Wimbledon

It was the first all-U. S. women's finals in the history of Wimbledon but by no means the first all-French men's finals.

Helen Wills defeated her California neighbor and acquaintance, Helen Jacobs, 6-1, 6-2. Fifteen thousand people watched Miss Jacobs rush about the court, applauded with chilling politeness her brilliant recoveries. With no more enthusiasm did they greet the cold, feline accuracy of the Wills game. Helen Wills knows that the best Jacobs shot is a cross-court backhand. Rarely was Helen Jacobs able to use it. There was no drama as once there had been when Miss Wills, winning, was suddenly unnerved, defeated by the swarthy Suzanne Lenglen, who found new strength and boldness by drinking a glass of brandy. Helen Wills last week was simply the best woman tennis player at Wimbledon and she won. She played, in all, twelve sets of singles, losing none, dropping only 16 games.

For old times' sake, and because such victories as were hers were more bitterly earned, Mrs. May Sutton Bundy more than Helen Wills was Wimbledon's idol last week. She, before the enthusiastic eyes of William Tatem Tilden II (who murmured, "It's too good to be true") and to the anguished exhortations of her nine-year-old daughter (the youngest of four), defeated England's hard-hitting Eileen Bennett 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. British newspapers reprinted oldtime photographs taken when Mrs. Bundy, then May Sutton, became Wimbledon's first U. S. champion in 1905, repeating in 1907. Last week she was defeated in the quarter-finals by England's Joan Ridley but one moment of glory had been hers. Then she did one of the little things which all celebrities sometimes do and which, when they are discovered, add affection to the public's awareness. At the end of one day's matches she purchased a newspaper from a boy standing by the entrance to the stadium. She peered curiously into his face, then asked: "Aren't you Wiggins who used to be ball boy?"

Answered Bill Wiggins: "I was--I mean, I am."

"Then I owe you a racquet," she said and fetched a racquet on which she signed her name, presented it to onetime Ballboy Wiggins. Twenty-two years ago, pleased with the Wiggins alertness, Miss Sutton promised him a racquet next time she returned. Last week was the first time she had played at Wimbledon since 1907.

William Tatem Tilden II, 36, was defeated last week. Four games he won in the first set, only one in the second. In the third Henri Cochet was leading him 5-1. Suddenly, for a moment, returned the Tilden touch. His serves streaked into the court, changed direction when they struck, bounded far out of reach. His drives skimmed the net, his kills were invincible. But when the score was 5 to 5, Tilden's last fling was over. Valiantly he fought but Cochet took the next two games, the match.

That same day the youth on whom all England pinned nervous championship hopes, Herbert Wilbur ("Bunny") Austin, England's hard-court champion, was defeated by Jean Borotra 6-1, 10-8, 5-7, 6-1. Not since the Dohertys has England been able to boast great tennis players. "Bunny" Austin, captain of his Cambridge team last year, is erratic. He always strikes hard. On his good days he seems brilliant. He had a good day last fortnight when he beat France's Jacques Brugnon. He only had a good moment (third set) when he met Borotra. Slight, 22, he lacks stamina. In a third or fourth set he seems to crumble, to become weak as a child. His footwork, excellent, is the most remarkable part of his game. It is this which made Lili de Alvarez call him "the lineal successor of Laurie Doherty." When not on tennis courts he works with his father in a London stock exchange house.

England, however, triumphed in the women's doubles when Mrs. Phoebe Watson and Mrs. Peggy Saunders Mitchell won in straight sets from England's other women's doubles team: Mrs. Phyllis Covell and Mrs. Dorothy Shepherd-Barron. The men's singles title, as had been freely prophesied, went to Henri Cochet. Francis T. Hunter and Helen Wills won the mixed doubles. Wilmer Allison and John Van Ryn who brilliantly and almost contemptuously defeated Tilden and Hunter the day before, won in five sets from England's strong J. C. Gregory-Ian G. Collins team. Thus of the five Wimbledon titles, the U. S. won three, England one, France one.