Seldom have I seen such wonderful natural abilities as are found in this young Spaniard. Here is a player par excellence if he develops as he gives promise. Alonzo is young, about 25, slight, attractive in personality and court manners, quick to the point of almost miraculous court covering. He is a great attraction at any tournament.
His service is a fairly fast American twist. It is not remarkable but is at least more severe than the average continental delivery.
Alonzo has a terrific forehand drive that is the closest rival to W. M. Johnston"s of any shot I have seen. He is reliable on this stroke, either straight or cross-court from the deep court but if drawn in to mid-court is apt to miss it. His backhand is a flat drive, accurate and low but rather slow and in the main defensive.
His volleying is at once a joy and a disappointment. Such marvellous angles and stop volleys off difficult drives! Yet immediately on top of a dazzling display Alonzo will throw away the easiest sort of a high volley by a pitiable fluke.
His overhead is at once severe, deadly and reliable. He smashes with speed and direction. It is not only in his varied stroke equipment that Alonzo is great but in his marvellous footwork.
Such speed of foot and lightning turning I have never before seen on a tennis court. He is a quicker man than Norman E. Brookes and higher praise I cannot give. I look to see Alonzo, who today loses matches through lack of resource, become by virtue of experience and tournament play the greatest player on the continent.
His brother, J. M. Alonzo, although nowhere in Manuel"s cla.s.s, is a fine all court player as are Count de Gomar and Flaquer, the remaining members of the Cup team. If Alonzo and his teammates are an indication of the type of players Spain is developing a new and powerful factor in the tennis world is entering the field to stay.
Some Other Champions
There are some individual players of interest from the countries where tennis as a game has not reached a place worthy of national a.n.a.lysation but who deserve mention among the great players of the world.
First among them comes Nicholas Mishu of Rumania.
N. MISHU
What can I say of Mishu? As a tennis player he defies a.n.a.lysis.
His game is a freak. He adores to do the unusual and his game abounds in freak shots that Mishu executes with remarkable skill.
He has many and varied services, underhand cuts, fore and backhand, a "push" off his nose, and even one serve where he turns his back on the court and serves the ball back over his head.
His drives are cramped in swing and hit with excessive top spin.
His footwork is a defiance of all rules. His volleying game looks like an accident, yet Mishu produces results. In 1921 he beat A.
H. Gobert in the World"s Hard Court Championship at St. Cloud.
Mishu is a winner. I don"t know how he does it but he does. He is above all a unique personality. Cheery, individual, at times eccentric, Mishu is a popular figure in tournaments abroad. He plays with a verve and abandon that appeals to the European galleries while his droll humour and good nature make him a delightful opponent.
J. WASHER
Belgium is represented by J. Washer, my opponent in the final round of the Hard Court Championship of the World in 1921. Washer is a fine orthodox tennis player. His service is a well placed twist delivery of medium pace. He has a terrific forehand drive that gains in effectiveness owing to the fact he is a left-hander. Like so many players with a p.r.o.nounced strength, he covers up an equally p.r.o.nounced weakness by using the strength.
Washer has a very feeble backhand for so fine a player. He pokes his backhand when he is unable to run around it.
His overhead is strong, speedy and reliable. His volleying lacks punch and steadiness. He has had little tournament experience and shows promise of great improvement if given the opportunity.
E. TEGNER
Denmark is represented by a player of promise and skill in the person of E. Tegner. This young star defeated W. H. Laurentz at St. Cloud in the Hard Court Championship of the World in 1921 when the latter was holder of the t.i.tle.
Tegner is a baseline player of fine style. His strokes are long free drives of fine pace and depth. His service is hardly adequate for first flight tennis, yet while his ground game cannot make up for the lack of aggression in his net attack.
Tegner is not of championship quality at the moment but his youth allows him plenty of time to acquire that tournament experience needed to fill in the gaps in his game. He is a cool, clever court general and should develop rapidly within the next few years.
H. L. DE MORPURGO
The Italian champion, H. L. de Morpurgo, is a product of his own country and England where he attended college. He is a big, rangy man of great strength. He uses a terrific service of great speed but little control on his first ball and an exaggerated American twist on the second of such extreme contortion that even his great frame wears down under it.
