Tennists to Forest Hills

(See front cover) Frederick John Perry last week blacked his eye on an awning rod bowing to Helen Jacobs, threw a handful of rolls at Lester Stoefen, appeared with a wave in his hair. At Germantown, Pa., George Lott and Lester Stoefen retained their U. S. doubles championship by defeating John Van Ryn and Wilmer Allison 6-4, 9-7, 3-6, 6-4. At Rye, N. Y., most of the first-class tennists in the U. S. assembled to put the finishing touches on their games. In the citified suburb of Forest Hills. L. I., groundskeepers rolled, clipped and patted the Stadium courts of the West Side Tennis Club where this week 90 players will start in what, until officials see fit to sanction an open, remains the most important U. S. tournament of the year--the Men's National Singles Championship.

When he arrived in Manhattan from Great Britain to defend the title which he won at Forest Hills last year, dapper Fred Perry told newshawks his purposes and plans: "I intend to fool around in Hollywood for a while. I don't know whether I'm going to be an actor or not. Universal approached me with an offer to make a picture but I don't think I could do it and remain an amateur. . . .

"When you're a pro in England, you have to take the back door. I wouldn't consider it, now or ever. . . .

"After Hollywood, I'm off for Australia. After Australia, I'm getting married, settle down and become sedate. . . .

"I'm really tired of tennis, hang it. I like golf and I intend to master it. ...

"In the tennis world, there are about five blokes who are as good as each other. In order to win. a bloke needs a bit of luck. . . ."

Of the five "blokes" whom Perry complimented anonymously last week, two will be absent from Forest Hills--Australia's Jack Crawford, who was too weary to play any more after the Davis Cup interzone final, and Great Britain's "Bunny" Austin who dislikes the strain of a long tournament. With these exceptions the names on the West Side Club scoreboards include nearly all the best players in the world. Topping the list are the members of the U. S. Davis Cup team, Sidney Wood, Frank Shields, George Lott and Lester Stoefen. Experts wondered how o rate the chances of Berkeley Bell, once No. 9 but now No. 18 in national ranking, who has won nine tournaments this season; of youthful oldtimers like John Van Ryn, Wilmer Allison, Bryan Grant and Clifford Sutter: of the latest batch of promising youngsters like Donald Budge, Gene Mako and Frank Parker.

More impressive if not more efficient than any of his confreres was a 200-lb., 6-ft. 3-in. Czechoslovakian named Roderick Menzel, who plays in long shorts and woolen socks that come up almost to his knees. A minor poet and novelist in Prague, Menzel began to play tennis seriously eight years ago. Although he liked it much less than soccer, he soon contrived to be his country's No. 1 player. This season he carried Perry to five sets at Wimbledon and beat Crawford in the European Zone Davis Cup final. If Perry, the defending champion, plays through his field at Forest Hills and becomes the only foreigner except Lacoste to win the U. S. title twice, it will be one of the most brilliant chapters in one of the most extraordinary histories the game has ever known.

Son of a onetime Labor M. P., Frederick John Perry started his tennis career in a suburban parlor. He took up table tennis at his home in Baling, became proficient enough to win the world's championship at Budapest in 1929. In 1930, when he was 20, his mother, to whom he was devoted, died after a long illness. Her son's nervous and physical condition was then so poor that doctors despaired of keeping him alive unless he discovered some absorbing outdoor interest. Perry took a six months' leave from his job in a London sports shop, turned seriously to tennis, which he had taught himself on a public court in London by hitting a ball against a wall. By the time the six months were over, he had won a minor tournament at Chiswick Park, trounced Italy's No. 1, Baron Morpurgo, at Wimbledon, been selected for England's Davis Cup team, and defeated Jack Crawford in their first meeting at Bournemouth. That autumn Perry toured the U. S. and South America with a British team, winning the Argentina championship. The next year he reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon, defeated Sidney Wood and Jean Borotra in Davis Cup play, beat seven of the first test players of the U. S., was defeated by Ellsworth Vines in the semi-finals of the U. S. Singles.

Last year in the final of the U. S. Singles at Forest Hills, Perry met Jack Crawford who held the Australian, French and All-England titles and was expected to add the U. S. title. When Crawford lost that match and when Ellsworth Vines turned professional shortly afterward, Perry became indisputably the best amateur tennist in the world. Since then he has beaten Crawford five times. After defeating him in the Wimbledon final this year, he put the finishing touches on his record by beating both Sidney Wood and Frank Shields in the singles match of the Davis Cup challenge round (TIME, Aug. 6). On the tennis court, Perry's demeanor is more like that of Jean Borotra than of any other player of the last decade. He uses nervous, snapping strokes, starts his racket near the ball, curtails his follow-through. His most outstanding shot is a forehand drive executed on a rising ball as he runs toward the net. He volleys with more power than finesse, serves hard but without either the finality or the waste of energy that characterizes U. S. players like Vines or Shields. Two years ago Perry's word when he missed a shot was "Nuts." He has since learned to express his disappointment more politely but still shakes his racket, bounces a ball hungrily between serves, rolls on his back when he falls down. Such gestures have often been mistaken by critics as an indication of frivolity. Actually they are the inevitable manifestations of a character in which the salient quality is solemn, almost neurotic determination to win.

At 25, Perry has been three times around the world. He has 50 tennis trophies, including spears and shields from Africa. He smokes a pipe, never drinks. He drives a car cautiously, avoids travel by plane. Slightly ashamed of his skill at table tennis, he now plays only onboard ship. He plays tennis eight months every year, does not practice before a match because it does his game no good. His fiancee is British Cinemactress Mary Lawson, a onetime tap dancer, who is 5 ft. tall, wears size 2 shoes, plays no tennis at all. Last week she was at Shepherd's Bush making a picture called Schooldays in which she plays the second lead to Comedienne Cicely Courtneidge.

While U. S. amateur tennists were preparing for Forest Hills last week, professionals were holding their National Championship in Chicago. William Tatem Tilden II was abroad, practicing for the World's Championship next month in Paris. In the semifinals, Ellsworth Vines, who has this year earned some $50,000 from the game, was beaten by Hans Nusslein of Germany. In the final, Nusslein beat Karel Kozeluh of Czechoslovakia, 6-4, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5.

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