan, volleying superbly, leaping with incredible agility to make impossible returns, defeated Miss Wills and Mary K. Browne in the final of the women's doubles, 11-9, 6-1.

At Newport. For three days the combined tennis teams of Yale and Harvard played against the lads of Oxford and Cambridge while Newport's summer colonists, sheltered from the sun under yellow and black-and-white picture-book hats, looked indolently on. When the three days were almost over, the Americans needed but one more match to win the tournament. That would be easy, the colonists thought: Arnold Jones and Charles Watson III of Yale were so much better than Jonklaas and Sumner of Oxford. So it proved in the first set. In the second, with the score at 5-3, the English came from behind, took three games, the lead. Jones, with a frightened look at his partner, dashed to the net, began to volley; Watson, on the baseline, lobbed and lobbed; they ran out the set, the match, 9-7.