Omaha daily bee., 1893-08-22
CHAMPIONS OF NEBRASKA
Great Contests Of the Crack Tennis Players
Wind Up the State Tournament.
CulllNGHAR YET CHAMPION IN SINGLES
But tho Victory In tho Doubles Is wrcsted
rT from the Holders by Young and
Denise-Raco Track and
Diamond.

Last evening saw the finish OF the state
tennis tournament. c. S. Culingham still
holds The championship in singles, but the
doubles has passed into the hands of o. H.
Young and l.. G. Denise
1t was ten minutes after yesterday
when Culmgham and Roy Austin entered
the court for the set which was to decide
which of them would be Nebraska's cham
pion for the year. Each OF them had won
two hard fought sets when darkness inter
vened on Saturday night; but Cullingham
led on games by % to 2i, and on points by
l47 to l32 In spite of Austin's meritorlous
achievements during the week, his chance
against Cullingham had never been conceded
as ANYTHING more than the slightest, and the
fact that Cullingham led substantially in
both points and games on the play OF Satur-
day, when he was plainly tagged" gave
everyone confidence that he would carry off
the deciding set. The only question was by
how much.
How the Set Was Won.
Had Austin hit with the same vigor as he
did at the outset of the match, or had Gull
lfngham's play been as feeble as IN the last
two sets on Saturday this confidence would
have proved misplaced. ! But the champion
was In fine fighting form, and though he did
not put up in any sense brilliant game ne
missed few opportunities of scoring. And
Austin had the ground against him. His
strongest stroke is from o low ball, or rather
one that has fallen low after the bounce.
Yesterday the court was so hard after the
hot sun that when the ball touched 1T at all
far back. 1t jumped so high that to catch 1t
on the fall meant standing on the top OF the
bank, or ut the other side of the netting.
The only thing to be done was to return 1t
with an overland drive, always difficult
stroke TO make effective. And therefore so
long as Cullingham could keep his chal-
lenger at the back of tho court he had the
game in his hands. He saw this and accord
iugly gauged his balls so that they should
fall as near the base line as possible without
crossing il, and Austin, knowing that his
best game is from the back, was afraid to
run up, ana when he did was frequently
passed down the side line. Under the cir
cumstances probably he would have had
better success at the net than he did at the
back But Cullingham is a difficult man to
beat at the net game. Whenever Austin
tried to get up Cullingham did the same,
and volleying bout between the two was
generally ended by cross volley off the
champions racket which fell entirely out OF
reach OF his opponent.
Looked Like n Close Fight
The first two games were evenly con
tested. Cullngham won the first. but lost
the second, and there was every prospect OF
close fight. But then Austin dropped off.
He lost love game and on changing ends
only scored three points in the three
games while he was at the south side of the
tion, but he pulled himself together for q
death struggle. Running up after returning
the service he raised the score to 5-2 and
then to 5-3 before he lost another game, bu,
that was all he could do and Cullingham rar
out at 6-3. The set had occupied just
twenty.four minutes. The following table
shows the way the games and points were
divided: