The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-08-28
AMERICAS BEST
TENNIS PLAYER
Remarkable Career of William
Larned, the Champion
IN GAME MANY YEARS
Perseverance and Hard Work Put Him
in the First PIace--Wins on HIS
Own Good PIay-Showed
Wonderful Form
IN GAME MANY YEARS
From the Boston Herald.

NoWhJre IN the world can there be
found, probably, player who has had
SO remarkable lawn tennis career as
William A. Larned has had. No one
who, after no less than 20 years of hard
campaigning, is now, at the age of almost
40, displaying the most wonderful form
that he has shown in years.
This career is remarkable for two rea-
sons 1t is remarkable because for so
long he was a loser, and now that for
so long he has been winner. In the old
days he would prove invincible to the top
notchers one day, only the next day to go
down before some second rater. One was
reminded of the old nursery rhyme:
when she was good she was very, very
good, but when she was bad she was
horrid.' Then those erratic tendencies
became less and less frequent and at last
there came a day, when Larned outvol-
leyed and outlobbed and outplaced any
player who had been seen on the courts
anywhere, and, with a great crowd re-
joicing in his victory-for he has always
been a very popular player with the gal
lery-he captured the championship. He
had lost and he had lost again and yet
again, but he had continued to play and
that is what can be said of not many
players.
Beyond Age Limit
Iarned's career is rema rkable also
because he has kept on playing year
after year beyond the age limit to
which tournament players have usually
restricted themselves. For tennis has
| been regarded as young mans game
| There is not a sport save those OF ac-
| tual bodily contact, as boxing, wrest-
| ling and football which is so severe
| physically as lawn tennis The strain
| Is violent and it is continuous. The
game requires the very finest co-or-
dination of the muscles and the nerves.
1t implies the greatest complexity of
play. The number of situations and
combinations is almost unlimited. The
player must thing at lightning speed
Goodness. Of nerve and eye are required.
The muscles, the whole body, must be
in perfect balance of condition, or the
player will be "off his game" That
Larned has the stamina to hold his
place at his age is remarkable.
Larned Is more brilliant in his game
today than ever before, yet to many fol-
lowers of the game he may seem less
brilliant because his brilliance Is more
| sustained; there are very few of those
lapses between periods of pyrotechnical
display that used to be the despair of
his admirers. His game Is grace itself.
The strokes are fast and all of them
are clean cut. Both the back hand and
the fore hand are made with free and
facile swing. The ball is hit at the top
of the bound, with the racket almost at
right angles with the body. The service
ball is only OF medium swiftness but it
Is we'll placed and the cut is used but
sparingly. The volleying is very fast,
and at the net, where Larned is to be
found most of the time after the SER
vice has been rendered or received he
Is hard to pass owing to what to many
players has seemed a preternatural
agility.
Play Is Brilliant
He will pass his opponent at the net
many times In succession, now by a
crosscut shot and now by a shot straight
down the side line, and either backhand
or forehand, and every shot of the series
will seem wonderful, SO unerring is the
placing and so swift is the pace His
rallies are usually shorter than they often
are between players of the first rank.
He ends his rallies in very short space
of time by quick pass or a sharp volley
cross court
He has always been skllful in con-
cealing the direction of the smash he in
tends to deliver. Often at the very last
instant a slight twist of the wrist will
send the ball to an unexpected corner of
the rectangle his opponent Is vainly try
ing to cover. Lobbing used to be ratee
his weakest point and 1t lost him some
rallies at critical times In his matches.
But he improved ippthis in other de-
partments Of his game, by dint of prac-
tice, and he came long ago to use the
short lob and the high lob. the deceptive
crop and the up-in-the-air ball intended
merely to give time to regain position,
with all the skill and precision that goes
into his other strokes.
Always Larned will have the crowd
with him. He does not play for the gal
lery, but he gets the gallery because it is
his genius to do remarkable things as he
runs over the chalk lines and the green
turf The men who have played with him
have been men of ar-tlfferent style of
play. Larneds has always been an at
lacking game; he plays to gain points
not to prevent his antagonist from MAX
ing points. He wins on his own good
play, not on the poor play of the man
across the net.