[7] Lenglen, Wills, and some of the leading hotel owners and tennis manufacturers with controlling interests on the Riviera ultimately agreed to set up the first potential meeting at the Carlton Club tournament.

[13] Her biggest matches often sold out and potentially had upwards of a few thousand fans were unable to purchase seated tickets or gain entry at all.

Lenglen had developed a reputation for potentially faking illnesses when she was nervous, while Wills did not attribute poor performances to her health even when she was sick.

This Olympic success bolstered her popularity in the United States and helped her rise to a level of stardom comparable to that of Lenglen, adding more interest for a match between tennis's two leading female stars.

She also lost the decisive doubles match in the Wightman Cup to the visiting British pair of McKane and Evelyn Colyer.

A keen artist, Wills was adamant that having the opportunity to paint and continue her art studies were part of her underlying motivation for the trip as well.

[28] Meanwhile, Wills lost in the semifinals of the mixed doubles event at the Gallia Club, largely due to the fault of her aged partner George Hillyard.

She may have withdrawn because she only needed to commute from Cannes to play the doubles events, which better suited her mother's preference not to relocate to Nice for just one week.

She may have also not wanted to face Lenglen at her own club, or to play a singles match against her with the slower type of ball known as a "groover" in use at the tournament.

The USLTA ultimately cleared Wills of any wrongdoing on the basis of her statement that she intended to write about aspects of how to play tennis rather than the tournaments themselves.

[34] Because of the initial concerns, Wills also checked with the USLTA over whether the match itself could threaten her amateur status due to the large commercial interest in the event.

The Carlton Club was chosen as the location for the match by the leading businessmen on the French Riviera who represented the hotels and tennis-related manufacturers.

[8] The hotel representatives were highlighted by the three owners of the Carlton Club, namely John Burke and his sons Albert and Edmund, all of whom were Irish professional tennis players.

That rematch could potentially take place at the South of France Championships in March, which was hosted by the Nice Lawn Tennis Club and was the largest tournament on the Riviera.

[10] With 58 competitors entered in the women's singles draw at the February edition of the Carlton Club, the event was played as a standard six-round single-elimination knockout bracket.

Although they each needed to get through the five rounds to ensure that they meet, it was regarded as a foregone conclusion that they would both reach the final due to the gap in playing ability between them and the other players.

[45][41] Tunis commented, "Pretty soon every house in the vicinity looked half undressed, a hundred faces stucks out of the attics as though the villas were made of cardboard.

The six linesmen were Cyril Tolley, Clement Cazalet, Roman Najuch, Francis Towle, Charles Hope, and Reginald Dunkerley.

Lenglen took advantage of this weakness beginning in the fourth game by hitting drop shots to lure Wills into the net.

However, Lenglen was able to adjust and get her third break of serve in the next game by hitting deep lobs instead of passing shots whenever Wills came to the net.

She continued to employ her strategy of coming to the net on every point and not giving Lenglen good opportunities to hitting passing shots.

When she returned to the court, she broke back as Wills began playing more passively and stopped coming to the net in an effort to conserve energy.

The next point featured a long rally that ended with Lenglen hitting the ball cross-court near the intersection of the service line and the sideline.

Wills's weak subsequent shot gave Lenglen enough time to run up to near the service line and hit a volley for a winner to end the match 6–3, 8–6.

This predicament was further complicated by Wills initially avoiding most interview attempts as part of her agreement with the INS to write her own stories.

[59] The American journalists present included John Tunis for the American Lawn Tennis magazine and The New Yorker,[27] Allison Danzig for The New York Times, James Thurber for the Riviera edition of The Chicago Tribune,[59] Al Laney for Paris Herald, Paul Gallico for the New York Daily News, and Grantland Rice for Collier's magazine.

[41][62] Lenglen and Wills also faced each other in the doubles final at the Carlton Club tournament, partnering with Julie Vlasto and Hélène Contostavlos respectively.

[63] The press expected the Match of the Century to be the start of a long rivalry between Lenglen and Wills that would continue later in the Riviera season.

After Wills officially entered the singles event at the tournament, the club began constructing a secondary stand that could seat 10,000 in anticipation for the match.

Lenglen won the Beaumont Cup with Vlasto, while Wills and Leslie Aeschlimann lost in the opposite semifinal largely due to Aeschlimann being ill.[69] Following Monte Carlo, Lenglen unexpectedly did not enter another tournament until the Carlton Club's April edition when Wills had already left the Riviera, and did not play singles again on the Riviera.