The sun., 1919-09-02
TILDEN SCORES
TENNIS TRIUMPH
! OVER WILLIAMS
Philadelphia Defeats For
as mer National Champion
sat in Straight Sets.
ll,rn,JOHNSTON VICTOR, TOO
IA n
~ Outplays w. f. Johnson After
*. . Losing Start = 10000
= Persons Look On.
~ EUGENE r.. o,ooNNELL.

4. ~ EUGENE n. o'CoNNELL.
80 Once more the final round battle for
: the American lawn tennis championship
~ will be fought between the East and the
West william T. Tilden I'd of Philadel-
rs phia, runner UP for the title last year,
n Representing the East, and William M.
l7uJohnston of San Francisco, national
champion in 1915, for the West. will
meet this afternoon at o'clock at the
West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills in
= the final Of the thirty-eighth annual
tournament. i
Tilden and Johnston came through the
semi-final round yesterday by winning
s their matches easily before 10000 per-
'sons--the largest crowd that yet has
seen tournament play in this country.
: ridden trounced Richard Norris Williams
- I'd of Boston, national title holder in
- 1914 and 1915. in straight sets at 81,
rs, 6-3, and Johnston downed Wal
lace F. Johnson of Philadelphia, three
sets to one, at 2-6, 6-1, 6-3; 6-3.
- The tennis displayed in the two semi
final round matches did not measure up
to that seen in many of the earlier round
. battles, 1t was lacking in that fiashi-
!, ness and spirit of competition which
ia made other battles of the courts stand
out during the week However. the
actual display of skill and court craft OF
the four men who competed was of the
highest type and the two victors gained
their laurels through no fiukes.
% Australians Win Exhibition.
30 tennis hungry was the crowd that
came out to see the matches that after
. sthe titular contests had been completed
: the committee staged an exhibition
doubles in which Gerald L. Patterson
Z and Norman E. Brookes, the Australian
Z pair. met Frederick b. Alexander and
. Watson NJ Washburn of New York. both
of whom had been beaten in the singles
in five sets by Patterson. The Austral-
: ian pair won the match In straight deuce
/ sets at 81, IS
49, So great was the outpouring OF ten
=. mis- devotees that long before the hour
% scheduled for the start of play there
were lines of fans" extending from the
~ gates half mile down the roads. It
az had been planned to threw the gates
n open at 1 o'clock, but when the officials
Z at noontime SO that the throng in front
OF the clubhouse had grown to huge
proportions and was getting impatient
to get inside the gates were opened much
earlier.
Even with the advanced start the
ticket sellers and ushers had a hard
su time handling the crowd so as to get
80 every one in on-time. Before play was
started every seat In the grand stande
and in the bleachers was filled and a
-, portion of the turf was roped off to
~ admit of additional fans seeing the
=. contests. Even with this extra space
there were many whe could not get In.
The fact that so large a crowd came
out was the moro remarkable in view of
the fact that the weather of the morning
=, had not been promising and 1t was still
= cloudy when play was started. The rain
~ OF the morning had not hurt the playing
-. surface any and the turf looked better
than at TINA during he
course the great tarpaulins had been
pressed into service.
~ No Time Is Lost.
In each of the matches the outcome
was forecast early in the play. Both
contests were played in a business like
methodical manner, which made them
lack lot of lustre that they otherwise
: = might have had. In neither was there
- any Of that uncertainty which had
) marked the Alexander Patterson, the
&c Johnston-Patterson, or the Brookes-
- Garland tits of the early part Of the
~ tournament.
- Tilden started after Williams with a
Z cool and deliberate brand of attack
. which spelled disaster for the B.ston-
ian from the very start. In the other
affair, even after Wallace johnson had
taken the opening set from Billy Johns
practically none who felt that tie Phil
n. adelphian had ohance to win. In
other meetings Wallace johnson has
been able to lake a set from Billy
Johnston, but his ability always has
: stopped right with that set. Farther
mere, johnson does not play the kind
% of game which tends to bring out any,
thing startling either In his own play or
in that il his rival.
Although the afternoon was devoid of
~ thrills, IL was not altogether colorless
1t meant that Tilden and Johnston would
(, have another chance to take up cudgels
against one another The private argu-
~ ment between these two to date this
season gives Tilden slight edge on the
Californian. They have met three times
and Tllden has come gut on top twice.
10 The Philadelphia gained his victories
In the East-West match at Cincinnati
and in the final round of the invitation
tournament at the Casino In Newport.
In between these two. Johnston sand
[ wiched a victory in the final round Of
y the tournament for the national clay
:, court championship at Chicago.
~ Great Battle Forecast.
Johnston always has been able to ex-
- tend himself more when there Is a title
at stake and for this reason should be a
hard nut for Tllden to crack in the final
improving steadily since his defeat by
Johnston In Chicago. He is playing bet
) ter tennis than ever before in his life.
Z He has had habit of taking occasional
slumps, but has managed to keep away
from one lately. II the Philadelphian
is at his top form to-day the match
; should be a hummer and one that will
long be remembered. 1t was Tilden's
: clean cut and steady, IL not spectacular,
play that made his match with Will
iams the feature OF yesterdays compe-
tition.
While the Tilden-W Williams match was
productive of some wonderful tennis, the
Z contest was not as sparkling some OF
: the matches seen In the earlier rounds
In spite of the high class tennis, the
huge throng was not an enthusiastic
one. 1t seemed as II the holiday gath
ering would have preferred tennis of the
3 more fashy kind such as had been dis
played in the Patterson Johnson match
There was another thing quite appar-
ent, too, and that was that the gathering
was hoping to see the Boston man win
This was not due to the fact that. Will
Jams was any more popular with the fol-
a lowers OF the game than was Tilden, but
because the spectators expected Billy
Johnston to win his semi-final round