New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-07-11

Former State Tifleholder
Beats Miss Grove in Final
Match BY Go,
BY Fred Hawthorne


Miss Marie Wagner, former New
York State titleholder, won the first
leg on the new challenge cup in the
annual women's open lawn tennis
tournament Of the Greenwich Country
Club yesterday BY defeating Miss Mar
garet Grove, clubmate, by score Of
60, Cd. =
/, A large gallery was prepared for q
nard fought, brilliantly played match,
Tor though both Miss Wagner and Miss
Grove are members Of the New York
Tennis Club, it was expected that even
this bond would not act as a bar to the
desire to win.
Yet Miss Wagner's victory came in
surprisingly easy fashion and all the
brilliance shown in the two sets was
supplied by her. In the first set she
completely outclassed her opponent,
smothering Miss Groves weak, short
returns by splendid work at the net.
Miss Grove was obviously nervous
from the time the first point was
played and never overcame this weak
ness entirely, although in the second
sufficiently to bring the games to 4-aIl.
On these occasions the loser showed
that Miss Wagner was by no means
unbeatable under an aggressive attack,
but failure to carry her forcing tactics
through spoiled whatever chances Miss
Grove might have had.
Miss Wagner seemed supremely con-
fident as the match began. She started
the service and won the first game,
after "deuce" had been called twice,
the game going to extra points as Miss
Wagner made errors on volleys that
went just out Of court as she took the
ball coming In from the base line.
Miss Grsve Out of Stroke
Miss Grove dropped her own service,
Miss Wagner took the third on her de-
livery and then broke through for the
second time, not allowing her opponent
single point. The score was four
games to none, and Miss Wagner was
playing pretty nearly errorless tennis,
while Miss Grove was hopelessly out
of stroke and showing no signs Of i'm
provement.
In the next two games the points
were forced to deuce" twice, Miss
Grove finally getting some semblancc
of depth to her drives, even though
there was no speed in the strokes. Miss
Wagner had reeled off the first set at
Go without any real opposition from
her opponent. The point totals of 20
to Is were truthful ) gauge of the
ratio by which Miss Wagner was out
playing her rival, just bout 2 to /.
Miss Groves service. never severe;
was lamentably weak thus far, and, even
so, she made many faults on the first
ball, and her. second service was so
very soft that Miss Wgner was able to
score frequent aces on her returns.
think the winners most brilliant shots
yesterday were those made off her
back-hand at splendid angles across
mid-court. These she brought off time
and again, catching Miss Grove hope
lessly out Of position.
The second set began with Miss
Wagner holding the service, and she
took her game at Glove" In the next
on her own service, Miss Grove sur
prised the gallery by scoring at "love'
herself, partly as result Of her OPP
ponent's errors, partly due to couple
of we'll placed drives down the side
lines to Miss Wagner's deep back hand
court tactics were preferable to those
she had followed in the opening set
She was never confident in her strok-
ing, never severe enough to have q
real forcing shot, but at least she was
taking the aggressive, and perhaps it
was the very fact that she was trying
to force matters that gave her tenn
porary advantage over Miss Wagner.
Rally by Loser
They both won on service in the next
three games, leaving Miss Wagner in
the lead at 4-2.
Rallying in the face of defeat, Miss
Grove summoned all her reserve OF
nerve and fought gamely and for. the
first time with real pace in her strokes
forcing the games to 4-all The next
game was stubborn struggle, Miss
Grove leading at 400 on her oppo-
nent's service, only to falter again as
,, Miss Wagner closed in at the net posi-
ton and cut the ball off sharply
deuce" twice, and then Miss Wagner
put over the two winning shots as she
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