Excellent Series of Matches on Dry Court Crowd of 3,500 Spectators Get Money's Worth Superb tennis kept a crowd of some 3500 spectators buzzing and applaud~ ing on the afternoon of November 24 when, smith a dry court at their dis posal, William 'T. Tilden and. H.
Ellsworth Vines played a return series of exhibition matches on the hard~ court constructed especially for their benefit at 153 Route des Soeurs. The American tennis professionals sailed arly next morning In the s. Presi dent Lincoln on their way back remained on the court to play a singles match against Dao Mo Nui, the Country Club marker who recent.
won the "Shanghai markers' championship. 'The crowd was moved to laugh at the incongrully of one Of the world's best players meeting a local marker, ut the little Chinese player was' undaunted and soon changed that laughter to applause as he exchanged drive for drive with Vines. The score of the one set {o the United States, While the quality of tennis seen when they played here on November while passing through on their way Hongkong and Manila, was of sort that few can produce, their ex-this time was even more ad-lifting the crowd to exeitement as the rallies were prolonged despite the terrific speed of play.
Once again it was younger man who won, Ellsworth Vines defeating his famous adversary by 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, match was 6-2.
Vines ran through the first three games, but he did not win them without losing any points. He did hot appear to take the affair very seriously and made errors on a number of reckless shots. The marker's ground strokes were steady, but Tacked the speed and accuracy that hhis opponent produced, 'A tremendous hand was given to the diminutive Chinese when he won his service to make the score 3-1. He ileworth Vines, lett, {oie othe Cour! uring sri interval im the ext 6-1. Twenty years younger than the 44-year-old Tilden, Vines kept his opponent running all over the court by mixing deep drives with short drop shels and by lashing the ball in the corners with extraordinary accuracy. Widen put up a great struggle in thi first set and, by running down dif teults shels, lost a good deal of his strength, had become a great favourite with the crowd, a large section of which enjoyed the match more than the preceding one. Vines countered with a smile by taking his own service at love, crashing a series ut aces into court which Dao could not have Teached with a ten foot pole.
Again "in the sixth game, ihe marker won his service, following Ws Remarkable Tennis In the second set, Tilden became angry with himself, apparently, when Vines was leading by 2-1. He threw himself more determinedly into the battle and this, combined with more frequent errors off Vines' racket, re-wilted in the old veteran taking four yames in a row, dropping one, and then winning the set with a series incredible shots.
Some friction made the third set] Interesting. Vines was serving and one, of his deliveries was called a "let" by Tilden which the umpire called good. Vines announced that the umpire was in a good position to see what kind of a ball it was, Dut Tilden felt sure he was right and it was ordered that the point be replayed. Vines promptly served double fault and on the next point 'Tilden deliberately drove the ball out} of bounds. 'The fortunate part of the Incident was that it made both men grimly serious for a awhile and they' smashed and drove with blinding} speed. While in this temporary frame of mind Tilden played the most remarkable tennis he has shown in Shanghai. Vines began laying weight behind cannon-ball serves and scored successive aces while the crowd exclaimed. Vines took the third set largely because of the Irresistibitity of his service.
They both cooled off somewhat in the fourth set and settled down to long steady driving rallies. Tilden was aye more versatile player showing a wide of strokers, service as well as in ground strokes. His trap shots caught Vines frequently. being better perfected than those of his opponent. Vines' drop shots were a little too high to be effective against Tilden during the early part fof the match, but in the last set, Tilden was too tired to run for them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.