Lenglen The Wonderful

The French Woman Tennis Player is one of the Marvellous Products of Sport

GRANTLAND RICE

AN amazingly symmetrical figure, replete with grace and litheness, arrayed in a white silk dress that barely flutters below the knees. White silk stockings with white shoes. Above this background of white, hair as black as a raven's wing bound with a brilliant orange band. Perfectly moulded arms, bare and brown from many suns—the entire effect being one of extreme vividness—an effect immediately to catch and hold the eye.

Herein you have the briefest sort of pensketch of Mile. Suzanne Lenglen, the marvellous girl tennis player of France, who has a record unsurpassed in sport.

This picture, though it were doubly well painted, is quite incomplete until Mlle. Lenglen begins to move about the court, when the court seems entirely too small for her. She is all over it in a brace of agile leaps, which proclaim her a combination sprinter, hurdler and high jumper any time she cares to abandon her chosen sport and seek another field for conquest. Her agility is amazing. As we sat by the low railing at St. Cloud, just outside of Paris, and watched her astounding mid-air flutterings, as of some brilliantly coloured bird, with the orange band flashing like a flame of yellow fire, we could only think that Solomon, meeting the late Queen of Sheba, beat us to it with the proper phrase—"The better half has never been told".

Star of Stars

THE mere fact that Mile. Lenglen is a great tennis player is one thing. Great tennis players have been around before. It was her impressive vividness that held most of our attention. If she had planned her costume for ten years she could not have made a more suitable selection. The flare of white, orange and black in itself was sufficiently startling to hold the complete attention of the big crowd, composed of French, English and Americans in the main, with other nationalities represented by small groups. As we looked around, every eye in the stand seemed to be focussed upon her perfect body, so perfectly clad, with gyrations that made you wonder at first whether you were watching a great Russian dancer or an eminent tennis star.

When play began we found our attention divided between Lenglen the picture and Lenglen the tennis star. We had always thought of her as a brilliant, slashing type whirling about the court and winning by the sheer dash of her game, despite many errors. The dash and speed were there. But it was the uncanny accuracy and control of her game that featured her play. She was fast, flashy and spectacular. But she was true.

Her bare, brown arms as they glistened in the sun worked with perfect rhythm. The first effort of service, played with a hard smash, was almost invariably in. She rarely served a fault, despite the amount of speed she put upon the ball.

The same was true of her cross court strokes and of every other stroke she played. Whether upon ground strokes or when taking the ball high in the air, the same accuracy prevailed. This versatility of stroke was one of the leading features of her play. We began to sum up the returns—speed, dash, accuracy and versatility. We wondered how she could ever be beaten and then we glanced through the program, where her record in the French championship up to the final match was printed. It ran 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, 6-1. Out of the forty-three games played to that point she had won 42 and lost 1. The wonder was not over the 42 won, but of the single game lost.

Against Men

WELL, we thought, this is against women. Wait until she appears in the mixed doubles with a man to meet. On her second appearance the orange band around her black hair had given way to one of flaming crimson. This is her custom. Orange for the first appearance—crimson for the second, each striking in its effect.

The first service that came to her from the male server happened to be in. It came over like a shot. A sure ace, we thought. But, without any attempt to hurry her stroke, she not only returned the service but put something on the ball. She was as unhurried and as unflurried as Bill Johnston of California, who has one of the finest tennis temperaments known.

Mlle. Lenglen, paired with Decugis, one of the male stars of France, looked to be fully as effective as her masculine partner. At first she was selected as the weak spot in the combination. But this selection did not appear to be aptly made. She was not only extremely fast upon her feet but the quickness of her hand was abnormal. No matter where the ball came nor at what speed, she always had her racket in front of it., Her quick smashes down the lines, in only by inches, but seemingly always in, began to roll up points until she was no longer the target of any concentrated attack. In several individual contests with her masculine opponent, a ranking tennis player, through thrust and counter thrust, she easily held her own, and more often than not with something to spare. Her knack of leaping off the ground from two to three feet was taken by many to be more for spectacular effect than for effective play. But it was both spectacular and effective. Just how she could leap to such heights, even when a leap of such proportions was not precisely required, and still retain all her accuracy was an astonishing thing. After one of these mid-air hurdles you were confident that she would hammer the ball far out of line, but her perfect control was maintained as well in mid air as upon the ground.

If France had been turning out women tennis stars for several generations it would be a simple matter to recognize Mlle. Lenglen as the rare product of a big school, such as we recognize the Californians. But France among her women has had no such tennis development. There is no big list of stars to account for the arrival of one marvel. There are no other women stars to speak of. The miraculous Suzanne merely happened along and without any warning, even as a young girl, began beating opponents left and right. And when she once got under way no one has ever appeared from any nation who seems to be in her class.

There she was—not only a girl possessing rare agility, dashing speed and quick mental alertness, but also the knack of superior tennis play. The women of Great Britain and the United States play ten times the tennis of the French women. They have ten times the chance of developing a world beater. But they have never developed a Lenglen yet.

The margins of her victories have been quite sufficient to show her unfailing and unusual skill. For example, last summer Mrs. Mallory, who, as Miss Molla Bjurstedt, was held as a great star in the United States, was beaten by one of the best of the English stars. Yet the conqueror of Mrs. Mallory in turn was completely outclassed by the French girl.

The Battle at Wimbledon

THEN after winning the world's clay court championship in Paris this June, Mlle. Lenglen came to Wimbledon to defend her title upon a battlefield of turf. Through this tournament Miss Elizabeth Ryan, formerly of California, proved her superiority well above the field. Among others she easily defeated Mrs. Mallory and the best of the European players. This brought her face to face with Lenglen in the challenge round. After her fine play through the championship Miss Ryan was given a chance either to win or make a strong showing. But she was so completely outclassed by the French champion that after a fast early start she was left hopelessly behind, finally losing 6-2, 6-0.

Championship form through a long series of tennis tournaments often varies. Even the redoubtable Bill Johnston was never quite at his best in England last summer. Williams and even Tilden have had their up and down days at stated intervals. But one of the most remarkable features of Suzanne Lenglen's play is her unvarying grip upon form, a grip that never seems to slacken, whether the tournament be important or unimportant, whether it be an exhibition or a championship.

Mlle, Lenglen began her tennis career when she was quite young. She is still quite young, but when she was in her early 'teens she gave promise of future greatness, although no one at the time seems to have prophesied that a world beater was on the way. She was coming swiftly into her own as a youthful premier when war broke out and her tennis days were supplanted by her service as an army nurse. When peace came again to France and she resumed play, only a few weeks seemed to be needed to bring her back to top form, further proof of an inborn knack that is often more important than long training and instruction. And for the three years that have intervened since the armistice she has been not only unbeatable, but so far superior to all rivals that no one could be listed in her class. She has dwelt in another world of tennis and when big crowds in America watch her speed, control and all-around versatility they will understand why the best of women players are helpless before the power and accuracy of her play.

They will understand why she is called Lenglen the Magnificent and why France, working hard to develop and extend its sporting glory, looks upon her as one of its greatest inspirations.