New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-20

~ Mike. 1t is famous for coal
.sot highly proletariat member of the
.,;reral family. Mike is about the last
.,ot one would think of as the nesting
,Ioce for so airy, so bright plumaged
hing as sport. But about five and
evenly years ago a humorist fairy of
.bo tennis world played little trick
~itb the coal-solid town of Mike, and
.hs nresent champion of the Tennis
orient saw the light of day there for the
first time.
Until his freshman year at Keiwo
University in Tokio-one of the three
Great private universities of the en-
0;re--he had never seen a real racquet
ara real tennis ball. He had toyed with
large uncovered rubber balls, such as
children play with on sidewalks in
America. and with many made-in-
Isnan racquet as flabby as fat man.
Rnt that was all. Kumagae graduated
from the Keiwo this year; therefore, his
tennis career is a wee thing of four
wears fostering. It is even shorter than
tbat-to make a sensational story still
wore unbelievable. For it was in the
carly summer of 1918 that Kumagae
took up the game seriously with a real
racquet and tested it and his muscles on
rsal tennis balls with covers on them.
And precisely seven months after that
10 went down to Manila TO compete IN
Tho omen tournament for the champion
ship of the Orient.
He went down with the profound con-
viction of being the joke of the tourna-
mont To be sure, there could not have
been anv other view for an asplrant OF
seven months experience to take. Still,
he had played and beaten men IN the
Toxic Club. and his admirers, most OF
them quite as young as himself, gave
him an earful of high temperatured air
lest he come home from Manila with
tale How the Jelly-Fish Lost HIS
Bones" a perfectly good tale and
prime favorite in the nurseries OF Mp
non but one which his friends did not
wish to make big hit with young Kun
agae in the critical hours awaiting him
at Manila.
At Manila he did pretty well. His
success should have astounded him.
do not know whether it did or not'
Perhaps it didn't. even hope that II
didn't. l hate to think that 1t did not
give the boy a considerably enlarged nat
hand. like to think of him as a human
vounpster and not as a monster adver-
tisement of monstrously impossible vlr-
the. especially in his young and spacious
davs He went on through to the SEMI
finals, beating such good men as W.
A B. We're, the Singapore champion
(who gave him a three-set tussle)-ano
On Friday the ninth of January ne
Rut let us pause right here-not Tor
a reply, but just to let Kumagae put a
white stone upon that day-for on that
dav he met Fottrell of San Francisco IN
the semi-fnal round of the tournament
Fottrell beat Kumagae out in the end'
Of course-as he certainly should nave
But il went almost to six sets. Inc
tropic twilight darkened on them when
thew were at the fag end of their tourth
SET Fottrell had two sets and kum-
agae one. and on the fourth set kum-
agae was leading 90 on games. Inc
following day they took it up again.
But they did not play the fourth set
where they stopped. They played tnaV
set all over again from the beginning
and Kumagae won it, Ga; that MADE
their score two sets all. tottrell nm
ished his opponent in the fifth, ending
the match. How the San FRANCISCAN
did this is described in the heroic SEN
tence of the Manila correspondent ol
American Lawn Tennis" as follows;
"Fottrell waded into things in the
fifth set, going after everything, making
impossible returns and fairly playing
his plucky opponent off his feet"
To everybody familiar with Fottrelrs
rlo,, al L -, - ,,,b;cb n IananeSe bow