If your first service is a fault, serve again more slowly. You cannot put much speed into your second service, but you can place it. Try to serve well back to the service-line, and place it so that your opponent will have to play it backhanded, or step to one side before returning it. I do not mean that this placing will produce any great results, but it will tend to diminish the severity of the first stroke. As soon as you have served, get back just outside of the court, or, if the ground is low, stand on the base-line and a very little to the left of the middle. The first stroke is more often put into your backhand corner than anywhere else; few players are quite as strong backhanded, and can, therefore, afford less time in reaching the ball.
One word as to position. It is impossible to start quickly if your feet are parallel. Stand with the heels about a foot apart, the toes a little turned out, and every joint slightly bent. The racket should be close to the body, with the left hand round the centre-piece.
You are now on the defensive, and your opponent will, no doubt, have come forward in front of the service-line. In this position, unless the first stroke has been a weak one, you can hardly hope to win the rest off your first return; it is rather a time to play for safety. If you can do so with a fair chance of success, try a fast stroke down the side-line. If your opponent fails to volley it well, you may hope to pass him next time. I cannot advise trying to cross him on the first return; he has had time to place himself, and if he is not deceived about your stroke, he ought to kill it. If you see no good chance to play down the lines, the best thing to do is to lob. Lob as high as you safely can, so that the ball shall drop almost vertically. Stay back outside of the base-line and wait for your opponent to volley your lob. If he hits it hard, probably you can do little else than lob again. If he simply stops it, you may be able to go in and pass him; if not, lob again and go up and volley his return. This is a winning stroke if your opponent is afraid to let out at a lob.
Where you cannot do this there is nothing to do except to lob until you can get a chance to make a low stroke, off which you can get forward.
Don’t be too anxious to go forward, but if there is any chance to do so, take it at once. Remember that in lobbing you are on the defensive, and that you want to reverse the positions the moment you can.
To return the service, stand completely out of court if the ground is fast; if slow, stand on the base-line. It is much better to be too far back than not far enough. It is easy to come forward, and in coming forward you naturally throw your weight into the stroke. When going back it is very difficult to strike properly, because you have to stop suddenly and throw your weight forward. You are seldom steady on your feet when going back, and in any case your weight is not on the ball.
Do not go too far to one side to receive the service, for you may have to step in either direction. One can actually reach farther backhanded than forehanded, but few players can make the backhand stroke as well.
If the first service into the right-hand court is good, the best working return is probably the one down the side-line into the backhand corner. Follow the stroke up at once, and take your place a yard or two in front of the service-line.
Your opponent may try to cross you; he may play down the side-line or he may lob. The hardest stroke for you to return will be the one down your right side-line, but most players find it a difficult return to make, and prefer to play across the court. If you see that the ball is coming across, step forward two or three paces and volley it hard backhanded down into the forehand corner. If it comes down your side-line, do not come farther up for it, but volley it back down the same side-line, unless you are sure that you can play it across-court before your opponent can reach it. All cross-court strokes, unless very well made, are dangerous, as they allow one’s opponent to come forward, and if he reaches them he will have the best of the position.
Should your adversary lob, walk slowly back with the ball and volley it quietly, but hard, into the back of the court. Other things being equal, the backhand corner is the best place into which to return a lob. If your opponent lingers at all in the left-hand side of his court, volley directly across to the forehand end of the service-line.