New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-19
Murray a Popular
Lawn Tennis Star

srd long experience against the surg
ing tide of youth
Murray Is like that Whether it was
the great Mclaughlin, the dazzling
Williams or the sensational Karl Behr,
he always considered II a rare treat to
play AGAINST them, even though defeat
cd. because the experience thus gained
added 10 his own game. Then, too,
Murray rlor.cs IN a hard fight. lie IS
never 20 happy. or so filled with deter
minat.ou a- when an opponent IS play
ing lust "a bit better than he himself Is.
Down 40 Southampton. where he de-
fcatcd Wa.son VI Washburn in the
final round. Murray sat on the club
house yerauda one afternoon with
prou1 Of players. The national cham
pionships al the Newport Casino were
TO be decided the following week, and
the talk turned 10 the possibilities OF
the ranking for the season OF 1914.
Opinions differed widely as to who
would be cla-sed among the country's
best ten players. Murray was asked 10
rame the men he thought would get
the coveted places His face lit up.
Mpmorics Of his defeat at the hands OF
George Myers Church, the Princeton
CAPTAIN. and later intercollegiate cham
n.ou. when be and Church met in the
final round for the Delaware State
championship earlier in the summer,
came back 90 him.
81 think George Church should GER
taiulv get in the first ten,' replied the
Californian. George has played bully
tennis this year, and then, OF course,
there is Mac and Dick Williams, and
Fred Alexander"
Murray named others whom he felt
we're entitled 20 be placed in the first
ten. and then, speaking with the enthu-
siasm of tine schoO.boy, expressed the
hone that he, too, would gain such an
honor. lie did not attempt TO dispar-
age his own game, but such thing
as leaping into the top ranks in his
first YEAR Of big tournament play
seemed "a bit too good to be true.
In placing Murray at No. 4, after
NcI.otgnlin. Williams and Behr, the
ranking committee made selection
that is bound 20 meet with almost uni
yersal approval among followers of
lawn tennis Some there are who will
argue that Murray might well have re
ceived the 40. 3 position IN place OF
Behr, and there is good reason for
their contention.
AT their first meeting, at the Sleepy
Hollow Country tluD tournament,
MURRAY defeated Behr. The latter
evened the score, however at Newport,
when he put the Californian out of the
national championship. Both were
brilliant matches and there was little
to choose between the two men.
Probably in another year Murray will
be able TO take the measure of the
man who is rated just above him this
time.
Behr. in gaining the next place to
r. Norris Williams, accomplished re-
markable feat lie had not figured
prominently on the courts since 1907,
when as a member of the Davis Cup
team he was defeated by Wilding and
Brookes. Consequently, when the old
Yale player again gripped his racquet
at the beginning of the season, his
name had become only a memory. II
did not seem probable that he could
succeed in coming back TO any great
extent.
But Behr is filled with answering
determination, and knowing the task
he had set himself, began a systematic
course of conditioning. When he felt
that his wind was good and that his
eve had regained its JUDGMENT, Behr
started TO play in the M 3 important
tournaments.