The hard-hitting, erratic, net-rushing player is a creature of impulse. There is no real strategy to his/her game, no comprehension of your game. He will make brilliant coups on the spur of the moment, largely by instinct; but there is no, mental power of consistent thinking. It is an interesting sort of character.

The really dangerous player is the one who mixes his/her style from back to fore court at the direction of an ever-alert mind. This/her is the player to study and learn from. He is a player with a definite intention. A player who has an answer to every problem you present him in your game. He is the most subtle opponent in the world of tennis. He is from the school of Brookes. Second only to him is the player of dogged determination that sets his/her mind on one plan and adheres to it, bitterly, fiercely battling to the end, with never a thought of change.

This is the player whose psychology is fairly easy to understand, but whose mental viewpoint is hard to derail, because he never allows himself to think about anything but his game. This/her player is your Johnston or your Wilding. I respect the mental capacity of Brookes more, but I admire the tenacity of purpose of Johnston.

Choose your sort from your own mental pattern, and then work out your game along the lines best suited to you. When two men are in the same class as regards stroke and equipment, the determining factor in any given match is the mental standpoint. Luck, so-called, is often grasping the psychological advantage of a break in the game, and turning it to your own advantage. We hear a lot about the “shots players have made.” Few realize the importance of the “shots players have missed.”

The science of missing shots is just as important as that of making them, and at times a miss by an inch is of more value than a return that is killed by your opponent. Let me explain. A player forces you far out of court with an angle-shot. You run hard to it, and getting there, drive it hard and fast down the side-line, missing it by an inch. Your opponent is shocked and put off his stride, realizing that your shot might just as well have gone in as out. He will expect you to try it again and he will not take the risk next time. He will try to play the ball, and may make an error. You have thus taken some of your opponent’s confidence, and increased his/her chance of error: all this by a miss.

If you had just popped back that ball, and it had been killed, your opponent would have felt increasingly confident of your inability to put the ball out of his/her reach, while you would merely have been winded without result.

Let’s suppose that you had succeeded with that shot down the sideline. It was a seemingly impossible get. First it amounts to TWO points, because it took one away from your opponent that should have been his/her and gave you one that you should never have had. Second it also worries your opponent, as he thinks that he has lost a big chance.

The psychology involved in a tennis match is fascinating, but readily understood. Both men begin with equal chances. Once one player establishes a real advantage, his/her confidence rises, while his/her opponent worries, and his/her mental viewpoint becomes poor. The sole objective of the first player is to hold his/her lead, thereby maintaining his/her confidence.

If the second player pulls even or draws ahead, the inevitable reaction is an even greater contrast in psychology. There is the natural confidence of the leader, but boosted by the great stimulus of having turned a seemingly sure-fire defeat into a probable victory. The case of the other player is the reverse. He is likely to lose confidence and play worse. The breakdown of his game plan will be the result.