Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-12
ROYALTY is
TENNIS MAD
EDDIE AND WILLIAM MAY GIVE
NEW CUPS
KING ALFONSO is DEVoTEE OF
GAME ON COURTS
Americans Have Kept Up with DeveI-
opments and Are Being
Copied by Experts
in England

Lawn tennis has at last received the seal
of approval of royalty Not that abroad
there has been lacking a polite interest
in the game for many years, but now in
terest is keen. and the prince of Wales
has been duly elected president of the
English Lawn Tennis association. King
Edward and Emperor William are both
talked of as Offering a new international
challenge cup for competition should the
Australasians decide to take their recent
ly won prize the Davis cup, back to Aus
tralia with them.
In Spain the game of the nets has been
taken up by Alfonso with much zeal. He
is said to play with excellent form, while
the position of the ball boys, to chase the
balls for his highness, is regarded as one
of distinction. Even with all its disturb
ing elements of political intrigue, Russia
has fallen under the spell of tennis. There,
upon an island in the Neva, near St. Pc
tersburg. the greatest championship ever
held in Russia is being played, and TO II
the Gar Nicholas acts as royal patron.
Considerable effort has been made to at
tract foreign players to this Russian
championship. Letters have been sent
broadcast to the foremost racquet WELD
ers but the circulars advise all foreign
ers 10 be particular as to their passports,
and to carry no baggage whose character
is not evident. With the concluding
phrase of the circular Americans may we'll
decide to stay at home, for knowing the
possibility of revolution, the Russians say
Amy or all of the events may be elm
mated from the program at the discretion
of the officials.
But in every way Americans have kept
I'D with the development of the interest
in the game, which has shown the most
remarkable growth this year. President
Theodore Roosevelt and his LAWN tennis
cabinet" both at Washington and Oyster
Bay, upon his finely kept courts, nave
made it evident that a strenuous president
regards the game as worth something.
But with the spread of the game through
out the globe the experts of this country
may we'll feel elated, as everywhere there
is the effort to play what is called the
American game"
England has been quick to pattern the
inventive plays of the leading Americans,
and it is freely said in the tight little
island that the famous Doherty brothers
improved fully 80 per cent after their first
visit to this country. According TO their
own statements Holcombe, Ward and
Dwight F. Davis, then the national cham
pions in the doubles, taught them how to
lobb. Afterward they made use of the
high American lobb with great success.
Foreigners Copy Us
The great Norman E. Brookes, cham
pion of all England in both the singles
and doubles and the leader of the Aus
tralasian team in the internationals, is
regarded abroad as distinctly playing the
American type of game. 1t is his dashing
work at volleying range, in which he is
said to strongly resemble our own re-
doubtable Bob Wrenn, that the great
Brookes plays like an American. Then he
makes good use of the famous reverse
twist service which Malcolm D. Whit
man, Holcombe Ward and Dwight Davis
first showed to the trio of Britons who
came to capture the cup. This battling
piece of ingenuity has never been played
as we'll by foreigners as by its inventors,
the Americans
Emperor William of Germany during
the past three or four years has never
failed to witness matches whenever
Americans were playing in the great tour
nament at Homourg or Baden. He is said
to delight in the dash and spirit of the
Americans and the new methods by which
they at all times strive to bring off the
aces with single shot through the court.
Throughout Germany this game of lawn
tennis is being most rapidly developed,
so that promising players are coming to
the fore. 1t is also significant that the
official Handicapped of all of the more i'm
portant of the German tournaments, who
also acts as referee, is a former Ameri-
can, C. A. Volt.
While the American international team,
composed of Beas c. Wright and Karl
H. Behr, failed to return the Davis cup
this year in other respects the season on
the courts of this country overshadows
any of it's predecessors. In all of. the
championships and big tournaments. with
the one exception of the middle states, the
entry lists have shown an increase in
numbers and in the quality of the players
form. All along the line the young
"comers' are pressing upon the veterans.
In fact, it is freely predicted now that
there will be a change in the holding when
the national championship tournament is
decided on the picturesque courts of the
Newport casino later in this month.