The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-06-28
NJ J.. PARMLY PARET.

The national championship at clay
court play is on this week at Pittsburg
and four Of the ranking Eastern experts.
headed by Champion Williams. are the
leading stars Of the meeting. with every
reasonable expectation of cleanin UP
all the honors In sight. All four were
practising diligently for their big tour
last week and with this weeks real
work at pittsburg ought to improve
their condition a good deal before they
reach San Francisco.
Williams came on from Boston after
his Harvard examinations and COM
mencement exercises were over and
spent all Of last week in hard prepara-
ton. He tackled Alexander, Behr and
Mathey in successive days and wound
up the last days of his practice with
George Agutter. the professional at the
West Sid T. c.. who a play really
high class tennis when he is not busy
teaching novices the first principles OF
the game.
The champion was rather ragged at
first, having had little practice for sew
eral weeks and being somewhat out OF
physical condition, but he improved
rapidly during his four or Ave days
Of practice. and on paper at least he
should have the clay court champion
ship at his mercy this week. Church.
to be sure. beat him last fall for the
intercollegiate, but few expect to see
him repeat this victory. and Williams
already has beaten Church this sprins
I'm the Harvard Princeton team match.
washburn recently won the Metropoli-
tan championship, showing him to be
In good form, but neither he nor Mathey
is believed to be dangerous for the
champion.
The title OF the clay court champion.
ship is somewhat OF a misnomer and
open to some question. Few tennis
courts are made entirely Of clay. nor is
that substance the major part OF most
court surfaces. The same courts In diff
ferent parts OF the country are called
also dirt courts, or earth courts. or hard
courts, and the term dirt court Is prob
ably the most common. But II Is not a
pretty sounding title and the description
OF clay court was not entirely wrong.
30 II received preference in naming the
new title a few years ago.
But why should there be a clay court
championship at all? The game is the
same as that played for the regular
national championship, although that is
always played for on grass, which is
the native element of the anne. There
is absolutely no difference except a
slight variation in the bound Of the
ball due to the different surface Of the
court.
Now we have a clay court champion
ship, a grass court championship and
a covered court championship. The
logical sequence will be an applica.
tion soon for an asphalt court cham
pionship to be held out on the Pacific
Coast where most Of the play IL or
asphalt courts. With this further sep
aration of the players a grass court
championship as such might then be
inaugurated and n really truly" cham
pionstip tournament non the cham
pions could follow at the end Of the
season II any method could be found
for deciding which surface could be
used with equal chances for all.
1t is interesting to note he inception
OF this clay court event. Throughout
the middle West and on the Pacific
slope grass courts are few n far
between inc the great mass OF play on,
in tina section is on dirt or clay courts
A movement was started in 1909 to in.
augurate a hard court championship
and when this took definite shape DR.
Il. b. Hawk Of Philadelphia. who was
then one of the executive committed
of the U. s. N. l.. T. A.. became the
active. energetic. pushing head Of the
movement.
When the powers that be. or rather
the powers that were, opposed the new
fixture and the establishment OF a new