1958-01-18 — Page 5

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 1958..

"For the sake of your audience wo'll have a little loss 'Too-hoo-hoe.*"

GIANTS OF SPORT

No 1

RESERVATIONS

ROUND THE CLOCK

LAND

BILL TILDEN

-the terrific

AWN tennis

a game of many moods

it

game of many games, if you like.

It can be the perfect anodyno on blistering hot summer's day, with its flowing artistry, stroke matching stroke, volley countering volley, ace service can celling out ace service.

Tilden the Terrible. That is. how his opponents described him. Yet how can you call a man terrible when he looks at his opponent with an engaging sinlle after a terrific shot, and then laughingly ejaculates "Pracht" when he is paid back in lund,

Tikien might have seemed terrible to somo. He was 50 very good, it was disheartening to play against him. But he was no killer.

Or it can be a hit and run grane, Fower, power, and more power, designed to smash the opponent off cours, the quintessence of the kill their life depended on it, With.

Some people play tennis as it

or be killed mentality of modern sport,

them, it is just a grim struggle

Tennis, again, can mean the sheer joy of for existence, Tilden played for playing, or the delight in watching others play. the pure joy the game afforded It can mean healthy relaxation after a busy, him. And it was the joy of an week at the office.

artist as well as the joy of a fighter.

The world of lawn tennis has seen them all. The stroke-players, the power days and the rabbits.

Then again, some players specialise in a particular kind In recent yours it has produced the skil- of stroke, a certain method of SCTVing. Tilden could serve the fully executed all-court gume of Ken Rosewall, bull or take it off the ground in and the Biff-bang' of poker-faced Lew Hood four or five different ways. He But unless you want sheer comedy, and could make the same number of me therefore a Freddie Huber tan, there has never been anyone to match the fantastic Bit volleys all different,

He pleked the right kind of Back in the twenties, Tilden reigned shot to sult the situation, as an supreme. They called him Big Bill', or "Tilden expert golfer chooses the right the Terrible. He was the first American to win club for the particular job in Most of his shots were the Wimbledon singles utlein 1920-a title hand.

every now

Tilden.

he held ten years later. He was a regular cannon balls, but member of the United States Davis Cup squad, and again he would allow him-

of an extr champion of America for six successive years, self the luxury

hard biff. If it came off it was from 1920.

utterly unreturnable,

Another world-famous

newspaper

doubles

its price-to 81⁄2d.

Current Price

Increase since 1945

Britain

花盒

U.S.A.

Canado

DP 310

UP 74

South Africa

OP 30

Australia

P11

France

W. Germany

The influential Washington Post, last month by Canada's three biggest doubles its price from 5 to 10 conta dollies. (81⁄41⁄2d.)... And: other leading· American This graph by Michael. Rand shows dailles may fallow suit soon.

how current newspaper prices in the leading nations of the world compare This follows, similar prios increases) with those of Britain's national dailies.

When a game, set or match had reached the cruelul stage, he was not one to play extu cautiously. He would carry on playing his normal game.

Tilden was tall, the, active, almost the perfect athlete.

He was on his toes all the ilme on court. It took a long tinie to exhaust his amazing Jeserve of energy. Reporters had to invent a new vocabulary to describe Tilden's play: "Canon-ball service," "sizzling drives," "volcano volleys," all terms in current use nowadays, especially when boys like Panchu Gonzales are around. But they were all coined as a tribute to the great Bill Tilden.

A SCRATCH

Five one he led, and he was of match polet,

Tilden lost that point, and another and yet another. Un- bellevably he last the set, and nother set, and Cochet was tevel at two nets all.

Tilden and Cochet were both

French- exhausted. But the man, younger by several years, had that extra ounce of energy that made all the difference, and he finished off his re- markable recovery by winning the Ann set at 0-3 and with it the match.

Tilden lay sprawled.ou tho

The grass at

not having run there in a fruitless attempt to rela a eros court drive, the shot that won the match. And the match ended with roars of laughter from the tightly- packed crowd Before Hang to shake hands, Tilden sat up close to the net and performed a silent "harp" solo on it.. Never before, ond since, has there been auch a change from breathlese suspens 10 hilarious comedy on the Centre Courti

LIMELIGHT

never

AT other times Tilden would.

fiercely dispute the umpire's decisions. But not always on his own behalf. If he felt his opponent should have won a particular point that had been awarded to him, Tilden never hesitated to speak his mind on the subject,

Tilden gave up the amateur game in 1930, at the age of 37, and after his second Wimbledon triumph. He signed

contract to appear in motion pletures, put on a badminton act at the London Palladium, and joined a tennis 'circus.

Tilden's trophies were in- sured for 22,000, and it was estbriated that he camed £10,000 a year in his first six years as a profesional.

But that figure was not u

when you together surprising consider Tilden's fame and re Lutation as an amateur; a play- er of such standing that he was regarded as tennis champion of the world from 1920 to 1925; of ruel repute that he played once

JAD the word "atomic' been in with King George VI, then thic H

circulation in those days, it Dulic of York, at Buckingham would have been seized on by Palace, and, often, with "King" Journalists to describe Tilden's Gustav of Sweden, who was play.

known to him as 'Mr G.' Tilden was a player of. And Tilden was

the Arst tremendous personality and Wimbledon champion to turn to push. He was a showmen. He the professional me, and it displayed his own inimitable puid him handsomely. brand of showmnship what, But he spent money, almost as has often been described tho quickly as he cared it, so that greatest match evar_ployed on when he died June 4, 1053, Wimbledon's Centre Court,

at 10, he left less than £2,000, It was in 1027. Tilden was He died alone in his Holly- drawn against Henri Cochet of wood flat at a heart attack Ha France in the men's singles had planned, to leave Hollywood semi-final,

the following day, to take part Three questions were posed. in a tournament he was kill Was the period of French playing tennis at 601-in Clove- domination. at lawn tenis land, Ohio.

drawing to a closcy Would Tiden loved the Umelight, Tilden mako a successful come loved dramatising himself. His back he had been out of the ambition was to be an actor. game for six months? And

After matches he would could even Big Bill overcome write so scathingly at his op- the. tremendous 'handicap of parents that row alter_row_re- playing minus one finger-bis suited, and this led to the adop- middle finger-or his right band, on; in 1925, of the rule that his racket hand? Tilden had players raust not report tourna- had; the finger amputated when menta in which they took part. 11. became Infected following a. But Tilden will, dot bo re- scratch,

membered only for the contro- The Brat question appeared to versial side of his character, have been answered late in the He will be remembered for his thily wit: Pilybery bad won the superb tennis qualities, the like flest, two, and gained an over of which have. Karely been seen wisaiming. Jake. In the third since,

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