The hardest part of any such trip is the attention to training, relaxation and accommodations for the team and only perfect judgment can give the comfort so needed by a team.It is to Captain Hardy that the team owes its perfect condition throughout the entire 3,000 miles we journeyed after the cup.Yet Captain Hardy's success was far bigger than that, for by his tact, charming personality and splendid sportsmanship at all times he won a place for us in the hearts of every country we visited.Hardy, although a non-playing member of the team, is a great tennis player.He is one of the best doubles players America has produced.His clever generalship and wonderful knowledge of the game proved of inestimable value to the team in laying out our plan of attack in the Davis Cup matches themselves.
Clever, charming, just and always full of the most delightful humour, Hardy was an ideal Captain who kept his team in the best of spirits no matter how badly we might have been playing or how depressing appeared our outlook.
CARL FISCHER
I am including in my analysis of players a boy who is just gaining recognition but who I believe is to be one of the great stars of the future, Carl Fischer of Philadelphia.
Young Fischer, who is only 19, is a brilliant, hard hitting left-hander.He has already won the Eastern Pennsylvania Championship, been runner- up to Wallace Johnson in the Pennsylvania State, Philadelphia Championship and Middle States event, besides holding the junior Championship of Pennsylvania for two years.He won the University of Pennsylvania Championship in his freshman year.
His service is a flat delivery of good speed, at times, verging on theAmerican twist.His ground game carries top spin drives forehand and backhand.His volleying and overhead are severe and powerful but prone to be erratic.Fischer is an all court player of the most modern type.He is aggressive, almost too much so at times as he wastes a great deal of energy by useless rushing.He needs steadiness and a willingness to await his opening but gives promise of rounding into a first class player, as his stroke equipment is second to none.
MARSHALL ALLEN
Far out in the Pacific Northwest in Seattle, Washington, is a young player who bids fair to some day be world famous.It is quite possible he may never arrive at all.
Marshall Allen is a typical Western player.Allen has a hurricane service that is none too reliable.His forehand drive is reminiscent of McLoughlin.It is a furious murderous attack when it goes in and quite useless when it is off.Allen's backhand is a flat drive played to either side with equal ease.At present it is erratic but shows great promise.Allen volleys at times brilliantly, but is uncertain and at times misses unaccountably.His overhead is remarkably brilliant and severe, but also erratic.He reaches great heights and sinks to awful depths.If Marshall Allen consolidates his game and refines the material he has at hand he should be a marvellous player.If he allows his love of speed to run away with his judgment at the expense of accuracy and steadiness he will never rise above the second class.Time will tell the story.I look to see him world famous.
OUR RISING JUNIORS
For a moment I am going to pay tribute to some boys who I look to see among the stars of the future.They are all juniors less than eighteen at the time of writing.
First in importance comes Arnold W.Jones, of Providence, R.I., who accompanied me to France and England in 1921, where he made a fine record.Young Jones has a splendid all-court game, with a remarkable forehand drive but a tendency to weariness in his backhand and service.His volleying is excellent.His overhead erratic.
Second to Jones I place Charles Watson III of Philadelphia.Here is aboy with a most remarkable resemblance to Chuck Garland in style of his game.Watson has a fine service, beautiful ground strokes fore and backhand and a more aggressive volley than Garland.His overhead lacks punch.He is the cleverest court general among the juniors.
Phillip Bettens of San Francisco is a possible successor to Billy Johnston.Bettens has a terrific forehand drive and a rushing net attack.He needs to steady up his game, but he is a player of great promise.
Armand Marion of Seattle, Washington, is another boy with a finely rounded game who, given experience and seasoning, bids fair to become a great star.Marion does not have enough punch yet and, needs to gain decisiveness of attack.
Charles Wood of New York, W.W.Ingraham of Providence, Milo Miller and Eric Wood of Philadelphia, John Howard of Baltimore, and others are of equal class and of nearly equal promise to the boys I have mentioned.
In the younger class of boys those under 15, one finds many youngsters already forming real style.The boy who shows the greatest promise and today the best all-round game, equalling in potential power even Vincent Richards at the same age, is Alexander L.(Sandy) Wiener of Philadelphia.At fourteen young Weiner is a stylist of the highest all-court type.
Among the other boys who may well develop into stars in the future are Meredith W.Jones, Arthur Ingraham, Jr., Andrew Clarke Ingraham, Miles Valentine, Raymond Owen, Richard Chase, Neil Sullivan, Henry Neer, and Edward Murphy.
There are many other great players I would like to analyse, but space forbids.Among our leaders are Roland Roberts, John Strachan, C.J.Griffin, Davis, and Robert Kinsey in California; Walter T.Hayes, Ralph Burdock, and Heath Byford in the Middle West; Howard Voshell, Harold Throckmorton, Conrad B.Doyle, Craig Biddle, Richard Harte, Colket Caner, Nathaniel W.Niles, H.C.Johnson, Dean Mathey, and many others of equal fame in the East.
