ABSTRACT
The Wrenn-Hovey rivalry at the top of American tennis between 1893 and 1897, much like the Renshaw-Lawford duels at Wimbledon in the 1880s, greatly increased the popularity of the game. James Dwight was enthusiastic about young Dwight Filley Davis's idea of a trophy for international team competition in lawn tennis. Laurie Doherty and Fred Perry were perhaps the greatest of English amateur lawn tennis players: they were the only Englishmen to have won the US Singles Championship. Although Arthur Wentworth Gore never played tennis in a class with the Dohertys or Fred Perry he surely established a unique and very British sporting-gendeman's record at Wimbledon, which he entered diirty-five times between 1888 and 1927. Throughout their married life, both Sir Norman and Dame Mabel dedicated themselves to the best interests of lawn tennis. A religious man of simple faith, plain tastes, he insisted that Norman earn his own living and treat tennis and his other games as secondary pastimes.
