At Wimbledon

Critics speak of Rene Lacoste of France as a tennis machine. If true, he is the strangest machine known to man. William Tatem Tilden II of the U. S. had him two sets to one, and a 3-1 game lead in what looked like the final set, at Wimbledon last week. The machine was making inexplicable errors. But, somehow, by rushing recklessly to the net, the machine brought the set to 4-4. In the next game was a critical point for which there was a long and terrific volleying. Tilden drove the ball over a far corner of the net; the machine dived for it, flicked it neatly across the net out of Tilden's reach. But the machine did not know instantly that it had won that particular point, for it was sprawled in a most unscientific position upon the lawn.

Indeed, it was a strange machine that conquered Tilden in the Wimbledon semifinals, 2-6, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. The simple explanation is that a better, a younger player conquered Tilden. The only machine that Lacoste ever invented was an almost perfect practice machine to return balls to himself.

In the finals, Lacoste trounced his countryman, Henri Cochet, who had previously eliminated another U. S. hope, John Hennessey. Britishers who crowded the stadium saw some magnificent tennis, but they also remembered that no Britisher had won the Wimbledon singles since A. W. Gore in 1909.

King-Emperor and Queen-Empress arrived at the stadium in the middle of the women's finals. Play stopped while Helen Wills stood at attention and Elia de Alvarez bowed. Play resumed and Miss Wills won, 6-2, 6-3.

British hopes were high only when Gerald Patterson & John B. Hawkes, of Australia, defeated Tilden and Francis T. Hunter in men's doubles. But, again France--Henri Cochet & Jacques Brugnon --conquered the Australians in the finals, 13-11, 6-5, 6-4.