Word: tildenized
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With a big grass-stain on his white flanneled knee, William Tilden, champion of the world, limped over to the umpire's stand and wiped Bis bleak face with a towel. It was the third set and thirteenth game of his match against Rene Lacoste, at Germantown, and he was a game behind...
...table beside the court the celebrated Davis Cup caught a waning sun. Its presence was not significant. On the third day of the series the U. S., acquiring the necessary three points, had made sure of retaining it: William Johnston .had beaten René Lacoste, Tilden had beaten Jean Borotra, Vincent Richards and R. Norris Williams had won their doubles match from Henri Cochet and Jacques Brugnon. But a great issue was in the balance, and Tilden, as he put down the towel and prepared to receive Lacoste's service, was quite aware that this issue might be swayed...
...dawdled through the first set, managing to win it, 6-4, only because Lacoste obviously expected to be beaten and made errors. Lacoste's game has always irritated Tilden. It is a suave game, a soft-spoken game of placements that look easy because the man who reaches for them looks so awkward-of strokes that a hard-hitting player can kill only if he is very careful. Last year Lacoste reached match-point four times before Tilden beat him. The champion was teasing, people said; he gave away points to get an incentive...
...doing the same thing now? Lacoste had taken the second set; now, encouraged by the appearance of the grass stain, he took the third. Surely, that was all the incentive Tilden could ask for. ... He had his back, at last, where he liked to have it, against a metaphorical wall. Unfortunately, the grass-stain on his flannelings was not metaphorical; and he had-could one believe it?-a perfectly literal limp. He had hurt himself. That was the plain prose...
...champion's partner. He was not docile. He picked up only the balls which he absolutely needed for his own activities. As for standing in one corner of the court, he approximated this direction only by trying to stand all four corners at the same time. Tilden seemed to encourage this youthful insurgence. The champion was grim. He did not fool at all and actually managed, with terrific serves and drives that swish faster than any others on this earth, to take a set, the second. But even his efforts, and those of the doughty Chapin, could not prevail...