Champions of the past video

[gzhpcu]

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/te...y/tilden+budge

Found this old British documentary you might enjoy...

[stotty]

Heavy grip change..

Amazing...go to the 16 year old boy in the clip (at 1:36)...the "wonder boy" Look at the grip change after the serve...much more extreme than most adults of that day. And what about his Sampras-style dipping of the racket head in the early part of the backswing...love it.

[stotty]

Connecting dots....

See the wonder boy here. If the end of this clip doesn't break your heart, nothing will.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7V6Hky2H9s

Seemed a happy man...happy life.

[bottle]

All true. Personally, I have to say it's great, in these films, to have just read TENNIS: MYTH AND METHOD by Ellsworth Vines and Gene Vier and then to see Vines almost in person although I'm still looking for his backhand based on J. Donald Budge.

Or to see Frank Shields almost in person. I met his son twice-- you could say-- in 1960 when he rowed number seven for Penn. In the 1960 Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship (three miles) me and eight other guys (Brown) beat Penn. A month or two later, in the 1960 Olympic Trials (2000 meters) Penn eliminated Brown.

Both father and son bear a strong resemblance to the son's daughter, Brooke, married to Andre Agassi before Stephanie Graf.