Sporting Gods in Sneakers Excerpts from the magazine's archives of Tennis writing that illustrate the evolution of the game — and its players.

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Article Ewing Galloway In 1890, when [H. W. Slocum Jr.] was champion, tennis was relatively soft. His advice about serving illustrates that. ‘‘A very swift service is, in my opinion, a waste of energy,’’ he gravely admonishes. Tennis Stages Another Vivid Spectacle

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Article Arthur Ashe Associated Press Probably his best asset is the variety of his stroking. Most ‘‘big’’ servers of recent years have been notable for their lack of imagination — their inability to alter their belt-’em-hard serve-and-volley technique. Ashe, though, plays his shots rather as he used to play a trumpet in high school, improvising here and there, mixing sweet, fluid notes with a few ambitious, off-key ones. Arthur Ashe Has to Be Aware That He Is a Pioneer in Short White Pants

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Article Evonne Goolagong Corbis Weeds sprout in it . . . but it is identifiable as a tennis court because of the gappy, time-rotted net that drapes across its middle. In all the world, it would be hard to find a more utterly undistinguished court. Except for one thing: If you drew a graph to represent the career of the young woman who rules ladies’ international tennis, the beginning point would have to be here. On this dry red ground, with a similar cast of chickens and dogs as her gallery, Miss Evonne Goolagong began to hit a tennis ball sweetly and hard. How the Daughter of an Ancient Race Made It Out of the Australian Outback