Also big with the angles was Albert Einstein, the electromagnetic wizard with the high-pitched laugh. His approach was almost casual against big Jim Thurber today. He turned up late because of what he described as ‘some sort of mix-up with the time’. As a result the match began twenty-five minutes after it officially ended, although Einstein said they could finish on time if they got on with it. He quickly got himself out to 6–0 and 4–0. Half an hour later he found himself at 6–0, 4–6, 0–6 to an opponent who was checking line calls, not because he questioned them, but because he couldn’t see the ball. Einstein stepped up the pace and took the fourth set but Thurber, who said later he had a number of dogs watching the event on television, peeled off a series of unplayable returns to go out to 5–2 in the fifth. Einstein pegged him back but he is a very lucky boy and seems to be vulnerable to an attack which is purely defensive. ‘Jim,’ said Thurber’s wife Helen, ‘I think we’ve all done very well. It’s time to go home.’
Sixth seed Joseph Conrad was this afternoon trying to work out what had gone wrong against the doughty Bill Faulkner. Conrad stuck to his game plan but he lacked imagination and, when his game plan wasn’t working, he stuck to his game plan.
‘I didn’t feel sharp at any stage out there today,’ said Conrad. ‘Faulkner is very good and I couldn’t seem to get anything going. I don’t know anymore. You come to these tournaments. There are players you’ve never heard of. There are women. It used to be an honest struggle for muscular Christians. Now it’s just chaos.’
There have been questions about Faulkner’s fitness and he often struggles to find form early in a tournament. ‘Everybody struggles,’ he says. ‘There would be no point to any of this if it weren’t a struggle. Joe said it used to be a struggle for muscular Christians. I think it’s a damn struggle for everyone. But I believe we will prevail.’
Carl Jung very nearly followed Conrad out, having to pull out all the stops against Hermann Hesse. Both players are cult figures on the American circuit and a full house of younger fans watched wide-eyed as the Jungmeister eventually got on top of the Hermanator.
If George Shaw is to be believed, his opponent today, the undemonstrative American Buster Keaton, is ‘one of the most remarkable players in the world’. Shaw spoke to the press before their match because he had ‘another engagement’ afterwards. He said he thought he would win because Keaton’s opponent would be harder for Keaton to deal with than Shaw’s would be for Shaw. He said he intended to control the match from the back of the court but to come in on Keaton’s backhand and to keep the ball low at all times.
‘Keaton is completely unfazed by anything overhead and is at his best when he seems most exposed,’ he said. ‘If his position looks hopeless he’ll run away with the match and my only hope is to beat him in a contest he thinks he can win. I’ll need to concentrate.’
It’s hard to know which was more impressive, Shaw’s play or the remarks he made about his intentions before he started. He was right about Keaton, right about the match and right about himself.
Ford Madox Ford, one-time hoofer and a long-time regular on the European tour, might have hoped for an easier second-round assignment than George Orwell, the player many regard as the pick of the English crop at this tournament. From similar backgrounds, both players began their careers outside England. Ford kicked off in France and Orwell in Burma and Spain where he got to the quarters in the Spanish Open and pulled out when he discovered that many of the Spanish amateurs were actually German and Russian professionals. Opposed to the administration of the game in Germany and disenchanted with its management in Russia, he was critical of the international governing bodies and the role of the media. There are many tournaments to which Orwell is not invited, and others which he refuses to enter.
Plenty made the trip out to Court 6 this morning just to see what he looked like. Be it known, he looked very good. He will be the subject of detailed study across the channel tonight at Ladbrokes and in other academies of likelihood.
Round 3
Day 21
Mann v. Satie • de Beauvoir v. Draper • Malraux v. MacNeice • Derain v. Yeats • Einstein v. Steinbeck • Keynes v. Kafka
The third-round singles matches began today in a schedule which was to include men’s and women’s doubles and mixed-doubles matches but players turned up this morning to find that everything had changed.
‘All doubles matches have been postponed,’ read the announcement, ‘and will commence to coincide with the fourth round.’
This is a mark of respect to the German player Karl Liebknecht, whose body was found this morning in a laneway not far from the main concourse. He had been shot in the back of the head. Here to play in the mixed with Rosa Luxemburg, Liebknecht was active in his opposition to German tennis administration.
Luxemburg faced the press this morning, looking drawn but determined. ‘Karl was murdered by his own countrymen,’ she said. ‘The police will find he was killed by German bullets, because he fought against the domination and manipulation of German tennis by one group. This is not happening only in our country. Many other brave people will also soon be killed by the administration in their own countries. We could still stop
