New-York tribune., 1920-05-12
ahirty-seven Players Still
Survive i'm Tennis Tour
ney of Harlem Club
By Fred Hawthorne


The long arm Of default reached ont
Its hand yesterday in the annual mems
open lawn tennis tournament of the
Harlem Tennis Club, and wiped an even
dozen Of scheduled matches off the
board in the singles. Seven matches
were actually played on the slippery
clay courts at 136th Street and Eighth
Avenue, with the net result that thirtv-
seven players still survived at the end
of the day out of the original total Of
1-3 that started on Sunday
Louis Bry, chairman of the tourna-
ment committee, who has been inclined
toward leniency hitherto in using the
dctauitlng prerogative that rests with
the referee, took the dilemma by the
two horns yesterday and scored q neat
fall. marking up default against all
those who failed to appear after sched-
uled time. His action was well taken,
for the field had been tagging badly and
drastic treatment was urgently needed.
The intermittent rain of Monday, fol
lowed by yesterdays damp Offering. still
further impeded progress toward the
hnal brackets, but some of the harder
racquet swjngers went forth and con-
quered or lost IN a sea of mud and
glory.
Henry, the Roman groundkeepor. had
massaged the six courts into a state Of
almost Prohibition dryness since the
nlght before, and those who started
Playing early in the afternoon found
conditions presentable, but the late
comers had q slippery time Of it.
one OF the surprises of the tourna-
ment came in the straight-set defeat
OF Willard Botsford the former Eng
lIsh schoolboy champion. at thehands
OF Edward Oelsner, former Chicago
city champion, by a score of GO, Cd
In the second round. Oelsner won his
match splendidly clearly outplaying
his opponent in the two sets.
Botsford showed a disclination 20 go
TO the net, and this undoubtedly was
a strong factor in his defeat, since
OelSner made the most Of his rushes
TO the net, cutting off Botsford's fine
drives by spirited voleyng.
When Oelsner was leading at 6-3 and
- on games in the second session,
Botsford, who was playing with a bor-
roWed racquet n the rain. desired TO
call temporary halt. A consultation
was he'd with Bry. and the referee de-
clded the match must continue, and
very properly, of course Oelsner took
the next game. the set and the match
Ihree players reached out into the
tourth round yesterday, these being
Allen Behr, Hugh L. Nearing and \. r.
sinclair, and they are the further ad-
vanced toward the final.
behr eliminated SIgmund Spaeth at
ID. c. 1, after having previously dis
posed OF young Steve Schlessinger. Of
brooklyn, by 4 score OF 6-1, G.
behr IS one Of the tried campaigners
OF the local courts, and his experience
stood HIM in good stead yesterday. In
ms first set with Spaeth the latter's
choP strokes had Behr bit worried.
as he found it difficult to dig the ball
up, particularly as ne sought to stay in
back court TO get his points.
flndlhg that this would not do, Behr
started TO charge the net, and there
after he had plain sailing. smothering
Spaeth'S shots by volleying close to the
net. SChlessinger played his best ten
MS in the second set, driving fast and
cleVerly past Behr as his opponent
tried to cut the ball off at the net
But overanXiety lost the schoolboy
many, many points.
Nehring advanced through his de-
clsIve defeat Of Ely Behar, the sets
gong at 50, 6-3. in the second set
Nehrng found it more difficult to
reach the net position because Of the
slippery surface, with the result that
Behar took three games by clever pass
ing shots down the side lines. 1t was
not until Nehring got working up his
volleying and smashing again that he
was able to run off the last four games
in row.
Sinclair came through by defeating
Augustine Healy at r 5. . Hcalv
uncovered tremendous forehand drive
that earned the points for him when
he could keep it within bounds, but he
was erratic overhead and on the voilcy-
ing shots, whereas Sinclair played
sound tennis all over the court and
we'll earned the victory.