time to take
Jacques Brunion
The fourth of the musketeers, the oldest of them, has always been the main support for his comrades. Modest, restrained, he in a single game could not reveal all that he was capable of. And this is a pity, because his varied and attractive game posed serious problems for an opponent of the highest class. Lacoste, for example, felt very uncomfortable, encountering the always unexpected blows of Bryunion, and Tilden had to give all his best to achieve victory. His hit on the right, very quick and very individual, was carried out by a short backswing, due to which the direction of the ball’s flight was carefully masked. Unexpectedly strong brush gave the ball a rebound effect. In particular, Brunion’s famous twisted candle, Continue reading
René Lacoste
Rene was born in Paris on July 2, 1904 in the family of the industrialist Jean Lacoste, the owner of a network of factories producing cars “Spanish-Suiza” (La Нispano-Suiza Automobiles). Being not quite a healthy child – he was pestering chronic bronchitis, Rene became interested in tennis.
One day, in 1910, they invited the French journalist Pierre Albarran, a major tennis authority, to the Club de sport, located on Saussure Street in Paris, and showed a thin, pale boy. He held the racket in the middle of the handle, ran around the court like a hare, and hit the balls with the accuracy of a metronome. The guy made an impression on the “examination committee.” Albarran recalls that everyone was of the same opinion: this young man had a good future, but no one had the idea that at 21, Lacoste would be the first racket of the world.
What an amazing path he has come! What will and perseverance this young man showed in exhausting training, to whom his father recommended leaving the sport at the age of fifteen, believing that his son is completely lacking in abilities! At twenty, Lacoste became a real athlete, able to train for three hours in the morning, and fight for another three hours in the afternoon (at that time it was unusual), reminding with his game a perfectly adjusted, non-interruption mechanism. Continue reading
Suzanne Langlen – the pride of France
Susanne Lenglen (05/24/1899 – 07/04/1938) – an outstanding French tennis player, who left a bright mark in the history of sea tennis. She was a two-time Olympic champion in 1920, became the 35 times winner of the Grand Slam tournaments, 12 of them in singles.
The first acquaintance with tennis occurred at 10-year-old Suzanne in Nice, where her family moved to their own villa for the summer. Her father, a wealthy industrialist, being an entrepreneurial man, decided to make a champion of his daughter. Looking ahead, it should be said that he succeeded. He was a good coach, but a year later he gave Suzanne to train at the Nice Lawn Tennis Club in Nice, where he was secretary. He was very demanding of his daughter in everything related to tennis. For ten years, Monsieur Lenglen made her train hard and play for hours against the wall. Of course, many hours of working with the ball to death bothered Suzanne, but if Charles Langlen had not been so adamant, she would never have achieved such stability in the game, such confidence in the execution of shots. Continue reading
