3 Framed Vintage French Tennis Photographs. One vertical, two horizontal. Vertical one depicts a man leaping into the air to hit a high serve, identified below in middle as Bill Tilden, dated "Circa 1929" bottom right. Wide view horizontal shot identifies players below middle as Bill Tilden and Rene LaCoste, location as France bottom left, and dated "Circa 1925" bottom right. Horizontal shot with two female players shaking hands identifies them at middle below as Suzanne Lenglen and Miss Wills, location as France bottom left, and dated "Circa 1928" bottom right. Labels on back of each read "The Vintage Collection" and give information about each piece. 

Overall Size: 17 x 21 in. 

Sight Size: 11 1/4 x 14 in. 

#4591 

Tennis had become an extremely popular sport throughout the world ever since its inclusion in the inaugural 1896 Summer Olympics, with women competing for the first time four years later.  By the 1920s it was one of the major entertainments in England, France, and Italy, with betting and attendance at an all time high. Bill Tilden, commonly considered one of the greatest American tennis players who ever lived, was famous for his cannonball serve which was once clocked at 151 miles per hour, and paved the way for the modern tactics of the sport. He won seven U.S. championships and won the “Most Outstanding Athlete of the Year” award in 1949 by a landslide. His bombastic style, however, was challenged and defeated on several occasions by supremely calculating players like Rene LaCoste, who won seven Grand Slam singles titles at the French, American, and British championships during the 1920s and 30s and earned the nickname “The Crocodile” for his methodical, cunning style. Helen Wills was the first American born woman to achieve international celebrity as an athlete. She won eight Wimbledon’s, four French Championships, and seven U.S. Championships between 1923 and 1938. However, French player Suzanne Lenglen became a living legend when she overcame asthma, jaundice, and prevalent social norms to become the first non-English champion at Wimbledon in 1919, going on to dominate the French Championships throughout the 20s and defeat Wills in 1926. Each of these ground-breaking athletes set the tone of the sport for the rest of the 20th Century, establishing the game as more than a simple show of athleticism but as a battle of personalities and national identities, too.