career on the baseline game. Each of these has since had a
distinct yet similar growth--a variance to the original style.
American tennis followed the English baseline style through a
period that developed Dr. Dwight, R. D. Sears, Henry Slocum, and
other stars. Tennis, during this time, was gaining a firm hold
among the boys and young men who found the deep-driving game
devoid of the excitement they desired. Americans always enjoy
experiments, so the rising players tried coming to the net at any
reasonable opening. Gradually this plan became popular, until
Dwight Davis and Holcombe Ward surprised the tennis world with
their new service, now the American twist, and used it as an
opening gun in a net attack.

This new system gave us besides Davis and Ward, the Wrenn
brothers, George and Robert, Malcolm Whitman, M. G. Chace, and
finally Beals C. Wright. The baseline game had its firm adherents
who followed it loyally, and it reached its crest in the person
of William A. Larned. Previous to this time, speed, cyclonic
hitting and furious smashing were unknown, although rumours of
some player named M'Loughlin combining these qualities were
floating East from the Pacific Coast. Not much stock was taken in
this phenomenon until 1908, when Maurice Evans M'Loughlin burst
upon the tennis world with a flash of brilliancy that earned him
his popular nickname, "The California Comet."

M'Loughlin was the turning-point in American tennis. He made a
lasting impression on the game that can never be erased. His
personality gained him a following and fame, both in America and
England, that have seldom been equalled in the sporting world.