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Lessons to learn from true legends of tennis

By Rich Neher

I researched a lot of old tennis books for this article. And Wikipedia (www.en.wikipedia.org). And the New York Times (www.nytimes.com). And the International Tennis Hall of Fame (www.tennisfame.com). Tried to get an idea what made those masters of tennis become so successful that we call them legends today. I had to go back as far as the beginning of the last century and found plenty of individuals so successful, and so dominating in their time, I believe they need to be called true legends. I also found more or less acceptable videos of most players (except Mrs. Lambert Chambers) on YouTube (www.youtube.com).

Each true legend of tennis was wildly successful in their time and known for at least one particular trait.


Endurance



Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers (1878 - 1960) 7 times Wimbledon winner

Although, in 1911, Lambert Chambers won the women's final at Wimbledon 6–0, 6–0 - this was in no way a sign of how her future matches would go. (Btw, the only other female player who won a Grand Slam singles final without losing a game was Steffi Graf when she defeated Natalia Zvereva in the 1988 French Open final). Mrs. Lambert Chambers was a powerful right-handed player from both forehand and backhand, had very accurate passing shots, put up irretrievable lobs, and had plenty of touch on her drop shot. But one of the most outstanding features of this player was her endurance.

In the Wimbledon final of 1919 the sturdily conformed, long-skirted 40-year-old matron, Dorothea Katherine Douglass Lambert Chambers, seven times champion between 1903 and 1914, faced the slim new kid half her age, audacious, skimpily dressed (for the time) Suzanne Lenglen. They battled through the longest final up to that time, counting 44 games. Lenglen's win signalled the changing of the guard at Wimbledon, but everyone who thought Lambert Chambers was finished, was dead wrong. In 1921, at age 41, she was the oldest finalist at Wimbledon and lost to Lenglen again. As Britain's Wightman Cup captain in 1925, at 46, she helped her side win, 4-3, at Forest Hills by beating 30-year-old Eleanor Goss, 7-5, 3-6, 6-1. She also captained the team in 1926. She was entered into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1981.

***I have only one comment: Hats off to a woman who was winning so many matches and Grand Slams over a period of over 25 years, with such a power game, and in full length women's clothing. I will never again complain about my tennis outfit and that I could have won that match with a better pair of shoes, and a dryer dri-fit shirt!



Footwork, Balance, Accuracy



Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen (1899 - 1938) 7 times Wimbledon winner

Suzanne Lenglen was a French tennis player who won 31 Grand Slam titles between 1914 and 1926. A flamboyant, trendsetting athlete, she was the first female tennis celebrity and one of the first international female sport stars, named La Divine (the divine one) by the French press. Right-hander Lenglen was No. 1 in 1925-26 the first years of world rankings. She won Wimbledon every year but one from 1919 through 1925, the exception being 1924, when illness led to her withdrawal after the fourth round. Her 1919 title match, at the age of 20, with 40-year-old Dorothea Douglass Chambers is one of hallmarks of tennis history. During her reign as undisputed Queen of the court she won 270 consecutive matches and gave up only two sets doing so.

Not only her performances on the court were noted, however. She garnered much attention in the media when she appeared at Wimbledon with her dress revealing bare forearms and cut just above the calf, while all other players competed in outfits covering nearly all of the body. Staid Brits also were in shock at the boldness of the French woman who also casually sipped brandy between sets. Some called her shocking and indecent, but she was merely ahead of time, and she brought France the greatest global sports renown it had ever known.


Prior to Lenglen, female tennis matches drew little fan interest, which quickly changed as she became her sport's greatest drawing card. Tennis devotees and new fans to the game began lining up in droves to buy tickets to her matches. Temperamental, flamboyant, she was a passionate player whose intensity on court could lead to an unabashed display of tears. But for all her flamboyance, she was a gifted and brilliant player who used extremely agile footwork, speed and a deadly accurate shot to dominate female tennis for seven straight years.

***Many recreational players don't practice shot accuracy and footwork. Heck, they rarely practice, they want to play matches and win. Next time I'm having a not so great day on the tennis court, which could easily be improved by better footwork, I'll remember Suzanne Lenglen's quote from her book "The Right Set": Your feet are the point from which the footwork is done. You must be easy upon them. Do not allow them to hold the ground flatly, for then movement in any direction will not be instant - never run too fast, run with short steps. Wow, I call this profound advice from a Legend who took Ballet lessons as a child!!

