Sport: Forest Hills Finale

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Two years ago Frank Shields was usually described as a foolhardy play boy. Cannier as well as more handsome than most of his confreéres, he profited from his tennis fame by getting a Hollywood contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer last autumn, spent the winter trying to act and flattering young cinema executives by playing tennis with them. In the three major tournaments he has entered this summer, Shields has indicated that he is, if anything, a shade better than he was a year ago, when he was ranked No. 1. He hits the hardest serve and probably the fastest forehand drive in tennis, suffers from a temperamental inability to take the game more seriously than any other pastime which he finds agreeable.

Ever since picayune Bill Johnston appeared on the scene in 1915, there has been at least one high-class tennist who looks as if nature had designed him for ping-pong. Currently, Bryan ("Bitsy") Grant, a 5 ft. -3 in. Atlantan, holds this distinction. Equipped with almost nothing except a superhuman ability to get the ball back, his qualifications as a dark horse at Forest Hills are: 1) a grievance against the Davis Cup Committee for not putting him on the team for European play, 2) the fact that he has at one time or another beaten almost every able player in the tournament except Perry.

Towheaded Sidney Wood is generally conceded to be a tennis genius. This merely means that he can play well enough to be ranked as one of the world's greatest players but rarely does so for two days in succession. If Wood should play Perry on his best day at Forest Hills next week, he has a better chance than anyone else to keep the U. S. Singles trophy in the U. S. for another year. Unfortunately, since he played inadequately at Rye three weeks ago and has done nothing since, he seems more likely to be put out at Forest Hills before he gets a chance to distinguish himself.

Gravest defect in the championship chances of Wood, Grant, Shields, Menzel and Allison next week is the fact that none of the five has shown noticeable improvement during the past two years. In this respect the sixth player in any well-advised list of U. S. hopes to win the 54th Singles Championship is certainly their superior. Redhaired, freckled, 20-year-old Donald Budge of Oakland, Calif. has never beaten Perry but he came close to doing so last year in the Pacific Coast final when he forced him to five sets. His performances at home and abroad this summer have made him the sensation of the tennis year. He is the first U. S. player since Vines who really appears to have the potentialities of a world champion — provided he does not turn professional before he reaches his peak game. Furthermore, whether he beats Perry next week or not, experts were agreed that if he goes on improving at his present rate, he may well do so in the future.