His ground game is of flat drives that lack sufficient pace and accuracy to allow him to reap the full benefit of his really excellent net attack. His volleying is very good owing to his great reach. His overhead, like his service, is hard but erratic.
Unfortunately he is slow on his feet and thus loses much of the advantage of his large reach. He seems to lack confidence in his game but that should come with more experience.
A. ZERLENDI
Tennis in Greece. No! not in ancient times but in modern, for that little country has a remarkable little baseline star, by name A. Zerlendi. This man is a baseliner of the most p.r.o.nounced type. He gets everything he can put his racquet to. He reminds me irresistibly of Mavrogordato, seemingly reaching nothing yet they all come back. I cannot adequately a.n.a.lyse his game because his first principle is to put back the ball no matter how, and this he carries into excellent effect. Zerlendi is a match winner first and a stylist second.
CHAPTER XVI. THE COLONIES
Australasia
The death of that sterling sportsman, Anthony F. Wilding, and the natural decline in the playing powers of Norman E. Brookes, owing to the advance of years and his war experiences, leave Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) in a somewhat uncertain condition regarding its tennis prospects.
NORMAN E. BROOKES
Volumes have been written about N. E. Brookes and his tennis genius, but I would not feel right if I could not pay at least a slight tribute to the greatest tennis player and genius of all time.
There is no need to dwell on Brookes" shots, his marvellous mechanical perfection, his peculiar volleying style, his uncanny antic.i.p.ation. All these are too well known to need my feeble description. They are but the expression of that wonderful brain and dominant personality that lie behind that sphinx- like face we know as Brookes".
To see across the net those ever-restless, ever-moving eyes, picking the openings in my never too- well guarded court, and know that against me is pitted the greatest tennis, brain of the century, is to call upon me to produce my best. That is what my match with Brookes meant to me, and still does to-day. Brookes should be an inspiration to every tennis player, for he has proved the power of mind over matter in tennis: "Age cannot wither nor custom stale his infinite variety."
Brookes is the most eminently just man on a tennis court I have ever met, for no excitement or emotion clouds his eyesight or judgment in decisions. He cannot abide bad decisions, yet he hates them quite as much when they favour him as when they are against him. I admit frankly I am a great admirer of Brookes, personally and from every tennis sense. He is a master that I as a student of the game feel proud to study under.
GERALD PATTERSON
Australia"s leading player, Gerald Patterson, is one of the most remarkable combinations of tennis virtues and tennis faults, I have ever seen.
Patterson has a wonderful service. He has speed, direction, control, and all kinds of twist. He hits his service consistently hard and puts it in. His overhead is the most remarkable in the game. He can kill from any place in the court. His, shot is clean, with little effort, yet carries terrific speed. His volleying above the net is almost faultless on his forehand. He has an excellent forehand drive that is very severe and consistent, but his backhand . . . Where in all the rest of tennis history was there a first-cla.s.s man with a backhand so fundamentally wrong? His grip is bad, he pulls up on the ball and "loops" it high in the air. I do not mean Patterson always misses his backhand. He does not. He even makes remarkable shots off it at times, but, if Patterson is pressed, his backhand is the first portion of his game to crack, because it is. .h.i.t inherently wrong.
Patterson relies mainly on speed to win matches. He is not a strategist, and finesse is not part of his tennis equipment. He has a magnificent physique, and relies largely on his, strength to carry him through a long match and win in the end.
He is very quiet, and inclined to be somewhat careless on the court, unless pressed, when his businesslike, determined play shows what a great match player Patterson can become. He produces his best game at the crucial moment of the match. Patterson is a superior match player to his real tennis ability. His is not truly a top-notch game. It has superlative features, but its whole texture is not of the finest.
Patterson owes much of his success in 1919 to Brookes, under whose guidance he played. The absence of the master mind directing his attack proved a decided handicap in 1920, and Patterson"s attack was not so certain nor sustained as in the previous season. Patterson"s game plus Brookes" strategy would be a great combination in one man.
PAT O"HARA WOOD
This young Australian is one of the greatest doubles players in the world and bids fair to press the leading singles stars close.
Pat O"Hara Wood is a player without a weakness, yet also one without a strength. He is a typical all court player with no outstanding feature to his game unless it be his volleying. Pat Wood has a natural apt.i.tude for doubles which at times seriously interferes with his singles game.