Word: backhand
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...were left: Gregory Mangin, chunky, quick-footed champion, and Lester Stoefen, willowy 6 ft. 32 in. Californian having his first try at the national indoor competition. Stoefen blazed dazzling serves, made his backhand whine with deadly effect, won nine straight games. Mangin speeded up, caught and passed Stoefen. When he was within one point of winning the second set and tying the match, his serve broke the frame of Stoefen's racquet. But a footfault was called and he had to serve over. From that point on. Stoefen won his way through to become the new indoor champion. Score...
...thrived in Los Angeles, growing 6 in. in his 17th year, in. more in his 18th. He started tennis at 16; later than most good players. After teaching himself on the public courts, he beat John Doeg (1930 champion) in a match in 1930 without the semblance of a backhand. During the past year he has improved rapidly, climbing from 6th to 3rd ranking. Since the retirement of Ellsworth Vines as an amateur, he may easily become a U. S. topnotcher...
...Nothing he has done since he landed in the U. S. in 1929-, an illiterate monster with a French manager, has won him any praise or popularity. After last week's bout, Challenger Loughran, lauded as the finest sportsman among U. S. prizefighters, spoke of "rabbit punches and backhand blows," complained that the champion should have been disqualified for stepping on his foot. Monster Camera was more polite: "He [Loughran] was fighting a great fight. ... I should have knocked him out but it would have been shameful to treat such a courageous opponent in such fashion...
...osteopaths. After dropping the first game, Tilden took the next four. In the hottest fight of the evening, Vines ran the set to 4-all. then to 6-all before Tilden could stop him. From that point on Tilden hammered away at his opponent's weak point-his backhand. He pranced back & forth across the court, placed his shots so that Vines was rarely in position to return them full strength. Then he nearly ran the gangling legs off Vines, finally had him missing on his forehand, and making costly double faults. After it was over...
...father playing there. At 13 he learned to play. At 15, Walter Merrill Hall quit school, went to work as a Wall Street runner to help support his mother and grandmother. But every morning, every evening he practiced his tennis, developed a powerful forehand drive, a smashing backhand "down the line." At 24, Walter Merrill Hall was national clay court doubles champion. At 30 he came within two points of beating Bill Tilden in the national singles, might have done so if rain had not blurred his spectacles. At 45, last summer, he won the New Hampshire State championship. Last...