Eighteen-Year-Olds

Fortnight ago in the finals of the Metropolitan Grass Court Championship in Brooklyn, Ellsworth Vines, 18, unknown, beat Francis T. Hunter, second ranking U. S. player. Entering last week the annual invitation tournament of the Sea Bright, N. J. Lawn Tennis & Cricket Club --a tournament which has become regarded as a more important sign-pointer for the national than any other mid-season event -- Ellsworth Vines was no longer unknown. People had learned about him -- that his father owns a chain of Pacific Coast meat stores, that he began playing when he was six and was later coached by Mercer Beasley who also developed Clifford Sutter, national intercollegiate champion. He won the national junior doubles with Keith Gledhill last year, is ranked No. 2 in junior singles. He had never seen a grass event till he arrived in the East four weeks ago.

At Sea Bright on successive days, Ellsworth Vines put out Frank Shields, twelfth ranking U. S. player and Richard Norris Williams II, twice (1914, 1916) national champion. He beat Shields with a spurt of brilliance after a slow start. In the first set he seemed indifferent. After a point had been settled he would shamble back to serve or receive with an absent expression, bored, disinterested. Once in difficulties, he showed his best game. Against Williams he lost the second set but then roused, ran away with the match. Next day he beat Hunter for the second time in a week. Erratic and weak at the start, he suddenly worked up a pace that made watchers think of an other Californian of tremendous memory, Maurice McLoughlin, the Comet. He finished volleying duels by acing grim-faced Hunter and driving forehands past him. Hunter said he could never tell where Vines' drives were going. Score for Vines: 3-6, 6-2, 8-6.

Ellsworth Vines shambled out next day for the finals. In a week, by winning four matches, he had made his name the biggest news in his sport. A large crowd had gathered to see the annihilation of the other finalist, slim, grinning towheaded Sidney B. Wood Jr. of New York. Wood had played Vines twice before and beaten him once. The night before the final he told friends that he "had Vines's number." Nobody was much excited when Vines lost the first set--his slow start had been the familiar prolog of his brilliance. He started the second set by winning two games in cyclonic style. They were the last he won. Self-contained, graceful Wood, master of backcourt elegance and a competent volley, was softballing Vines out of his game. In every other match the Californian had undone his opponents with their own strength, using their speed as a foil for his. He could not hit Wood's gentle, accurate chopshots. All he could do was imitate them, flounderingly, unsuccessfully. Score for Woods: 6-2, 6-2, 6-0.

Like Vines, Sidney Wood is 18. Dopesters suggested they ought to play together often.

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