You Tube Videos about Suzanne Lenglen
Suzanne Lenglen Breaks Wimbledon Record (1925)
How I Play Tennis - By Mlle. Suzanne Lenglen (1925)
Suzanne Lenglen vs Helen Wills - 1926 Cannes, France
Sportshots No. 18 - Suzanne Lenglen (1933)
Helen Wills v Suzanne Lenglen


Dominence, Influence, Adaptability

 


William Tatem Tilden "Big Bill" (1893 -1953). 3 x Wimbledon winner

If a player's value is measured by the dominance and influence he exercises over a sport, then William Tatem "Big Bill" Tilden II could be considered the greatest player in the history of tennis. An American tennis player who was the World No. 1 player for seven years, Bill Tilden dominated the world of international tennis in the 1920s. In the United States' sports-mad decade of the 1920ies. Tilden was one of the five dominant figures of the "Golden Age of Sport", along with Babe Ruth, Howie Morenz, Red Grange, and Jack Dempsey.

Nobody had a more devastating service than Tilden's cannonball, or a more challenging second serve than his kicking American twist. No player had a stronger combination of forehand and backhand drives, supplemented by a forehand chop and backhand slice.

There has perhaps never been an era in tennis more dominated by a single player than Tilden in the 1920s. From 1920 through 1926 he led the United States team to 7 consecutive Davis Cup victories, a record that is still unequalled. Among his foremost achievements, he won the U.S. National Championship (precursor to the US Open) 6 times in succession and 7 times altogether (1920-1925, 1929), doubles 5 times, and mixed doubles 4 times. He traveled by ship to England to compete at Wimbledon six times (1920, 1921, 1927-1930) and won three times (1920, 1921 and 1930). He never won the Australian or French singles championship because prior to 1938 (when Don Budge won the first Grand Slam), these were not considered prestigious titles as they are today. Prior to 1938, the most prestigious tennis titles were the Davis Cup, Wimbledon, and the US Championships.

Big Bill Tilden's dominance meant that he was "the gate" for tournaments, clubs, and the USLTA (U.S. Lawn Tennis Association). The crowds came to see him and he knew it very well. That's why he often got away with bullying linesmen and umpires into changing calls - both for and against him. He would stare linesmen down and ask them to change the call. He would threaten to walk out and not come back. Umpires generally gave in at that point because Big Bill walking out would mean considerable financial losses for the organizer. He was also a showman with worldly flair, toying with his opponents to prolong matches, just to give the audience what they came and paid for.

***While today's technological advances have changed the game so much (see Mac Cam and the Challenge System), I have to admire the sheer brashness of Bill Tilden. He used his dominance and his influence on and off the court. In between all those negative reports about him staring down linesmen and getting the umpires to change calls, there is one positive report that is worth mentioning in my opinion. I am quoting from Frank Deford’s great book “Big Bill Tilden – The Triumphs and the Tragedy”.
"However abrasively Tilden might so regularly strike people, however rude and unfeeling he could appear to be, there was always this incredible measure of kindness within him. Years later in Los Angeles during the war, when he learned that a young Mexican-American prospect would not be permitted to use the fashionable Los Angeles Tennis Club courts, it was Tilden who put himself on the line, who told the club manager, Perry Jones, a powerful USLTA official, that he would blow the whistle publicly and pull out a lot of other players if the kid’s ban continued. Only then did Jones bow and let Pancho Gonzales play on his courts."
So, what can a recreational player learn from Big Bill? I am choosing the adptability part. When Bill Tilden lost most of one finger on his right hand he adapted, learned how to deal with it, and moved on with determination. He started to slice forehand and backhand shots and drove his opponents crazy until they were able to handle those shots. Be flexible, adapt well to changing situations, and be determined and assertive - the Bill Tilden way.

You Tube videos about Bill Tilden
Big Bill Tilden (1931)
1920s William Tilden Silent Instructional Tennis Vintage Film
Bill Tilden's Advanced Tennis




Concentration



Helen Wills (Moody). 8 times Wimbledon winner

Helen Newington Wills Roark (October 6, 1905 – January 1, 1998), also known as Helen Wills Moody, was an American tennis player. She has been described as "the first American born woman to achieve international celebrity as an athlete."
Helen won the following Grand Slam singles titles: 7 US Championships, 8 Wimbledon, and 4 French Open between 1923 and 1938. Including numerous doubles and mixed doubles titles she won 31 Grand Slam titles altogether, in addition to 2 gold medals at the 1924 Olympics in Paris.

