The Washington times., 1923-04-16
S0UTHPAW NJ. I
PLAYER HAS
ADVANTAGE
Vincent Richards Sage aft-
handler Gets Twist on Ball
Hard to Handle.
By VINCENT RICHARDS.
49,. - cs..s.. rst,.,s.,.f..m

@AA@@AsA
.PINEHURST, N. G., April 76.--
1T is extremely doubtful II a.left-
handed player holds as much adj
vantage in any other line Of; iath-
:letic endeavor as he does inx.the
game of lawn. tennis. 4
This was brought forcefully
home to me Saturday IN the final
round of the annual North. and
South singles championship hen
I was playing S. II. VoshelI.
The famous Brooklynite was IN
one Of his rare moods in this en-
counter. In fact for quite q time
it looked as IL he was the next
North and South title holder. Z he
way he would shoot over his famous
American twist service ardtTfhen
come into the net position for . de-
cisive voIIey was enough t0nrcon-
vince me that a. lafthanded player
holds 4 decided advantage over the
ordinary type of right handel
lie ,,a,- aa
There are very few lefthapded
pIavers in the game Of lawn tennis
at the present time. VosheH Muir
ray, Norman Brooks and Harok4 the
young Australian marvel, aFH ali
men who have made tennis hlstory
but it is extremely unlikely that
they would have had tnesxsaIne
amount of success had theyc7peen
right handed performers. -
The average left handed player
9ats = necuIiar twist on ttlef ball
That Il very difficult for q right
handel man to handle. Tbs ~
especially true Of the services.
For Instance Voshell's service -
very difficult for me to RETURN yet.
II is no faster than Big { ksih.
Tiidenss. or Little Bill" Johneton,
as far as the speed Of the bal Is
On a slippery, slow court such as
x.ra nlayed on in Pinehurst Vosheiks
ssaryice is very effective. The huge
amount OF reverse twist that M put
On the hall. combined with the. slow
court practically gives him an ace
every time that he serves the natl.
Then, too, the right-handed Rlayer
who generally figures on playing
back hand of his leftshanded oppo-
Inent, usually finds: that he IS play
ing his opponents strongest point
his fofehand. ri
1T Is Qalite cAtfAS4AAes ~ ~ =
perfect drive to YoshelIs bacAhand
and then run into the net position
only to- have him make beautiful
forehand drive down the side line
for q clean pass. This happend 50
often in my recent final natch with
the noted Brooklyn player herr az
Pinehurst that I began to geteAsed
to It.
The master mind of the 'I8wn
tennis game, Norman e. Br60Res,
is perhaps the greatest left-haHder
that the game has ever seen. He
Is acknowledged the world over. as
the greatest genius tennis has bad
In many years.
But. even Broolxes probably hoes
not realize that much of his success
is due to the fact that nature made
him different from the average run
of lawn tennis players.
Would he still be able to have the
wonderful success in the various an
ternational contests that he has par
ticipated in If he was a right handed
performer? That is a question. that
we can't9 of course, answer, but
nevertheless am firmly convinced
that a left-handed player holis a
decided advantage over his right
handed opponent. If we ever @have
a left-handed national champion. it
is my contention that he viii be SUI
preme in his division for many
years.