Note. Players may agree not to play advantage sets, but to decide the set by one game after arriving at the score of games-all.
Odds. In the year 1888, bisques—which had been borrowed from tennis—were abolished. A bisque is one stroke which may be claimed at any time during a set. The principal disadvantage of this system lay in the difficulty of employing it judiciously, thereby causing a certain mental strain, possibly injurious to the player's form. The bisque gave place to the "quarter" and the "perfect" systems, which in their turn were superseded by the "sixth system" in 1894, now in universal use. Roughly, the sixth system of handicapping is to receive odds of one, two, three, four, or five strokes in every six games of a set; each given stroke being respectively described as one-sixth, two-sixths, three-sixths, four-sixths, five-sixths, fifteen. For complete and detailed tables of the system of handicapping, the reader is referred to the handbook of the Lawn-Tennis Association.
On the subject of suitable clothing much might be written. For any form of outdoor exercise, the two chief requisites of costume are warmth and lightness. A thin flannel shirt is more useful than anything, worn with a short light skirt. I have seen such terrible and distressing results arise from the wearing of skirts which, though short in front, dropped at the back that I cannot too strongly emphasise the need for all-round shortness; loss of temper and dignity being among the lesser evils accruing from neglect of this particular. The shoes worn should be strong and serviceable, usefulness never being allowed to give way to the merely ornamental; but now-a-days it is an easy matter to combine the two qualities. For play in damp weather it is permissible to wear shoes with a leather sole into which short nails, known as steel points, are fitted. These are allowed on all grounds. In the matter of hats a straw sailor with a widish brim is the most workmanlike form of head gear possible. It is perhaps scarcely necessary to add that perfect looseness of every garment is a sine quâ non for the freedom of movement necessary in lawn-tennis.
Figure A.
UNDER-HAND SERVICE.
Good form is as much an essential in the pursuit of any sport or pastime as it is in the manners and usages of polite society, and the cultivation of style is not an achievement purely confined to the wayfarer in the paths of literature. In lawn-tennis, as in everything else, a good beginning makes a good noontide; and really, when one comes to think about it, it is as easy to learn well as badly. Therefore it is never advisable for a beginner to be content with another beginner as her opponent. No doubt a certain diffidence may be felt by the inexperienced player in throwing down the gauntlet to a more practised hand, because of the lack of interest and excitement for the latter in the game. But this consideration should never be allowed to deter the seizing of an opportunity of playing against an opponent from whom something may be learnt. There are plenty of good-natured people in the world, and an ounce of practical demonstration, is worth a ton's weight of written explanation as to the different actions necessary for playing the varied strokes, which go to compose the game of lawn-tennis.
Service. Like everything else worth having, a good service is extremely difficult to acquire. It is always best to ascertain by experiment and observation what particular style of service would seem most within one's power of attainment, and this style should be kept to. There is nothing more detrimental to good play than indecision or constant change of form. Experiments, though doubtless necessary at first, should be discontinued as soon as possible.
The majority of ladies, for a variety of reasons, prefer to serve underhand. Miss L. Dod, in her able contribution in the Badminton Library, is of the opinion that unless in exceptional cases, overhand service tends merely to a waste of strength without making the stroke more difficult to take than the ordinary underhand service.[8] In the face of such competent authority it would be fatuous to advance a contrary opinion; but if any special aptitude is felt for the overhand service, it will probably be found easier to practice with success than the underhand.
The server should stand either in the middle of the base-line, or a few feet to the right or left of it, though she is at liberty to take up any position on the base-line that she chooses. According to Law 7 of the game: "The server should stand with one foot beyond—i.e., further from the net than—the base-line, and with the other foot upon the base-line, and shall deliver the service from the right and left courts alternately, beginning from the right. This law is of great importance and should never, even in the most ordinary play, be disregarded. For the underhand service, the body should be slightly bent and the racket swung well up. I have seen the swing carried high above the right shoulder, the ball being dropped in front of the racket as it arrives near the middle of the downward stroke (Fig. A). In the overhand service, the body should be inclined somewhat backward, and the racket brought well above the head (as in Fig. B) to obtain the utmost possible reach. The ball is held somewhat below the level of the left shoulder, and thrown gently in front of the descending racket. Before a great degree of swiftness is attempted in either of these two services, accuracy should be ensured. In fact a well-known saying might be profitably adapted for the use of lawn-tennis players, both proficient and non-proficient: "Take care of accuracy, and brilliancy will take care of itself."