Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1920-11-02

&az4~A <1-~Sz William NJ. Johnston. r. n. VIII
llams IL, aud Samuel Hardy, captain Hardy was
chosen because Of his proved Generalship anu
knowledge Of the game.
while Hardy is being sent as playing cap
tain it is hardly likely he will participate. Mr.
Adee said with the singles champion, the dou
beS champions, and Hardy we believe the Davis
cup will be brought back to this country
well what of II" may ask the baseball fan
or the devotee of boxing the enthusiast who
thrills the thoroughbred a good deal.
In decade the popular interest in tennis has
increased amazingly. Take look at any one
of the courts TO be all over the country
The largest clubs are taxed to the limit of their
facilities to handle the crowds anxious to get
glimpse of leading players i'll action. The final
Of the American national championship despite
intermittent rain. played before gallery Of
II 900 that overfowed the stands. Verify, the
sport is growing by leaps and bounds, and the
idea that the national championship final may
have 70 be held at the Polo grounds or some other
large arena before long is not at all joke.
To this increasing army of tennis enthusiasts
William T. Tilden II is quite great is Babe
Ruth to the fans and Jack Dempsey to the low
ers Of boxing and Man O War to the deyotees of
racing. and there is no question that lie is great
on the tennis court. AT the recent Tilden banquet
William NJ. Johnston took occasion to declare
that TiIden is the greatest tennis player in the
world, Samuel Hardy went further in his est
mate for he declared Tilden to be the greatest
PLAYER the world ever has known. and he pre-
dictcd that i'll another season or two the cham
nion would be even greater than he is today.
Billy Johnston ought to know. for it's likely the
dethroned national title holder is next best. John
son stamps him, in the opinion of the experts. as
not only the grcatest of all living tennis players
but perhaps the greatest of all time.
The five sets were scored at*6-l 1-6. 70 81 So
This TildenJohnston struggle will go down on
tennis the most cerve-racking battle that the
courts have ever seen. Up to this time, the fa-
nous final of 1916. in which Richard Norris Will
liams IL. defeated Johnston for the championship
had been considered the apex of tennis history
| Gut that great match faded into comparative in
| significance.
| Williams and Johnston played five sets of me-
| chemically perfect tennis. Tilden and Johnston
| played five sets of incredible melodrama, with
! a thrill in every scene with horrible errors lead
| ing suddenly to glorious achievements, with skill
and courage and good and evil fortune mex
tricaby mingled and with constant stimulus to
| cheers. groans and actual hySteria, far as the
| spectators were concerned
| To describe that amazing final the most sig
nifcant of all American tennis tournaments. Il
tournament that unquestonuby carried with it
! the worlds championship would require the su-
perative of all the adjectives that the journalism
of the game has either used up discarded in
! the past 1t is enough to say that all future dis
cussionS of the Olympian heights of tennis will
probably begin with the question, Were you
there when-?' and the answer will be either You
! bet l was" or Courses. no." For the proud pos
SCISSORS Of the affirmative no amplifcaton is neceS-
| sary For the sad negatives nothing can be done
fnr it will never happen again. at least not just
that way.
Praise for the two contenderS for the American
championship of 1920 may be equally divided.
There is plenty for both. Tilden's victory was a
| triumph of supertennS. vindication of the game
which the best judges have for some time consid-
ered inyinc!be But if Tilden is the greatest ten
mis- nIaver that ever lived. Johnston is the gamest
man that ever trod court