Tennists' Tenth

Almost since tennis started, there have been professional teachers. Yet professional tennis, as a game, did not really get under way until 1926, when Charle's C. ("Cash & Carry") Pyle induced famed Suzanne Lenglen to sign a contract for exhibition matches. Last week, in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden, professional tennis began its tenth season. A crowd of 15,000 watched leggy Ellsworth Vines beat handsome, lethargic Lester Stoefen 6-2, 6-2. William Tatem Tilden II, now in his sixth season as a professional and no longer a star attraction, gave expression to his egotistic dissatisfaction with this state of affairs by trouncing Berkeley Bell of Texas, 6-1, 6-4. In the most interesting match of the evening, between two young Californians who are the first women to turn professional since Lenglen, tiny Ethel Burkhardt Arnold of Los Angeles beat Jane Sharp of Pasadena, 6-4, 6-4.

When Lenglen turned professional, tennis authorities were loudly indignant. They anticipated immediate trouble when other amateurs followed her example. Promoter Pyle went bankrupt, Suzanne Lenglen retired and professional tennis was in the doldrums when it was rescued by Miss Lenglen's onetime trainer, William O'Brien, now No. 1 impresario of the game. Since 1931, his tennis tours have grossed $750,000. Among the 14 onetime amateurs he has induced to play for him have been Francis T. Hunter, Vincent Richards, Henri Cochet, George Lott. Major attraction of the O'Brien troupe has always been Tilden who, as a partner in the enterprise, has thus far made $150,000 from the game. Except for national championships, and an itinerant tournament for the world's title won at London last year by Ellsworth Vines, professional tennis has never progressed far outside the U. S. It has developed few players of its own, rarely shown signs of achieving a dignity beyond that of exhibition matches. O'Brien's tours draw their biggest crowds in the East, their most serious patrons in California. Their worst behaved galleries were in Iowa, where spectators were slow to learn that loud chatting and peanut shelling are not good manners at tennis matches. Never likely to rival either Tilden or Lenglen as a drawing card, Ethel Burkhardt Arnold is at least likely to amaze galleries by her size (4 ft. 11 in.), the speed of her awkward forehand drive, her almost incredible stamina. As Ethel Burkhardt, she ranked high among amateur women tennists in 1929 and 1930. She dropped out of major play for four seasons, re-emerged last summer as the wife of a Los Angeles rug salesman, to become the summer's tennis sensation. She won three important Eastern tournaments in a row, made herself the heroine of the U. S. Wightman Cup team by her victory over England's formidable "Kay" Stammers, received No. 2 ranking for the year without playing in the National Championships. Her training methods: rope skipping, calisthenics, roadwork like a prizefighter. Her reasons for turning professional: ". . . You have to polish trophies but not dollars, and I hate to shine silverware. . . . I'm looking for ward most to visiting New Orleans. . . . It's a rare privilege for a girl to play . . . across the net from Tilden. . . ." While professional tennists were starting their tenth season in Manhattan last week, the most famed woman amateur player in the world. Helen Wills Moody, was starting something else in San Fran cisco. She and Instructor Howard Kinsey set out to see how often they could bat the ball to each other without missing. Aiming at 5,000 times, they rallied steadily for 1 hr. 18 min., stopped at 2,001 (a record) because Instructor Kinsey had to give a lesson.

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