TENNIS

Tilden and Wills

During the 1920s Bill Tilden and Helen Wills largely dominated tennis in America and abroad. The pair provided models of athleticism and mastery that appealed to their fellow citizens who were flocking to private and public courts in unprecedented numbers. Alongside these two tennis giants of the decade were other talented players who won major championships and who provided Tilden and Wills with the competition they required to develop their own enormous talents. Moreover, these figures were intimately involved in the explosion of interest in team play that occurred in the 1920s, whether in the women's Wightman Cup competition or the men's Davis Cup matches.

Wightman and Mallory

Among the best of the U.S. women players were Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman and Molla Bjurdstedt Mallory. Wightman, a fierce competitor, had won four U.S. Championships between 1909 and 1919 and in the course of her long career took more than sixty titles (she also claimed in 1930 the women's squash rackets championship and won second place in a mixed-doubles badminton championship in 1936 when she was fifty). Past her prime as a player when Helen Wills emerged, she still provided able competition to the younger woman. Mallory, a Norwegian-born American, was a stronger rival, though she, too, had already seen her best tennis years when Wills arrived. Mallory had been the most powerful American woman player between 1915 and 1922. She had won seven U.S. Championships and would take another in 1926, a year in which Wills did not compete. Mallory had never won Wimbledon, though in 1922 she had met Suzanne Lenglen in the finals. She would have beaten Lenglen in the first round of the U.S. Championships in August 1921, but Lenglen-—ill and unnerved by Mallory's aggressive play and the goading of Mallory's friend Bill Tilden—defaulted in the match after the first set. Both Mallory and Wightman were still active players and fine opponents for Wills.

Wightman Cup

Furthermore, the two women were very much part of the women's team competition that became popular during the decade. In 1923 Wightman had established the Wightman Cup, which was originally intended to promote friendly competition between American women's tennis teams and women's tennis teams from a variety of European countries. In fact, because most European countries still felt economically unable to support teams because of their war debts, only England and the United States competed. The first American team in 1923 was composed of Wightman, Mallory, Wills, and Eleanor Goss; their opponents on the British team were Kathleen "Kitty" McKane (who would defeat Wills in the 1924 Wimbledon final), Mrs, Alfred E. Beamish, Mrs. R. C. Clayton, and Mrs, B. C. Covell. The Wightman Cup format featured five singles matches and two doubles, and in the first year of competition the Americans won 7-0. The next year the British won 6-1, and in the eight years of Wightman Cup play during the 1920s, the two teams exactly split the contests, which always sparked considerable public interest.

Johnston, Williams, and Richards

Among the fine American male tennis players who were Tilden's contemporaries and competitors was "Little Bill" Johnston, who won Wimbledon in 1923, had taken the U.S. Championship in 1915 and 1919, and had lost to Tilden in five other U.S. finals. The wealthy, cultured Richard Norris "Dick" Williams, who had won the U.S. Championship in 1914 and 1916, was known for his apparently effortless execution and for his superb doubles play. Vincent Richards, a rising young star who would shock the tennis world by turning professional in 1926, had a strong all-around game and, like Williams, with whom he often paired, was an impressive doubles player. In 1925 Tilden, Johnston, Richards, and Williams were ranked 1, 2, 3, and 5 in the world.

Davis Cup

The Davis Cup competition, begun in 1900, was a source of interest for Americans during the 1920s, because their country was able to field a superb team in the international competition and because this team dominated Davis Cup play from 1920 through 1926, taking all of the events during the period by 5-0 or 4-1 scores. In 1927, however, the Americans met a French team composed of rising young stars called the Four Musketeers—René Lacoste, Henri Cochet, Jean Borotra, and Jacques Brugnon—and lost 3-2, including one loss by Tilden himself. During the final two years of the decade Americans again played against France in the Davis Cup finals, but both Williams and Johnston had retired from competition, Richards was on the professional circuit, and Tilden was aging. The matches were often exciting and still stirred considerable interest in the American public, but the great days of American tennis in the 1920s were over.