HINTS ON TENNIS : MIXED DOUBLES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18305, 5 November 1927, Page 7

HINTS ON TENNIS : MIXED DOUBLES.

PLAYERS MUST HAVE RIGHT TEMPERAMENT. Tn mixed doubles, temperament plays an important part (says a writer in the “Weekly Scotsman”). Players should always keep themselves under control. Don’t get cross with vour partner if a mistake is made. We all do it. None of us is perfect. A lot of “grousing” does not improve vour play either. Try smiling. It will pay you a whole lot better in the end. Then there is another thing. Don’t try to “kill” every shot that comes your way. There are very few firstclass players who can do this, so do not attempt it. It sometimes happens during the course of a rally that a shot comes oyer about which you are in doubt. You may wonder whether to take it yourself or leave it to your partner. Such a situation should not arise where there is a perfect understanding between the pair, and in mixed doubles it is often considered the thing for the man to do most of the chasing about, while the lady of the partnership deals with the “soft stuff.” If, however, your lady partner is a tennis enthusiast she will not be conent to allow her more active partner to do all the work. If she be wise, she will tell him frankly that she prefers to take all shots that come to her side of the court and that she will not expect him to have to cover her all the time. This question of covering is important. When playing the “one-up-one back” formation, it is customary for the player playing Back to cover the whole of that area along the baseline, the partner up at the net being there solely to deal with low net strokes. It is important in mixed games to come to a thorough understanding with your partner beforehand. Position on the court is important. The formation I have mentioned is rather old-fashioned, but not quite so oldfashioned as when both players remained at the back of the court, and net play was not considered quite the thing. Nowadays the “advanced” tennis players have discarded both these formations and one sees both players up at the net. This has its advantages as well as its dangers, and as yet too few players in open tournaments risk it to any great extent, so it is difficult to know how far the advantages are nullified by the risks. When both are at the net. however, a formidable barrier is thus raised against aggression. It is easy enough, on occasion, to pass one person at the net by means of a well-placed ball down the side lines, but, with two there, the problem undergoes a complete change. It becomes a question of tactics, and the volley must unquestionably be resorted to. The volley that is deep into court is considerably disconcerting to players who are both in at the net. It means that one or both of them have to get back into orthodox position again to meet it, and the return is never so fast as the volley at the net. Personally, while I foresee that the two-up formation is bound to become popular and well-nigh essential as the game becomes even faster and more vigorous, it is at present a risky proceeding, and I do not advise the player of average ability to take such a great and problematical risk unless the game in question is nothing more serious than a friendly one. No general discussion on mixed doubles could possibly be complete without some reference to the question of “poaching.” By “poaching,” of course, is meant the familiar propensity on the part of the man to run after every shot that comes over, leaving the lady with nothing at all to do. A great many men do this in mixed doubles. They imagine— quite erroneously, of course—that the lady with whom they happen to be playing is hopelessly incapable of doing anything right. The result of this is that it often happens that a good shot comes her way which she can take effectively, and proceeds to do so, only to find that her partner, with a muttered exclamation of “mine” or “leave it to me,” cuts in and virtually takes the ball right from her.- racket. The sooner the male in the mixed doubles partnership realises that he is not supreme, the better it will be for tennis as a whole. What more fro quently happens in such flagrant cases of “poaching” is that the “poacher” muffs the shot altogether, whereas if he had had the courtesy to leave it to his “weaker” partner, she would probably have made a perfectly good return.