THEY CAN AND DO

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 22, 25 July 1936, Page 19

THEY CAN AND DO

WOMEN IN TENNIS

EARLY MISGIVINGS

"I do not think," wrote a newspaper correspondent in 1877, "that any lady can, or ever will, be able to slay this game, as it is very hard work for a man, and dress is such a 'drag.' . . . Furthermore, no lady would ever be able to understand the system of scoring."

It was the year of the first all-Eng-land lawn tennis championship at Wimbledon (states a London writer). The game was comparatively new. Matches were to take place on July 0, and the following days. The entrance fee was £1 Is. Players were informed that they ."must provide their own rackets, and wear, shoes without heels. Balls may be obtained for practice by personal application to the gardener."

Those were the days (in private games) when there were official rules —but few knew them; when courts were all lengths and breadths, nets of all heights, service-lines often nonexistent. And if you did manage to get the ball over, the net—well, it was truly delightful.

There was no need to apply for tickets months beforehand for that first Wimbledon meeting, for even on the final day only 200 people strolled up to watch the contest. And they all got a good view for the sum of Is per head! What would they have thought of the 20,000 people who crush into Wimbledon daily during international matches nowadays, paying up to £5 for a seat and 5s for a standing-place? "The gate" on that memorable final day amounted to £10. But that was not all the money this first Wimbledon brought in. At least another £10 must have been taken on preliminary days. Then there were the entrance fees of the players—22 of them, all told. So. what with the sale of programmes and incidentals, the total takings must have amounted to quite £50.

If we had been present at the AllEngland tennis championship in 1877 we would have been startled out of our shilling seats by many strange phenomena. First, the serving. It was not an over-arm service—that did not come in till four years later; nor was it an under-arm serve—though this was commonly employed. The "doggy" serve of 1877 was round-arm, being delivered from a point level with the shoulder. And poisonously successful it was, too.

The service court in those more spacious days was 26 feet from the net, instead of 21 feet as now. And, as for the net itself, it was not only three inches higher at the centre than ours, but 18 inches higher at the posts. Hence, there was very little side-line play.

There was plenty of volleying, but it caused the spectators grave misgivings, and many of them thought that it should be put down by law. There was no law or rule, however, to put down the volleyer who thrust his racket right over the net to achieve a stroke.

Everybody foot-faulted; there were no "lets"; and the players did not change ends until the complete set was over, thus giving the winner oi the toss an enormous advantage in the third and last set. When the score reached 6-5, it was a "sudden-death" win; thus thirty-three games were the utmost possible in a tournament match.

Still the point remained—how could lawn tennis be made palatable to the ladies? It was suggested that gentlemen should "serve easy" to them, and that ladies could refuse as many services as they liked—or disliked. And it was more than hinted at that gentiemen should make a point of playing the ball as near to the lady as possible.