The fast, unpredictable, net-rushing tennis-player is a creature of impulse. There is no real strategy to his/her game, no understanding of your game-plan. He will make brilliant rallies at the drop of a hat, mostly by instinct; but there is no, no consistent thinking. It is an interesting type of character.

The most 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 intention. A player who has an answer to every problem you present him in your game. He is the most subtle antagonist in the world of tennis. He is of the school of Brookes. Second only to him is the player of slavish determination that sets his/her mind on one plan and sticks to it, bitterly, fiercely battling to the end, with no thought of changing.

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

Pick out your kind from your own mental processes, and then work out your game along the lines most suited to you. When two men are on the same level concerning stroke, strength and equipment, the deciding factor in any match is the mental standpoint. Luck, so-called, is often just seizing the psychological value of a change of flow in the game, and turning it to your own account. We hear a lot about the “shots he has made.” Few realize the importance of the “shots he has missed.”

The science of missing shots is just as important 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. Allow me to tell you why. A player forces 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 take the risk next time. He will attempt to play the ball, and may make an error. You have thus stolen some of your opponent’s confidence, and increased his/her chance of error, all because of a miss.

If you had just tapped back that ball, and it had been killed, your opponent would have felt even more confident of your inability to put the ball out of his/her reach, while you would merely have been winded for no reason.

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

The psychology involved in a game of tennis is very interesting, but easily understood. Both player start with equal chances. However, once one player has gained a real advantage, his/her confidence rises, while his/her opponent worries, and his/her mental viewpoint becomes poor. The only objective of the first player is to hold his/her lead, thereby maintaining his/her confidence.

If the second player draws even or draws 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 situation of the other player is the reverse. He is apt to lose confidence and play worse. The breakdown of his game plan will be the result.