Tennis Rankings

Men Women

1) H.Ellsworth Mrs. Helen Wills

Vines Jr. Moody

2) George M. Lott Helen Jacobs Jr.

3) Francis Xavier Mrs. Lawrence A.

Shields Harper

4) John Van Ryn Mrs. Marion Zinder-stein Jessup

5) John Hope Mary Greef

Doeg

6) Clifford S. Sut-Marjorie Morrill

ter

7) Sidney B. Wood Sarah Palfrey

Jr.

8) Keith Gledhill Mrs. John Van Ryn

9) Wilmer L. Alii-Virginia Hilleary

son

10) Berkeley Bell Mrs. Dorothy Andrus Burke *Name: Alice Krug.

When the ranking committee of the U. S. Lawn Tennis Association announced these preliminary lists last week, it was the seventh time that Helen Wills Moody --unranked last year because of "insufficient data"--had been No. 1 woman player in the U. S. Writing in Tennis, Mary K. Browne, women's tennis champion from 1912 to 1914 (runner up for women's golf championship in 1924), suggested a way to put her lower on the list: "Girls, do you want to defeat Helen Wills Moody? She is the Tilden and Kozeluh of women's tennis. You must go to the net and keep on going up, no matter if at first she passes you, no matter if you are tired. . . . The question is, have you the courage, the audacity, the nerve to take punishment ? I think you have the stamina. . . ." Ellsworth Vines, No. 8 a year ago, was ranked No. i for winning ten tournaments including the National championship last year. The selection of this gangling 20-year-old who imparts a slice to his forehand drives and often plays in a white linen cap that looks too big for him startled tennis enthusiasts much less than something Vines did last week. Just before the rankings were announced, Vines declared his intention of leaving the University of Southern California, where he studies in the School of Commerce when not working part-time for a Los Angeles bond house. He said: "I feel that I cannot do justice to both studies and tennis in the spring months. . . . Naturally, I want to . . . help win back the Davis Cup, if I am lucky enough to be named on the team." Next day, Vines received a concerned and friendly telegram from Chairman Hoi-combe Ward of the U. S. L. T. A.'s Davis Cup Committee: "Advise reconsideration your decision. No players required for Davis Cup competition before May 15, by which date your season's scholastic work should be near completion. Committee considers your education paramount. ..." Interviewed again, Vines said he had not changed his mind, revealed some reasons: "Playing tennis isn't my main reason, nor is it the fact that I have any doubt about passing studies. I am only 20 and I feel that any experience I gain in traveling right now will be as valuable as school and besides I intend to accomplish some business for a Los Angeles firm this spring. Next year, I will go straight through the school year. . . ." Observers recalled that the Davis Cup Committee had sometimes been more apathetic about the academic doings of potential team members. Four years ago, by summoning Davis Cup candidates to a training camp in Augusta, Ga. in March, it caused President Sumner Hardy of the California Lawn Tennis Association to accuse the U. S. L. T. A. of "making bums out of tennis players."

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