The New York herald., 1922-08-16
Miss Helen Wills Beats
CLQy Court Title Holder
Sixteen-Y Year-od California Girl Outplays Mrs. Harry
Bicke and Is One of Eight Survivors in
Championship.
by SAMUEL j. BRooKMAN.


No matter what the rest OF the sea-
son may have in store for her Miss
Helen Wills Of California. sixteen-year-
old tennis prodigy. can rest assured
circle of the first ten in national rank
Indeed it is not at all unlikely that she
may be in the first five, and it all seems
TO depend on whether or not she comes
through another round of the women's
national championship. which narrowed
down at Forest Hills yesterday TO eight
survivors in the round before the semi
final.
Unquestionably. aside from the ire
sistibly effective tennis played by Mrs
Molla Mallory. the champion. the work
or the Pacific coast schoolgirl has been
the reature of the tournament thus far
She has amazed with the decisiveness of
her strokes, the versatility of her attack
The coolness and confidence with which
she advances to take the net position be-
hind deep forcing drives, and the STRAIT
egy and generalship usually associated
with player Of long and varied ex-
perience
When she arrived East a few weeks
ago the girl appeared to have improved
over her form of last year, when she
made her Eastern debut, but in one re-
spect She was wanting. and that was the
matter of control. She has given every
indication OF late, however. that she has
steadied remarkably. Proof of that fact
was had in the metropolitan champion-
snip q week ago, when she took a set
from the national champion, the first
Mrs. Mallory had lost in a long time
and gave the latter the hardest match
she has had on an American court In
three seasons Further proof was offered
yesterday when the youthful Pacific
coast champion fairly breezed through
two matches in which she was opposed
by capable players. who figured to ex-
tend her.
Girl Strokes DecisiveIy.
Mrs Harry Bickle of Toronto. Cana
dian champion. who a few weeks ago
played Well enough to beat strong field
Tor the United States clay court title.
was unable to make any sort of head
way at all against Miss Wills. She
played skillfully and energetically but
the best she could do was to take three
OF the, fifteen games played, the young
ster outplacing. outsteadying and out
speeding her all the way. There was a
hnality to Miss Wills's volleying that
Kept Mrs. BiclSle on the defensive. and
even in the deep court rallies the Cana
dian woman was outplayed
The ease with which the California
girl forced her openings. the frequency
with which she had Mrs. Bickle running
from one side of the court to the other
We're well nigh incredible The girl
seemed mistress of the situation from
start to finish Out of total of fifty
nine points credited to her twenty-one
We're earned, and half of the rest were
on errors which the speed of her p,ay
compelled. Mrs. Bickle, on the other
hand, had just one earned point in ,de
first set and five in the second. The
Canadian champions games were few
and far between. She took the first.
the seventh and the thirteenth and the
points were SO to 81. Earlier in the
day Miss Wills eliminated Mrs. Edward
Lynch. hard hitting, aggressive base
line player. with the loss of only one
game
In the round before the semi-final to-
day Miss Wills meets Mrs. Marion
Zinderstein Jessup, metropolitan fnalist
and third in national rank, and 1t will
not surprise in the least If the Cali
fornia schoolgirl is returned the winner.
II will be remembered that she defeated
Mrs. Jessup only fortnight ago at
Seabright. and IL anything the young.
ster is playing more impressively than
ever right now.
Three Local Entrants Left.
In the same half of the draw Mrs.
May Sutton Bundy. who as a girl in
her teens electrified the tennis world by
winning the national championship in
1904, Is to oppose Miss Martha Bayard
for a place in the semi-hnal. while In
the other half the contestants will be
Mrs. Molla Mallory versus Miss Edith
Sigourney of Boston and Miss Leslie
Bancroft of Boston versus Miss Glare
Cassel of New York. Thus New York
has three of the eight survivors. Cali
fornia has two, Boston two and Whining
ton ono. The interesting stage has been
reached.
Those who are waiting for Mrs. NAL
lory 10 show some signs OF weakening
will evidently wait in vain. The excep-
tional power OF her game. her wonder
ful control and speed were again in evi-
dence yesterday as she defeated Mrs.
Frank II. Godfrey of Boston and Miss
Molly ID. Thayer of Philadelphia deci-
sively Mrs. Godfrey gave the champion
the harder tussle Of the two. taking two
games IN each set and forcing her fire.