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VOL. XXVIII
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APRIL 25, 1925
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Number 19
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United North and South Tennis Tournament
mN THE course of the annual United North and South
tennis tournament, played on the clay courts of the
Pinehurst Country Club last week, Takeichi Harada,
of Japan, was crowned the new united North and South singles
lawn tennis champion when he defeated S. Howard Voshell,
of New York, the playing-through title holder, by a score of
6—4, 2—6, 7—5, 6—1, in the final round match, and Miss Mar
tha Bayard, of Short Hills, N. J., successfully defended her
title as women’s singles champion by defeating Mrs. Benja
min E. Cole 2d, of Boston, at 6—3, 6—3.
Harada’s machine-like accuracy from deep court and his
passing shots, generally off his backhand, proved Voshell’s
undoing. The old champion realized that his only chance of
victory lay in charging for the net and there daring all on the
power of his volleying and overhead play. For a period in
each set he was successful in his forcing campaign, but once
Harada had settled into his best stride and had begun to bring
off his stinging forehand and backhand drives, it became evi
dent that the veteran Voshell was headed for defeat. His
rushes for the net became less speedy and his volleying lost
its crispness, and Harada gave him few opportunities to smash
fpr he kept the ball uniformly low. In the last set Voshell was
well fagged out from his earlier efforts and Harada rushed
through with the loss of only one game. Takeichi Harada had
proved himself a worthy successor to the title.
In her match with Miss Bayard Mrs. Cole was badly off
stroke and was missing on the easiest kinds of shots. This
tendency to make errors caused the Boston player to soften
her strokes in an effort to gain control, but she could not settle
down into anything like her real form. Ordinarily, she is
hard hitting, accurate and confident but in this contest she
was soft, erratic and hesitant and the inevitable result follow
ed. She could not withstand Miss Bayard’s deadly precision,
and the champion was putting such acute angles on her shots
that Mrs. Cole was often caught far short of position for the
return.
In the second set Mrs. Cole finally began to “stroke” the
ball, and for a time she threatened to take the set and square
the match. Miss Bayard was alive to the danger, however,
and fought back tenaciously to win the set at 6—3, the match
and her second winning of the North and South championship.
MANY SURPRISES DURING WEEK
There were a series of surprises during the week in the
tournament play, and there was every promise of another one
in the final round of the women’s doubles. Miss Anne B. Town
send and Miss Molly Thayer, of Philadelphia, finally won the
championship after an exhausting three-set struggle with
Miss Bronson Batchelor, of New York, and Mrs. M. Brooke,
of Philadelphia. The sets went at 3—6, 6-—4, 9—7.
In the final set of this match Mrs. Batchelor and Mrs. Huff
led at 5-2 games and were within two points of the champion
ship honors, yet they could not quite gain their goal. The
Philadelphia pair finished strongly, holding the advantage of
youth, and were hitting with more power and accuracy at the
end than in the early starts. Mrs. Batchelor and Mrs. Huff, on
the contrary, tired perceptibly in the last few games and this
caused them to fall down on what would ordinarily have been
easy shots for them. The two teams were so evenly matched,
however, that there was little to choose between them.
Miss Townsend and Miss Thayer, although both made
numerous errors in the three sets, also came through with
many earning shots, and they were always the harder hitting
team, with Miss Townsend possessing the best forehand drive
of the four. Miss Thayer played her best tennis in the crucial
third set. Mrs. Batchelor’s deep lobs were admirable and play
ed a large part in forcing the match to three sets, and her
volleying and overhead play were also good. Mrs. Cole work
ed tremendously hard all through the match, covering back
court splendidly, going out after everything and making few
er errors than any of the others.