There is one more point to which I want to call attention. Suppose that you have made a weak volley into the middle of the court and are at the time well forward. Your opponent can probably put the ball about where he pleases. What should you do? Get back by all means if you can, for that is better than staying up with the chances against you. If you can’t do that, stay and fight it out, but remember that there is no use in standing still in the middle. Your opponent can put it either side of you. Wait till he has made up his mind, and then go to one side or the other. Even if you have no idea to which side you ought to go, it is still an even chance that you will choose the right one. In such a case it is the only chance that you have, and if your opponent sees you going the right way he may miss his stroke in trying to change its direction.
CHAPTER II.
MATCH PLAY.
Match play is always a very different matter from simple practice. The excitement and anxiety affect nearly all players; some more, some less. The majority, I fancy, play worse in a match, while a few players need the interest of a match to make them play their best.
Then the question of endurance comes in, which in practice is of very little importance, as you can stop playing when you feel tired. A match, moreover, is in itself more exhausting, as you can seldom afford to drop your game to rest yourself, and the anxiety tells greatly on your wind. A player who often plays six or seven hard sets in practice may feel utterly out of breath in the first set of a match, mainly from excitement. The more he plays the less he will notice the difference between practice and matches.
A great difference, too, lies in the fact that a player, being anxious, is afraid to play his game, and tries only to get the ball back. This is a very great mistake, but it is much easier to tell him to play as he usually does than for him to do it. Almost the first advice that I should give to any one who was going into his first match, “Try to play just as you would in practice.” If he cannot win by playing his usual game, he will, as a rule, play worse instead of better by changing it. It may prove, of course, that you cannot win with your usual style of play. In such a case, try something else by all means, but don’t do so until your own game has been fairly tried.
If you are winning, be still more careful to hold to the same game. One often sees a player at forty-love serve fast twice or try a slashing stroke or two. It was not by such play that he reached forty-love. If he keeps to his game he ought to win one stroke in the next three, but who knows what may happen if he tries experiments?
The same thing is done at four games-love, at five games to one or two, or at any such score, and the player who is ahead is often justly rewarded by losing the set.
Another player will be tempted in the opposite way. He gets a good lead, and, to make sure of the set, begins to play a very cautious game. The moment he does so he is playing a weaker game. His real game gave him his lead, but that does not show that he can hold his advantage unless he plays as well as he has been playing.