Lawn Tennis and How to Play It

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 268, 2 February 1928, Page 7

Lawn Tennis and How to Play It

By RENE LACOSTE XVII. CONDITIONS OF PLAY (Exclusive to The Sun.) You can play lawn tennis on grass, on wood, on sand (en tout cas), on asphalt, on concrete, and on many other surfaces. Each produces different play. Not only that, but the same surface in different atmospheres will make for different play. The game will be changed by different balls, by playing with a new racket. Playing the same strokes, the external conditions will make them different in their effect of pace and speed, in the bounce of the ball, in spin. And it is in that constant variety that lies the spice of the game. It is always difficult to choose a racket which exactly suits your physical capabilities, your strokes, the speed, pace and spin which you want to impart to the ball. There are so many things to consider: the handle, the strings, the weight, and so on. CHOOSING A RACKET The size of the handle is a matter merely for your personal convenience. Have it neither too large nor too small. Personally I like a rather large handle, cut nearly square. A large handle is good for hard hitting, but a small one is better to get accuracy and for motions of the wrist. The weight of the racket must be considered more carefully. A heavy racket, particularly with the weight in the head, will add momentum to your stroke, as it does to that of Gobert and Johnston. On the other hand, you will find a heavy racket tiring to the arm and inclined to make your arm motions slower; you will be able to swing a lighter racket more easily and more quickly in volleying and in playing very fast strokes. Some very strong players, who could use a very heavy racket without tiring, prefer to play with a light racket with its weight in the handle, on the ground that what they lose in power they gain in time. Patterson, a wonderful athlete who is nevertheless rather slow, uses a very light racket, and Tilden also uses one that is not heavy. You must see to the stringing of your racket, findng the degree of tightness which best joins good control with spegd. A racket very tightly strung with thick gut will make your strokes slower; on the other hand, loose stringing will sacrifice control and —if it is very loose—speed also. The best rackets are strung very tightly, but with very fine gut. You must adapt this question of stringing to your own play; if you rely on your muscles and the speed of your swing, you will need tight strings, but if you play with a shorter swing and with your wrist, the strings should be looser. The rougher the striking surface, the more spin you will get, and a rough surface means comparatively loose strings. Then again, the heat of the day will loosen the strings, while cold will tighten them. BALLS AND COURTS To-day there are but slight differences in the various kinds of balls. Those of England, France and America are almost identical. In the same conditions they will fly and bounce in the same way; but the bounce will be altered by surface and by atmosphere. On a hot day the ball seems much ligther on the racket and bounces much higher than when it is cold. A few degrees on the thermometer will make an appreciable change in two identical balls —and indeed many unexpected defeats have resulted from this effect on the balls of a sudden change of temperature. I have often found that after playing in the heat with success, rain lias fallen in the night and the low bouncing of the balls has upset my timing. The better you are and the more accurate your play, the more you will feel accustomed to certain weather conditions and the more sudden change will affect your play. The weather, of course, will have less effect on a covered court. Even, there, however, the bounce of the ball can be affected. I remember that many times, after playing well in covered tournaments, I have gone to pieces in the final—the reason being that the ball bounced differently owing to the rise in temperature which resulted from the presence of a much larger crowd at the finals than at any other matches! Of three surfaces of play, wood, turf and sand, wood is the fastest, the ball there sliding at terrific speed; turf comes next, the ball bouncing low and short, and allowing the players very little time to reach it; and the “sand” hard courts coming last with a ball that bounces higher and more vertically, giving the players more time. SPEED AND PACE Most authorities distinguish between the speed of the ball through the air and its pace after the bounce. I think that if two balls, no matter how they have been struck, travel through the air with the same speed and carry the same spin, and bounce on the same surface, they will bounce in the same way with the same “pace.” The difference in bounce of equal balls come rather from difference in speed. Generally speaking, a straight shot is not only fastest in the air. but also fastest after its bounce. Spin always lessens speed and pace but not always in the same way. Top spin lessens pace more than speed, while undercutting lessens speed more than pace. This is simply because top spin is not so much destroyed by the impact with the ground. You must learn both to use spin and to meet it. Just as you get the most spin off a rough racket surface, so you will also get more accentuated spin on a roughened surface, speed being absorbed and the spin appearing in a change of direction. When you are playing on wood, hit hard and straight, for spin, while it will not alter the bounce, will sacrifice speed and pace. On turf, however, you should use spin, carrying your straight strokes with it. On sand, which is a smoother than turf, but rougher than wood, you. should use top spin to increase the height of the bounce, rather than undercut. Generally speaking, straight strokes are the best on every surface, but for variation you should use undercut spin on grass and top spin on hard courts. Yet on every kind of surface, spin is necessary in service for the sake of control. The American slice service is chiefly effective on grass. Finally, although changing conditions of play are worrying and difficult, you may appreciate that it is the test of the really great player to be able to triumph over that worry, over those difficulties. He has not only to fight difficulties, but always to increase the efficiency of his play. (Next Week; Tactics.)