TENNIS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 211, 20 August 1927, Page 3

TENNIS.

THE FALL OF TILDEN THE GREAT. (By A. W. M_. in the “Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News.”) There is something almost tragic in the fact tiujt , F.iilden should win the champioiia'iip twice when he was only three-quarters a great, • 'aver, and should fail to win it when he was a great player complete. Speculation will be rife for many a long dav as to why the famous American was defeated by Cochet when, with two sets in hand, he held the commanding lead of s—l. No cup had ever been dashed more dramatically from the lips of him that was holding it up No fit Wimbledon had been so sudden and so complete

Even if one realises that modern publicity must give to such revolutions a greater prominence, even n the ana of lawn tennis can provide recoveries in the past almost as sensational as that achieved bv the little Frenchman, Tilden's downfall and the manner of it will stand out. It is not as if he had gone so far ahead by any luck or license. He had mounted to the peak with the strides of a Colossus, compared with wnom Cochet had seemed a halting, helpless climber. A ..twice so destructive. drives of such withering speed, varietv of stroke so dazzling, a resolve so ruthless have never been seen on the centre court before. Then came the callapse, not a gradual depression nor a normal one. Seventeen strokes in succession were sacrificed; any four of them would have won the match for Tilden. For Cochet they- were manna from heaven, miraculous succour for a starving man; for Tilden they symbolised the engulfing tide. He is free from danger who even when he is safe is on his guard. It is easv to be wise after the event, and to say that Tilden “let up’’ at the threshold of a great triumph only to find that the kick of fortune was to recoil. Ido not believe Tilden relaxed either consciously or unconsciously. It was a sound, tactical nolicv to go al] out for Cochet from the start, to overwhelm him in heavv seas before he # could get the nose of his craft before the wind There is no ten minutes respite after the third set in this country as there is in America and on the Continent. Tilden knew the danger of delay remembered that he had been beaten by Cochet in a five-set match st Forest Hills last vear. Hence his extra pressure in the seventh game, hence the seemingly wild shots that resulted. The mere fact of rehearsing mental!” this coup-de-grace was a break in concentration—an unconscious break, perhaps, but vet decisive.

Great men bv small means oft are overthrown. I have used that quotation before,it is too apt not to be used again. Tilden not a vounp man in the American p . n nsp. or rather in the American athletic sense Thirty-four in the extremes of heat and cold on the other side is nearly forty-four on this side. Tilden was in his prime, the prime of complete supremacy, when he was round about thirty that is, after his operation and the loss of half a finger on his playing hand. Instead of crippling him. the sacrifice gave him heightened power and a more resolute spirit. But strong as Tilden was. and is. iie is not superhuman. He is subject to physical laws like all of us When his speed had departed in the second half of the match though it revived spasmodically like a smouldering flame, the little French plaver was on his level, and in the end could rise above it. It was a tragedy for Tilden and America—in one way a cragedv for Wimbledon and for lawn tennis.. But it is the end that crowns us and not the fight, and at least Tilden and the cognoscenti have this compensation, that Tilden returned to Wimbledon when the flower of his fame was unfaded and its dazzling bloom could be on exhibition long enough for all to marvel. There is victory in dying well.