Fully 15,000 were
present on the closing day of the event in 1919. Orderly,
courteous, enthusiastic, but partisan, the American tennis public
comes out to cheer on its favourite. No people in the world
appreciate visiting players more whole-heartedly and none do more
for their comfort than the American people. It is partisan,
personal, sporting friendliness, warmer yet not so correct as the
manner of the British public, that the Americans give. We have
much to learn from our British friends. Yet I hope we will never
sacrifice the warmth of feeling that at times may run away with
us, yet in the main is the chief attraction of the American
people. It is this enthusiasm that spurs on the men to their
greatest efforts in the National Championship.
The Australian team, Norman E. Brookes, Gerald Patterson,
Randolph Lycett, and R. V. Thomas, who visited the United States,
in 1919, scored a unique personal triumph. The whole gallery
present at the notable match in the Championship, when Patterson
went down to defeat in a terrific 5-set struggle with W. M.
Johnston, rose and cheered Patterson as he walked off the court.
It was a real ovation; a tribute to his sportsmanship, and an
outburst of personal admiration. Brookes was the recipient of an
equal demonstration on his final appearance at Forest Hills. The
stimulus of the surroundings produced the highest tennis of which
these men were capable.
Yet in all championships it is the personal element that is the
moving factor.
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