U. S. tennis last week reached its grand finale for 1933, the National Singles Championship at Forest Hills, L. I. But that was not the only interesting event going on there. Strolling between grandstand, clubhouse and stadium courts, spectators could see numerous middle-aged and even elderly gentlemen playing tennis, and very good tennis, on the outer courts. This was the Veterans' Championship, for players over 45. In the final, onlookers beheld one of the most extraordinary tennists in the U. S., Clarence M. Charest, win the title for the third time, against S. Jarvis Adams, an unseeded oldster from Port Washington, L. I., 6-4, 6-4.
Twenty-three years ago, a hunting companion shot off Clarence Charest's right arm. Forced to give up his favorite game, baseball, he took up tennis. When serving, he holds the ball in his hand, throws it up with the same motion of his arm that carries the racquet back, whacks it smartly with an efficient tackhammer motion. He keeps a second ball in his pocket, a third on the ground back of baseline. He rarely needs the second ball. Now 50, an able Washington lawyer, he won the Veterans' Championship for the first time in 1929. He took up golf six years ago, won a club tournament two years later.