LAWN TENNIS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 20, 3 November 1938, Page 2

LAWN TENNIS

HINTS TO PLAYERS. QUESTIONS OF TACTICS. When a player has perfected the main strokes in lawn tennis—forehand and backhand drive, volley, smash, service, and lob—or at least can play them with some control, bis main concern will, or should, be with tactics. Tactics may be defined as the carrying out of a. plan to beat your opponent and so bring victory to yourself. Haphazard play cannot be brought within the meaning of tactics. No player worth bis salt should go on to the court to play blindly, hoping that victory will come to him more by good luck than good management.

Even if previously, be knows nothing about the play of the opponent be should not have to improvise bis game. The “knock-up” can provide a means of finding out how an opponent plays bis strokes and whether ho is at home on a. particular stroke more than on some other. The first few games, too, afford invaluable means of experimenting with ideas you have formulated beforehand.

Your ideas may he satisfactory. If they are, then persist with them. If they seem not to he paying, then do not hesitate to discard them. He is a fool who persists with a type of game that can only end in one way—his defeat. There is merit in being defeated after varying your game to counter that of the opponent; there is none for a defeat that is brought about by brainlessness or a stupid obstinacy o change a losing game.

One has only to visit club courts —one frequently has examples in important tournaments where allegedly top-flight players are competing-—to see fundamental brainwork conspicuous by. its absence and its place taken by “brute strength and stupidity.” It is a good thing to remember that, as a general rule, a fairly proficient player is not likely to he driven off the court in a purely baseline duel of hard hitting. The hard hitter, besides failing in that objective, is likely also to overhit or net many of his drives. These of course, will he points to the opponents. Gifts would be the better word. Not Tennis. Baseline duels of hard driving are delightful to watch, hut they are not tennis. By all means give full play to your hard driving, hut do not give more than full play. Remember that the opponent is likely to he put out of his stride if you surprise him by sending over a shorter length hall and a much slower one. He is prepared to deal with the usual fast ball and so will probably fall into the error of over-hitting.

Thus the players should he over mindful of the value of the slow, short hall suddenly mixed in with the fast drive to the back line.

For yourself, if called on to play this slow ball, played short, remember that the speed that you are running into the ball will give added impetus to your stroke, and that the ball has to be played very carefully if it is not to go out over the back line. In the main you should ploy it straight down the nearest side-line, and deep and follow it to the net.

Many players on the baseline become flustered when faced with an opponent at the net, and feel they must do their best to drive hard past him. If the ball is not cut off by a'volley, it frequently goes out over the back line. Very often the best shot to play is a slow ball that will dip quickly on crossing the net. This is where the top spin drive comes in handy. But most valuable of all against a net rusher is the perfect lob. No one can call himself a really good tennis player unless ho has. mastered the execution of this very difficult stroke. The perfect lob will be just high enough to bo out of reach of the opponent, and on landing near the back line will bounce forward, not just straight up and down. To play this stroke plenty of time must be taken. It must not be hurried.

The Overhead. The net rusher, when confronted with a short lob, is faced with two alternatives—to kill or to place the ball. The former carries with it the greater risk, and should' not be used unless the player is fully confident that it is the only shot to play. He is foolish to take the risk if the point-could be won by a reasonable hit placement at an angle. If the opponent is outside the back lino he has a good chance of returning the hard smash, whereas he would not have a hope of getting to a sharplyangled place smash. Every player should aim to make the fullest possible use of the*court. That is, ho must bo able so to control his strokes that he can play to within inches of the lines—side-lines and baseline.

You should aim to keep your opponent on the move, relying greatly on sharpness of angles and variations in pace and length to work him out of position so that for tin* winning stroke you have a. wide open court. When you have this position be particularly careful of the way you play the stroke. Do not hurry it. More winning chances are lost hv burry than are won.

Australia believes she has an embryo Davis Cup player in 10-year-old Harold Atkinson, a cousin of John Bromwich, the ambidextrous exponent. John Bromwich’s grandmother, who taught him his first tennis, is helping now to develop another grandson. Young Atkinson is following his famous cousin’s unorthodox style, and uses a two-handed grip for his shots on either side.