A mediocre man is successful in a game of skill only so long as he can forget drama and concentrate on the physical act; to remember, when aiming his last white tiddlewink at the cup, that his mother is looking on, spells ruin. But champions steal a vigor from exigency and use the electric air of crises as a wine. Perhaps the foremost exponent of this ability is William Tilden. No other personage engaged in sport has an equal sense of the dramatic.
Now gloomy as a Scottish murderer,...
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