team match took place. In this Brookes went down to defeat before
Johnston in four close sets, while I succeeded in scoring another
point by nosing out Patterson by the same score. Thus 1919 gave
Johnston a clear claim to the title of the World's Premier Tennis
Player. The whole season saw marked increase in tennis interest
throughout the entire world.

I have gone into more detail concerning the season of 1919 than I
otherwise would, to attempt to show the revival of the tennis
game in the public interest, and why it is so.

The evolution of the tennis game is a natural logical one. There
is a definite cycle of events that can be traced. The picture is
clearest in America as the steps of advancements are more
definitely defined. It is from America that I am going to analyse
the growth of modern tennis.

The old saying, "Three generations from shirt sleeves to shirt
sleeves," may well be parodied to "Three decades from ground
strokes to ground strokes." The game of tennis is one great
circle that never quite closes. Progress will not allow a
complete return to the old style. Yet the style, without the
method of thirty years ago, is coming back in vogue. It is a
polished, decorated version of the old type game. It is expanded
and developed. History tells us that the civilization of the old
Greeks and Romans held many so-called modern luxuries, but not
the methods of acquiring them we have to-day. Just so with
tennis; for the ground. stroke game was the style of the past,
just as it will be the style of the future; but the modern method
of making ground strokes is a very different thing from the one