The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-13
TENNIS FOLLOWERS
 WATCHING ACTIONS OF FORMER CHAMP
Victory for Californian ir Coming Tourney Will Give Him Singles BOwl-In-
 terest Intense

New York, July 11.-Officers of tn | National Tennis association and follow
 CTS of the court game in general ar watching with unusual interest in tunins
 up progress of Maurice E. McLoughlil | in the expectation that the famous Cali | fornia racquet star will make fina effort at the coming national champion ships to win outright the single bowl emblematic of the title. The Comet already holds two legs upon the trophy and needs but one more victory to clincl possession and add the bowl to his larg ] collection of prizes won in all parts o | the world.
 The present bowl, massive silver urr | is the eighth of the series offered by tn | United States National Lawn Tennis as sociation, and was put into competitioj l in 1911. w. A. Larned won it the frs year and Mclaughlin captured it, alonl with the singles championship, in 1912 an, | 1913 The following season he fought hi way to the final round only to be dd feated by R. Norris Williams, and las year, after playing through the tourna | ment he lost to William Johnston Al | a result Larned, who is out of cham pionship play, Williams and JohnssoI | each have one leg on the trophy, whiA | Mclaughlin has two and needs but onI | more to gain permanent possession.
 | From present indications the famous ir1 ternational list will face a hard fiel1 when he takes the courts at Forest Hilli
 L. T., next month. In addition to vii ! 1iarnc afh In, tennis ranking, there will be the tw| Japanese players, Kumagae and Mikamq as well as several of the younger experu who are rapidly approaching the firs rank. Much, of course, will depend upol | the position secured by Mclaughlin il | the draw. Should he be fortunal enough to be placed so that his prod | ress to the semi-final round is compars| lively easy, he can conserve his strengS| | for the final drive. If, on the other hand | he is forced to meet a number of ranll l ing players in the preliminary rounds II may reach the finals in the same veal ened physical condition which was sI apparent 8 year ago. Johnston also showed the strain of h| l tennis campaign late last fall, and wal ordered by his physician to rest for seII eral months. This spring he has con | plained of soreness in his racquet arr3 | but it is expected that he will be in pei | feet condition when he comes east defend his title. R. Norris Williams. tlI 1 other former champion. has played bJ l little tennis to date but is understod| l to be taking a special course of trai | ing, in order to be fit for the nationI championship tournament, so that it cdl | be seen that Mclaughlin is going to ha j a decidedly hard task ahead of him his effort to win the singles bowl oul1 right this season, which may be his lal| | in championship play. | Fred Kelly, the California hurdler. aIS l Robert Simpson, the record holder fro'l | the University of Mossouri, have bo l signified their intention of competing .l | the Amateur Athletic union champio. ships at Newark in September. Kell may also try for the all-round cha1 pionship title later in the month al l close followers of athletics are of t
 opinion that he will prove a formidat contender in this competition
 l The announcement that Fred F'ultss | has claimed the heavyweight title
 default, owing to Willard's refusal ], meet the Rochester heavy on certa-I date, opens a new road to pugilistic hd-I
 ors. It is doubtful, however. if fig, fans will accord Fulton the homage pd,E | to a champion whose claim to the tiNi ! is based upon his efforts in the ring. Il