IN THE WIND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 534, 11 December 1928, Page 16

IN THE WIND

Points for Players LOBBING AND SERVICE Every player has to be his own | tactician in a wind —the sort which sometimes sweeps across Auckland, but is usually reserved for Wellington—but u few points, culled from an exchange, may bo useful. Says a tennis writer: “In very windy weather it is little use trying to serve a fast serve against a strong head wind. Don’t try to overcome the wind. It must have its effect on the pace of your ball. A head wind or a side wind greatly enhances the effect of spin imparted to a ball. It is easy to make your service swerve with the aid of the wind. Rely, therefore, on the help you get from the wind and on swerve and spin on your service, above all remembering the cardinal rule of serving: ‘Make your opponent move to take your service.* “In a high wind smashing is terribly difficult even for a Patterson, and in the ranks of the players for whom I am writing even ‘penny Pattersons’ are scarce. Never does lobbing pay so well as in a wind. USING THE BREEZE “Remember, too. that with a cross wind on one side of the court you can rely on the wind counteracting the tendency of the ball to go out or even on its bringing back into court one already beyond the line. Play to that wing. “Remember, if you play a shot with much cut or underspin, that it has a great tendency to rise in the air or hang, an easy victim for a determined, crisp volleyer, a deadly trap for a man who just blocks or pushes his volleys. “Remember that a ball hit with top spin tends to drive more quickly than usual, and that you can hit your top spin drive like —well, like anything—and yet keep it in. “Remember that though, when playing with a strong wind behind you, your drives go out over the back line, your smashes seem to have a tendency to And the bottom of the net. That Is because as the ball comes down it is blowing forward of you and your stroke goes too much on top of it.”