The Alaska citizen., 1915-09-27

glli rather QIllutnllE dShsu iiie managers of the national indoor tournament at the Seventh Regi- ment Armory. in New York, if she might enter the woman's singles; they took her name and her entry fee and forgot about her. Her name is Molla Bjur,tedt. no one in Ameri- can tennis circles had even heard oi it before.
 Miss Bjurstedt went through that tournament without losing a single set and annexed the indoor cham pionship be defeating Miss Marie Wagner. the three-time indoor chaiu- pion. who was supposed to be in yincible on the wooden courts. The tennis sharps said that the win was fluke But then Miss Biur5tedt entered othe. tournaments. and she always won. she played tourna- ment a week met all of the best women players in the country and defeated them with ease.
 She took the metropolitan cham ponship, defeating such players as Mrs Marshall Mclean and Mrs. Bar ger-Wallach, both former national champions; then she picked up the middle states championship and went on to Philadelphia and took the national title. defeating Mrs. Wight man. the title holder, and held to be the best player in the country: she met Mrs. Wightman again at Pittsburg and again she sgnally de feated the former Miss Hazel Hotch kiss and won the national clay court cup.
 And then the experts awoke ito the fact that Miss Bjurstedt was the most remarkable player that the United States had ever seen; she was the holder of more titles than any player who had ever stepped on court. No man or woman has ever before held all of the national titles in tennis.
 Thus in few months Miss Blur
 
 CT, has come to be a universal wo- man champion; there has appeared no girl or woman who has been able to give her real game May Slut ton the worlds champion of few years past, who is now the wife of Thomas Bundy, McLaughln's part her in doubles, is returning to the game expressly to see if she can wrest the honors from the new conner,
 Miss Bjurstedt is no novice at the plays hard, scientific tennis, and Is possessed of marvellous strength and quickneS5, She can and does hit the ball harder than most men, and she has played as many as 12 hard sets in an afternoon and then danced all the evening; she is always ap- parently stronger and faster at the end of a championship match than she was when she started
 Miss Bjurstedt differs from most tennis champions in that she works for her living; she is, by profession masseuse, and tennis is merely her recreation. She likes exercise and therefore she plays tennis. She is the daughter of retired array officer and her professional activi. ties are solely outside of Norway. She would simply rather work than be idle.
 Before coming to this country, last December Miss Djurstedt had been playing tennis for 12 years in Nor way, Sweden. England and Germany; she had won the championship of Norway eight times and had taken the third prize at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, but sl e had never risen to the commanding position abroad that she now has in the United States. She says herself that she is playing better tennis than she has ever played, and she thinks it is because she practices more and plays m more matches than when at home. There is com paratively little opportunity to play fast tennis n Norway, because the general standards of play among both men and women are low.
 She likes the climate of the United States and thinks that the men play splendid tennis, but her idea of the game among the girls Is not so high. She has now played with every first class girl and wo man in the country, with the ex- ception of Mrs Bundy, and has had ample opportunity to judge their styles. And on this point she says:
 'I find that the girls generally do not hit the ball as hard as they should l believe in always hitting the ball with all my might, but there seems to be a disposition to just get it over in many girls with whom I have played. do not call.this tennis for an easy ball permits the oppon- ent to do whatever she likes with