Budge And Vines Both Are “Triers”

Southland Times, Issue 23782, 1 April 1939, Page 15

Budge And Vines Both Are “Triers”

Donald Budge, the amateur tennis champion who turned professional and toured the country with Ellsworth Vines, voiced a sharp “No!” recently to a suggestion that “Vines is throwing matches to ensure the financial success of your series with Fred Perry?” “He’s playing the best he can,” Budge declared. “He’s trying to win and I’m trying to win. “In the first place, you can’t ‘throw* a tennis match without it being obvious to half the people in the grandstand. When you start easing up or steering the ball out of bounds, it can be spotted from the most distant seat in the gallery. “It can’t be done. Any time a player deliberately goes out to lose it is obvious to any smart fellow in the gallery. If you’ll note the scores, you’ll see that we are not faking the matches,” Budge continued. “Down in New Orleans I played probably the best tennis in my life. I beat Vines in two straight sets, losing only one game. “The match was over in 15 minutes. The crowd was dissatisfied. It was too short for them. If we had been playing merely an exhibition, wouldn’t it have been natural for me to ease up and let Vines win a few games? But I didn’t. I tried for every point, and made almost all of them that night because I was at my peak.”