Evening star., 1934-01-11
CALLS CRAWFORD
AND PERRY SET-UPS
Old Master DazzIes Record
GalIery-Makes Excuses
for Beaten Youth.
BY GAYLE TALBOT,

n 1EW YORK, January H.
nj Take the word of H. Ellis
J. Y worth Vines, jr., who sam
pied the old masters fire
for three sets last night, the
greatest tennis player in the
world at the moment is Bill
Tilden, Al years old and spry.
There isn't a man in the game,
amateur or professional, who would
stand a chance against him in match
play" declared the convinced ELY"
after Tilden had taken him over the
jumps by scores of 8-6, 6-3, 60, in
Vines debut as professional at Madi-
son Square Garden.
Fred Perry of England and Jack
Crawford of Australia? He'd beat
either of them easy. I know about
what they can do, and I know what
he did to me.
It thought I'd faced some services,
but that first ball of Bills has the
others backed off the boards" said the
22-year-old Calofirnian, almost rev.
erently. 1T was at me before I knew
it, and how it twisted!"
Two Much Zip for ELY.
ITTE DIDN'T exaggerate. A few min
III utes before the crowd Of nearly
1900 that packed the Garden
had sat amazed as Vines, a great ma
tional champion only two years ago,
had tried desperately to stem Bills
thunderous service by bracing both
hands on his racquet. Even then he
couldn't keep it in the court.
The audience had seen Vines drive
deep to Tilden's backhand, a forcing
shot. and tear in for the kill, as he was
wont to do when he ruled the worlds
amateurs. And they had seen the
youngsters bat nearly knocked from
his hand, the ball go flying askew
from the fury of Big Bills backhand
return.
1t was. withal, a marvellous show
that Big Bill, the Snowman, had saved
UP for the unveiling of Vines. He had
the sort Of audience he liked, with
plenty of stiff shirts in the side boxes,
and he gave them the works. Vines
played some noble tennis, himself par
ticularly in the opening set, but 1t takes
more than that to hold off Tilden.
Makes Excuses for Vines.
VYyHERE Ellsworth was forced to
w depend almost entirely on his
own scorching service, which
Iaea blstering n deepcourt SaoS shots Bin matched
him there and then dazzled him with
an assortment of phenomenal shots and
court deceits that left no doubt of the
ultimate result. Tilden's beautiful half
volleys, his gets" of balls that seemed
lost and the effortless ease with which
he covered court were something to see
Pleased as he was with himself after
the match, however, Tilden was gen.
erous in his praise of his newest spar
ring partner.
"Vines played wonderful tennis, con-
sidering the fact he was unfamiliar with
the indoor surface" he said. Hell get
used to it as he goes along and he'll
have the old man humping. He was at
o terrible disadvantage tonight"
Vines Not Discouraged.
n ZINES wasn't downhearted at his
~. failure to win a single set in the
~ first go-round. He had an idea
he would do better as he and Bill got
better acquainted. He even predicted he
at Philadelphia.
But any disappointment he might
have felt doubtless was leavened by the
size of the crowd that paid to see him
start out. There was S29,76 of new
money In the firms treasury, and that
will buy a lot of tennis balls.
Vincent Richards and Bruce Barnes
battled to a draw in preliminary
singles match that was called after
each had won II games of the opening
set in order to let the big duel start on
time After the main go, Vines and
Richards came back to trim Tilden and
Frank Hunter in doubles match,
81, 60.