With a winning streak of 150 matches without giving up one set, Helen Wills was the international star player from California, who was known for her phenomenal concentration on court. Her getting down to business attitude, rarely smiling or showing any kind of emotion during a match, earned her the nickname “Little Miss Pokerface”. It was reported that one Wimbledon final had her play on and attempting to serve after she won the Championship point and the umpire had called her the winner already. She just was way too concentrated to bother with counting her games or observing the score board.


***100% concentration is hard for a recreational player. So much is going on in your mind every day. The job, the relationship, tennis elbow, bad line calls, you name it. When I realize I’m not focusing at all on the game at hand, I follow two masters of concentration. First I remember what David Breslow teaches. He is the famous teacher, speaker, author, and Director of Mental Toughness at the USTA’s National Tennis Center. He teaches how to clear your mind and concentrate only on ONE thing, e.g. your footwork. The second master of concentration I usually follow is Helen Wills. In “The Goddess and the American Girl” Larry Engelman describes how she chanted the words “EVERY POINT” to herself on every shot, in every game she ever played. Very impressive and I can confirm that those methods absolutely work.

You Tube videos about Helen Wills Moody
Mrs Helen Wills Moody (1933)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyVRc8yU0SA





Perserverance against all odds



Pancho Gonzales


Ricardo Alonso González or Richard Gonzalez, (May 9, 1928 – July 3, 1995), who was generally known as Pancho Gonzales or, less often, as Pancho Gonzalez, was the World No. 1 tennis player for an unequalled eight years in the 1950s and early 1960s. During that period, he played as a professional. Mostly self-taught with some coaching, he was a successful amateur player in the late-1940s, twice winning the United States Championships. Gonzales is still widely considered to be one of the greatest players in the history of the game.

Gonzales was given a 51-cent racquet by his mother when he was 12 years old. He received some tennis analysis from his friend, Chuck Pate, but mostly taught himself to play by watching other players on public courts in Los Angeles. Once he discovered tennis, he lost interest in school and began a troubled adolescence in which he was occasionally pursued by truant officers and policemen. He was befriended by Frank Poulain, the owner of the tennis shop at Exposition Park, and sometimes slept there.
Because of his spotty school attendance and occasional minor brushes with the law, he was ostracized by the overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon, and predominantly upper-class, tennis establishment of 1940s, which was headquartered at the Los Angeles Tennis Club and which actively trained other top players such as the youthful Jack Kramer. During that time, the head of the Southern California Tennis Association, and the most powerful man in California tennis (and much of the country, given the way weather gave that region a head start in tennis) was Perry Jones, described an autocratic leader who embodied much of the exclusionary sensibilities that governed tennis for decades. Although Gonzalez was a promising junior, once Jones discovered that the youth was truant from school, he banned him from playing tournaments.
Eventually he was arrested for burglary at age 15 and spent a year in detention. He then joined the Navy just as World War II was ending and served for two years, finally receiving a bad-conduct discharge in 1947.

When Jack Kramer retired from his Pro-Tour, Gonzalez won a tour over Don Budge, Pancho Segura and Frank Sedgman in 1954 to determine Jack's successor. He stood himself as Emperor Pancho, proud and imperious for a long while, through the challenges of Tony Trabert, Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad, Pancho Segura, Alex Olmedo and others. For a decade Gonzalez and pro tennis were synonymous. A promoter couldn't hope to rally crowds unless Pancho was on the bill. The other names meant little. During his reign Pancho won the U.S. Pro singles a record eight times.


***I like the underdogs and love the stories how someone becomes a Champion against all odds. The all-white elite didn’t want to let him play at the LA Tennis Club until Bill Tilden stood up for Pancho. And he went on to become one of the greatest players of his time. The fact that Pancho Gonzales was mostly self-taught weighs heavily in his favor because most recerational players don’t like to spend money for tennis lessons. We do like perseverance and learning by watching other players. That's why you always find us at all the tournaments, watching Tennis Channel, renting videos, and watch countless hours of tennis during the Grand Slams. Of course, how a self-taught player like Pancho Gonzales was able to perfect one of the hardest and most accurate serves of all times is a complete mystery to me. We all should be able to do that, too. So, why don't we? What is holding us back?

You Tube videos about Pancho Gonzales
Pancho Gonzales & Roger Federer: Serving Greatness
Pancho Gonzales
Pancho Gonzalez - The Original "Greatest Serve of All Time"
Pancho (Gonzales) a Film by Gino Tanasescu
Pancho Gonzalez: The Latino Legend of Tennis Trailer

 

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