American tennis has passed through a series, of revolutionary stages that have changed the complex of the game.English tennis has merely followed its natural development, unaffected by external influences or internal upheaval, so that the game today is a refined product of the game of twenty years ago.Refined but not vitalized.The World War alone placed its blight on the English game, and changed the even tenor of its way.Naturally the War had only a devastating effect.No good sprang from it.It is to the everlasting credit of the French and English that during those horrible four years of privation, suffering, and death the sports of the nations lived.
The true type of English tennis, from which American tennis has sprung, was the baseline driving game.It is still the same.Well-executed drives, hit leisurely and gracefully from the base- line, appealed to the temperament of the English people.They developed this style to a perfection well-nigh invincible to cope with from the same position.The English gave the tennis world its traditions, its Dohertys, and its Smiths.
Tennis development, just as tennis psychology, is largely a matter of geographical distribution.This is so well recognized now in America that the country is divided in various geographic districts by the national association, and sectional associations carry on the development of their locality under the supervision of the national body.
Naturally new countries, with different customs, would not develop along the same lines as England.America, Australia, and South Africa took the English style, and began their tennis career on the baseline game.Each of these has since had a distinct yet similar growth--a variance to the original style.American tennis followed the English baseline style through a period that developed Dr.Dwight, R.D.Sears, Henry Slocum, and other stars.Tennis, during this time, was gaining a firm hold among the boys and young men who found the deep-driving game devoid of the excitement they desired.Americans always enjoy experiments, so the rising players tried coming to the net at any reasonable opening.Gradually this plan became popular, until Dwight Davis and Holcombe Ward surprised the tennis world with their new service, now the American twist,and used it as an opening gun in a net attack.
This new system gave us besides Davis and Ward, the Wrenn brothers, George and Robert, Malcolm Whitman, M.G.Chace, and finally Beals C.Wright.The baseline game had its firm adherents who followed it loyally, and it reached its crest in the person of William A.Larned.Previous to this time, speed, cyclonic hitting and furious smashing were unknown, although rumours of some player named M'Loughlin combining these qualities were floating East from the Pacific Coast.Not much stock was taken in this phenomenon until 1908, when Maurice Evans M'Loughlin burst upon the tennis world with a flash of brilliancy that earned him his popular nickname, "The California Comet."M'Loughlin was the turning-point in American tennis.He made a lasting impression on the game that can never be erased.His personality gained him a following and fame, both in America and England, that have seldom been equalled in the sporting world.
M'Loughlin was the disciple of speed.Cyclonic, dynamic energy, embodied in a fiery-headed boy, transformed tennis to a game of brawn as well as brains.America went crazy over "Red Mac," and all the rising young players sought to emulate his game.No man has brought a more striking personality, or more generous sportsmanship, into tennis than M'Loughlin.The game owes him a great personal debt; but this very personal charm that was his made many players strive to copy his style and methods, which unfortunately were not fundamentally of the best.M'Loughlin was a unique tennis player.His whole game was built up on service and overhead.His ground strokes were very faulty.By his personal popularity M'Loughlin dwarfed the importance of ground strokes, and unduly emphasized the importance of service.M'Loughlin gave us speed, dash, and verve in our tennis.It remained for R.N.Williams and W.M.Johnston to restore the balance of the modern game by solving the riddle of the Californian's service.Brookes and Wilding led the way by first meeting the ball as it came off the ground.Yet neither of these two wizards of the court successfully handled M'Loughlin's service as did Williams and Johnston.
M'Loughlin swept Brookes and Wilding into the discard on thosememorable days in 1914, when the dynamic game of the fiery-headed Californian rose to heights it had never attained previously, and he defeated both men in the Davis Cup.Less than one month later Williams, playing as only Williams can, annihilated that mighty delivery and crushed M'Loughlin in the final of the National Championship.It was the beginning of the end for M'Loughlin, for once his attack was repulsed he had no sound defence to fall back on.
Williams and then Johnston triumphed by the wonderful ground strokes that held back M'Loughlin's attack.
To-day we are still in the period of service and net attack, with the cycle closing toward the ground- stroke game.Yet the circle will never close, for the net game is the final word in attack, and only attack will succeed.The evolution means that the ground stroke is again established as the only modern defence against the net player.
