The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-29

SEABRIdHT, N. j.. July 28.--While q
heavy rainstorm delayed the early
matches in the singles of the annual
lawn tennis tournament at the Seabright
Tennis and Cricket Club to-day. the COM
mittee had the players out on the turf
as soon as the sun put in an appearance
and managed to finish the first round.
There was a fairly large gallery on hand
to look over the players and the en-
thusiasts stuck right along through the
downpour.
Owing to the fact that the Longwood
singles and Eastern doubles at Boston
were not finished on schedule time some
of the topnotch players were forced to
remain out of the tourney. Richard
Norris Williams I'd, who brought about
the necessity for the new Seabright bowl
by winning the historic Achelis chal-
leEge cup outright couple of years ago,
was among those missing. He Is tied up
In the Longwood tournament, but 1t is
expected that he will be down here in
time to play in the doubles.
Charles S. Garland. the young Pitts
burg star who gained considerable pres
tige recently by reaching the semi-final
round in the British championship at
Wimbledon. after Davis, Griffin, Mathey
and Washburn had been eliminated, also
was absent. He was to have met Peter
Ball in the opening round, but defaulted
because, like Williams, he had not fin
ished with Longwood.
Rain Hurts Courts.
While the rain failed to interfere with
tho playing schedule to any appreciable
degree. it did a great deal to hinder the
play of the men. 1t left the turf sodden
and uneven, with the result that fire.
qrently the players had to suffer the loss
o. point through bad bounds.
On q whole the tennis was pretty high
class. 1t was far above the average for
first round matches.
The greatest interest centred around
the two young California players, Axel
Craven and Robert Kinsey, who were
scheduled to make their first appearances
on terf courts. Kinsley was drawn
against Vincent Richards, the youthful
national indoor champion, while Craven
was bracketed with Frank T. Anderson
the young Brooklyn player. former Long
Island champion
Neither Kinsey nor Richards was able
to get to Seabright to-day and their
match was postponed until tomorrow.
Craven and Anderson, however. were
on the job and gave a very interesting
exhibition of tennis. The California
youngster surprised the gallery by de-
feating Anderson easily in straight sets
at 6--3, 6-1.
Craven Shows Skill.
For youngster who had never before
played upon turf the Californian showed
skill that was almost uncanny. Hit
ground strokes, which were watched
more closely than any other department
of his game by the experts, were almost
faultless, and he demonstrated that he
had learned somewhere the value Of the
chop stroke on turf.
Unlike most players whose game has
been developed on the hard courts, young
Craven resorted frequently to change
of pace which had his opponent baffied
In many respects his play was reminis.
cent OF the tennis displayed by William
NJ. Johnston when the latter made hi:
| initial bow on turf five or six years ago
1t will be remembered that even Their
critics hardly could believe their eyes
| when they saw young Johnston adapting
his asphalt court game to the turf cour'
so well that he managed to beat some Of
the best players in the East, men who
had been playing for years on grass.
Craven took the lead early In thu
opening set and by his ability to pas
Anderson kept in the front until the sci
| was finished. In the second set Ander
son having found that he had tough
customer to deal with resorted to de
fensive tactics. First he tried to keel
the young Californian away from thu
net by shooting deep drives along tn
side lines. He found that this did no
work very well, for Craven had re