LAWN TENNIS: HOW TO PLAY IT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3859, 28 February 1928, Page 77

LAWN TENNIS: HOW TO PLAY IT.

THE PLEASURE OF THE GAME.

HINTS FROM A CHAMPION.

BY

RENE LACOSTE.

(Special for the Otago Witness.)

XX. I am convinced that there is no more enjoyable sport than lawn tennis.. It is certainly a sport, and an athletic one at that, for fiv e sets are more tiring than a football match, and to go through a big tournament needs the severest training. On the other hand it is also a game, and can be played without overstrain by girls and children and those past their first youth. . As a sport, it can produce fitness both of body and of mind. As a game, it can produce relaxation and a great deal of fun, and—well, has not the mixed double game often led to happy marriages. Perhaps the modern love of sport is excessive. How often, after living for lawn tennis and nothing but lawn tennis for several weeks, have I felt how ridiculous it is to be devoting the best part .of my lif e to improving my skill in hitting a little ball over a net. Yes, it ridiculous : but I go on playing. ! As a boy I learned to love the game as a relaxation after studying. Then I loved it because it made me fit. Later 1 loved it for itself. It was in 1921 that I started tournament play. As soon as I had w ; on a few matches I felt that I was beginning to succeed in the fight I had started against having weak muscles and a slow mind. As I went on, I drew from the game the added pleasure of attaining an ambition. Men like success. I liked it. I liked fame, I liked the things that appealed to my vanity. Yet I don’t think I rated those things too high. I have always loved the game itself too much for that.

Defeat for me has meant an urge to do better next time. I have never failed to see reasons for my defeat, points in play to be improved before my next bm match. Seeking these imnrovements. I have been able to get nearly as much pleasure out of practice as out of matchplaying. It is' the game, it is the playing it that matters. Last summer Cochet and I met in the semi-final of the U.S.A. National Championship. Two davs later, in front of a couple of hundred people, we played an exhibition match. The second match, the exhibition match, didn t matter a straw ; the championship was decided: Cochet might have been discouraged, I might have been careless. But for the love of the game, we both played even harder than we had done in the championship match. I like a fighting game.- It doesn’t matter about the honours, it is the fight that counts. Many people say that competitions and championships' are a mistake because they tend to develop muscle at the expense of mind. Sometimes that is true, but the theorists forget that few people would bother about physical exercise if there were no

championships. Championships make for keenness and enthusiasm.

To become a good player you only need a quick eye and a quick foot. To become a great champion, to beat all other players, you need a quick and strong mind. Borotra was born clever and brilliant. But his brilliance off the court, in business, has certainly gained through his experience on the court. Suzanne Lenglen has the quickest and clearest mind I ever saw in a woman: she has trained it on th e lawn tennis court. And let us all pay our tribute to Dwight Davis, donor of the Davis Cup and member of the first Davis Cup team : to-day he is America’s Secretary for War. Who can say that becoming king of the courts to-day will not help Borotra to become king of the oil-pumps to-morrow! It is a French proverb that lawn tennis leads—off the court. A few months ago a few amateur players started professional exhibitions. Instructors at the game are necessary, but I do not think that professionalism is good for it. I have nothing to sav against professionalism in itself. Those who exhibit the art and science of the game have as much right to gain money by it as lias a Caruso or a Degas the right to gain money by In’s singing or painting. Nor do I think that these players will play any less well for money than they did for honours: real champions, whether amateur or professional, play always for love of the sport, and there is just as much love of sport, if not more, in Carpentier and in Suzanne Izenglen as in any amateur. But I fear professionalism because it will lead youngsters to consider the game as a smeessfu’ career It is not that, lhere is seldom much money to be made out of a sport, except by those who arrange matches instead of playing them. I hope that I shall always be able be able to earn my living outside of the game, not because I should feel socially lowered by turning ‘ pro.’ but because to do so would lessen my pleasure in the game. th e pleasure that I have always found in in. In these davs when everything has its price, let Ns do something merely for the pleasure it gives us. To a youngster who spoke of “ taking up lawn tennis,” I would sav: “ Plav the game by all means Become a champion if you can. But play for the spoit: do not sell your ability. Take the road which leads to honours at the game, just as you take to a country lane on a Sunday in spring. The lane will not lead you anywhere, but it is a pretty lane, and you will se e flowers, hear birds, and enjoy the air. The amateur game will not fill your purse, but it will make you fit, it will give you pleasure, and it will 'train you for the greater gam e of life.”