Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 285, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1911 — TENNIS CHANGES IN ENGLAND [ARTICLE]

TENNIS CHANGES IN ENGLAND

Lawns Gradually Being Replaced by Hard Surface Courts in Vogue Elsewhere—Experience Wins. “Go it, baldhead!” was a cry frequently heard at the recent lawn tennis tournament at Wimbledon^,and ai spectator Could not help observing that gray, hairs and bald heads outnumbered the locks of youth among, the players after the first day or two. Yet lawn tennis is an athletic game, perhaps the most active of all summer pastimes, demanding unusual powers of endurance, and one looks for endurance and agility in the young. Finding that the daring and physical strength of youth are beaten by the experience of age, the conclusion to be drawn is that the new generation is not learning the essentials of the game. The group of veterans who beat the youngsters this year cannot be expected to dp these wonders again. Young men from other countries will come again and they will win because there will be no opposition to prevent them from doing so. And why? Because, some* critics say,. the Cofififient has- learnedthe game from professionals and has learned it upon hard courts. ' » ' There is a freedom and power in the foreign style which is absent from the English game, in which few risks are taken. In all probability this springs from the fact that the typical courts of the continent are not grass, but have a hard, smooth surface from which every ball makes a true bound. Scarcely bnegrass court in ten can be relied upon for a true bound of the ball. On sucfe Inferior surfaces style becomes cramped. First-class player* are not to be trained upon third rate courts. * The best promise tot English lawn tennis is the fact that the clubs are losing their faith in grass. In 20 years’ time the very name of lawn tennis may appear strange to our ears, the number of actual lawns devoted to the game will have become so small. Already hard courts are being constructed in every direction. In a few years they will probably give England a new school of tennis players who will meet on equal terms the best products of the continental and American clubs. %"•