Allen M. Hornblum - American Colossus: Big Bill Tilden and the Creation of Modern Tennis

John Newcombe

I decided at ten years of age that I wanted to play at Wimbledon and represent Australia in Davis Cup competition. This was 1954, television had not quite arrived in Australia, and events like Wimbledon were listened to on the radio or read about the next day in the newspapers.

At twelve I was selected by Tennis Australia, along with seven other boys, in an elite training camp for three hours each Saturday morning lasting eight weeks. Our coach, Dave Thompson, was very tough on us over a three-hour period each morning and allowed us only one drink break.

Dave told us if we wanted to make tennis an important part of our lives, we needed to understand the history of tennis and who our great champions had been. He said that Bill Tilden was maybe the greatest player ever and had written an excellent book on tennis titled Tennis AZ. I believe it has come out under other titles as well. I had my parents acquire the book and read it cover to cover. The chapter that really got my attention was Match Play and Tennis Psychology.

By the time my own career was over, I was known as a player who had some major weapons, one of which was my strong mental approach and self-belief. Two things Tilden said in that chapter: First, there are two ways to break down an opponents gameattack his weakness and go after his strength and break it; the second one has more risk, but if it works it will destroy him. Second, to be a champion you must have very strong self-belief; however, if the self-belief drifts into conceit, you will be in trouble, as conceit is very brittle.

I delved into Tildens life and loved reading about his challenges with other greats of his time, particularly the Four French Musketeers, Lacoste, Brungon, Cochet, and Borotra. As a founding father of todays Association of Tennis Professionals and a hater of amateur bureaucracy in sport, I was fascinated with Tildens constant challenges with the U.S. Tennis Association. He was the greatest player of his decade, a forerunner of professional tennis, a great athlete, and in my book one of the top eight players of all time. Who can say who is the greatest? All a player can do is be the best in the world over a long period of time. Tilden certainly achieved that.

I am so happy that Allen Hornblum has taken on the task of writing about Bill Tilden. I believe it will be a book that every young tennis player who dreams of greatness should read. I wonder how many pros on the circuit today know about Tilden, Little Bill Johnston, the Four Musketeers, Perry, Budge, Brookes, Wilding, and countless others who were preWorld War II or for that matter the champions of 194568.