The hard-hitting, erratic, net-rushing tennis-player is a creature of impulse. There is no real system to his/her attack, no understanding of your game-plan. He will make brilliant coups on the spur of the moment, mostly by instinct; but there is no, no consistent thinking. It is an interesting type of character.

The really dangerous player is the one who mixes his/her style from back to fore court at the command of an ever-active mind. This/her is the player to study and learn from. He is a player with a definite purpose. A player who has an answer to every problem you present him in your game. He is the most subtle opponent in the world of tennis. He is from the school of Brookes. Second only to him is the player of dogged determination that sets his/her mind on one plan and adheres to it, bitterly, fiercely battling to the end, with never a thought of change.

He is the player whose psychology is rather easy to work out, but whose mental viewpoint is hard to upset, for he never allows himself to think of anything except the business at hand. This/her player is your Johnston or your Wilding. I respect the intelligence of Brookes more, but I admire the tenacity of purpose of Johnston.

Pick out your kind from your own mental pattern, and then plan your game along the lines best suited to you. When two men are in the same class as regards stroke and equipment, the determining factor in any given match is the mental standpoint. Luck, so-called, is often seizing the psychological advantage of a change of flow in the game, and turning it to your own account. We hear a lot about the “shots players have made.” Few understand the importance of the “shots players have missed.”

The psychology of missing shots is just as vital as that of making them, and at times a miss by an inch is of more value than a return that is killed by your opponent. Let me tell you why. A player drives you far out of court with an angle-shot. You run hard to it, and having reached it, you smash it hard and fast down the side-line, missing it by an inch. Your opponent is shocked and shaken, knowing that your shot could just as well have gone in as out. He will expect you to try it again and he will not risk it next time. He will try to play the ball, and may fall into error. You have thus taken some of your opponent’s confidence, and increased his/her chance of error, just because of a miss.

If you had merely popped back that ball, and it had been killed, your opponent would have felt increasingly confident of your inability to get the ball out of his/her reach, while you would merely have been winded without result.

Let’s suppose that you made the shot down the sideline. It was an apparently impossible get. First it amounts to TWO points in that it took one away from your opponent that should have been his/her and gave you one you ought never to have had. Second it also upsets your opponent, as he thinks that he has thrown away a big chance.

The psychology involved in a game of tennis is fascinating, but easily understood. Both player begin with equal opportunities. However, once one player has gained a real advantage, his/her confidence rises, while his/her opponent stresses, and his/her mental viewpoint becomes weaker. The sole objective of the first player is to hold his/her lead, thus maintaining his/her confidence.

If the second player pulls even or pulls ahead, the inevitable reaction is an even greater contrast in psychology. There is the natural confidence of the leader, but boosted by the great stimulus of having turned a seemingly inevitable defeat into a probable victory. The case of the other player is the reverse. He is likely to lose confidence and play worse. The breakdown of his game plan will be the result.

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