One night in 1930, an 18-year-old lad sat in a rocking chair on the porch of the Peninsula Inn in Seabright, NJ, looking out to sea and thinking that his tennis dreams were shattered. "I guess I'm just a flash in the pan like they say," said Henry Ellsworth Vines, Jr.
Weeks earlier they had been calling him another California Comet. He had come out of the West, a lanky youth who had the kick of a mule in his cannonball service and who terrorized the Eastern grass court circuit.
Vines, a right-hander, born September 29, 1911, in Los Angeles, ambled along mournfully like slow molasses when not in hot pursuit of a tennis ball. On the court he was devastating, wherefore came the comparisons to a Maurice McLoughlin, the original California Comet.
Vines, the Southern California champ, a cornstalk at 6-foot-2, 143 pounds, had easily disposed of two of the better Americans, Frank Hunter and Frank Shields, at Seabright, but now he had lost the final to Sidney Wood, unable to cope with Wood's seemingly innocuous game of moderate strokes, and some were saying the new Comet had burned out already. It looked more that way at Forest Hills where George Lytleton Rogers beat him in the third round from two sets down. But Elly didn't settle for that. He went home, won the Pacific Southwest, practiced all winter and spring against slow-ball strategy and came back East in 1931 to win the U.S. title over George Lott, 7-9, 6-3, 9-7, 7-5, after trailing 5-3 in the third and 5-2 in the fourth.
His 1932 was a splendid campaign decorated with the Wimbledon title and another U.S. in 59 minutes over Henri Cochet, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, after a semifinal recovery two points from defeat by the offspeed stuff of Cliff Sutter. As a Davis Cup rookie he was 9-1, driving the U.S. to the Challenge Round, a 3-2 loss to France. He won four of eight tournaments, 46-5 in matches, and was No. 1 in the world.
Vines played amateur tennis on the grass circuit only four years, 1930-33, making the World Top Ten the last three years, and the U.S. Top Ten in 1930-32, No. 1 the last two years. But in those four years he established at Forest Hills and Wimbledon that he had one of the best serves, if not the very fastest serve ever turned loose, with almost no spin. He also had as fast and as risky a forehand as ever seen, a murderous overhead, and a skill in the volleying position to compare with the best.
Moreover, his disposition and temperament were foolproof. Where others might explode in protest against a line call, Vines would slowly turn his head and grin under his white cap at the linesman.
He was a gambler on the court. He hit his forehand flat, with all his whizzing might, and closer to the net and the lines than anyone dared. At his best he was equal to beating any player, but his margin of safety was so thin that on days when he did not have the feel and touch, his errors could be ruinous.
Wimbledon crowds marveled at the devastating fury of his attack in beating Bunny Austin, 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 in the 1932 Wimbledon final, which ended with his 30th service ace. The ball catapulted by Austin so fast that the Briton said afterward he did not know whether it went by him to the left or to the right. Don Budge marvels, "Thirty aces in 12 serving games! Considering it was against one of the finest players of the era, and a Wimbledon final, it could be the greatest serving demonstration ever."
But 1933 was a comedown. In one of the magnificent Wimbledon finals Elly lost his title to Jack Crawford, failing to cash numerous second-set break points, 4-6, 11-9, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. Both Austin and Fred Perry beat him as the U.S. lost the Davis Cup semifinal in Paris, a prelude to Britain seizing the Cup from France, and so did the mite, Bitsy Grant, in the fourth round at Forest Hills. Disgusted, Vines could not wait to cut the gut out of his rackets and leave for home, his tennis career as an amateur soon at an end.
He signed a professional contract to go on tour with Bill Tilden and lost their opening match, 8-6, 6-3, 6-2, before 16,200 fans at Madison Square Garden. But Vines ultimately beat the aging Tilden, 47 matches to 26. A match in the Garden between Vines and Perry drew 17,630. He was considered the No. 1 pro through 1937, winning the Wembley World Pro title over Tilden in 1935, Hans Nusslein in 1936 and 1937.
Near the end of the decade, Vines' interest in tennis waned. He turned to golf and became the best golfer who was ever a top tennis player. For years he prospered as a teaching pro, and he was good enough to reach the semifinals of the 1951 Professional Golf Association Championship.
He was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1962, and died March 17, 1994. In 1977 he attended the Wimbledon Centenary as one of the former champions receiving commemorative medals. He had turned out to be much, much more than a flash in the pan.
