A Six-Year U.S. Run Ends for Tennis Great

In the 1920s, called “the Golden Age of Sports” by chroniclers such as Grantland Rice, tennis champion Bill Tilden ranked with Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey and Red Grange as dominant figures in sports.

Starting in 1920, Tilden won the U.S. Open six consecutive years.

“The greatest player of all time,” wrote the New York Times’ Allison Danzig, adding: “For six years the Philadelphian has stood out as the unchallenged master of the court.”

Until 73 years ago today, in a quarterfinal match at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, N.Y.

On a day when three Frenchmen swept into the semifinals, Henri Cochet, 24, ended the Tilden reign with a 6-8, 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 8-6 victory that took exactly two hours. Tilden, 33, before 9,000 cheering spectators, battled back furiously to challenge Cochet in the final set but wilted in the match’s final decisive shots.

Tilden went down to defeat with the cheers of his partisans ringing in his ears. He trailed, 4-1, in the final set before he rallied to 4-4 on the strength of his volleying and took a 6-5 lead with his booming serve.

But in the final three games, the Frenchman attacked the net and Tilden managed only four points.

Cochet, who would win the U.S. Open in 1928, was eliminated in the semifinals by countryman Rene Lacoste, who won the championship by beating another Frenchman, Jean Borotra.

Tilden would win one more U.S. Open in 1929.

Also on this date: In 1957, the Los Angeles City Council approved the sale of 300 acres in Chavez Ravine, paving the way for construction of Dodger Stadium. In return, the Dodgers signed the city’s minor league park, Wrigley Field, over to the city. . . . In 1975, Pittsburgh’s Rennie Stennett became the first player since 1892 to get seven hits in a nine-inning game, a 22-0 Pirate win over Chicago. Stennett had a triple, two doubles and four singles. . . . In 1988, baseball’s owners unanimously elected A. Bartlett Giamatti commissioner, replacing Peter Ueberroth.