Word: backhand
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...first set. Shields pulled even, kept winning his own serve till the score was 6-5 on Borotra's serve. The Frenchman won the advantage point nine times in a row, but could never win the next one against Shields's superb cross-court backhand drives. When it finally became Shields's advantage, it crossed Borotra's mind that he might lose the set on a double-fault...
...everyone's surprise Mrs. William Adams of Cedarhurst put out Eleonora Sears, principally by the use of a tricky backhand shot along the side wall. Then Ruth Hall of Philadelphia, runnerup in the finals last year and sister of J. Gilbert Hall, No. 13 ranking U. S. lawn tennis player, put out Mrs. Adams, 15?4, 15?8. 18?17. She went into the finals against her 16-year-old friend Cecelia Bowes, also from Philadelphia. The first game was fairly close until Miss Hall became sure of what Cecelia Bowes was going to do in any situation...
...Critics, believing Richards looked fat and pallid, favored Kozeluh in the final, and the Czechoslovakian started just as they expected him to. He won the first set 6-2. In the next set Richards started a terrific rally. He matched his volley with Kozeluh's accurate backhand drives and at last broke through service to win 10-8. Then, amazingly, it was the nutbrown, buoyant Kozeluh who tired. The pasty-faced, fiercely concentrated Richards at the net was a far deadlier player than Richards, the slim prodigy who used to beat Tilden sometimes before he turned professional...
...brilliant game he used to exhibit consistently. He could not get through Doeg's smashing left-hand service, losing at love nine out of his opponent's last 16 service games. Doeg, never surefooted, never brilliant, aced him 28 times, played Tilden's deep backhand to thwart the maestro's terrific placement game. With the match score 10-8, 6-3, 3-6 in Doeg's favor, the crowd sat on the edge of their cushions at the beginning of the last set. Still quarreling with decisions, Tilden mustered all his declining strength, twice made...
...youngsters from the East and West: Doeg of California, 22, 6 ft. i in. and Frank X. Shields of New York, 20, 6 ft., the most youthful contestants ever to play in the U. S. title singles finals. Lanky Shields was by far the more polished performer, his backhand often acing Doeg's serve, which had little threat for him, down the sidelines. But Doeg, nerveless at all times, continued to chop and drive, scoring well with his net and ground shots. The fourth set was the longest ever played in the final of a U. S. singles title...