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The hard-hitting, unpredictable, net-rushing tennis-player is a person of impulse. There is no real system to his/her game, no understanding of your game-plan. He will make brilliant rallies on the spur of the moment, largely by instinct; but there is no, no consistent thinking. It is an interesting type of character.

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

He is the player whose psychology is rather simple to understand, but whose mental viewpoint is difficult to upset, because he never permits himself to think about anything but the business at hand. This/her player is your Johnston or your Wilding. I respect the intelligence of Brookes more, but I admire the tenacity of purpose of Johnston.

Pick out your type from your own mental processes, and then plan 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 viewpoint. Luck, so-called, is often seizing the psychological value of a change of flow in the game, and turning it to your own account. We hear a lot about the “shots players have made.” Few understand the importance of the “shots players have missed.”

The science of missing shots is just as vital 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 surprised and put off his stride, understanding that your shot might just as well have gone in as out. He will expect you to try it again and he will not risk it 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 tapped back that ball, and it had been killed, your opponent would have felt increasingly confident of your inability to get the ball out of his/her reach, while you would merely have been winded for no reason.

Let’s just say that you had made that shot down the sideline. It was an apparently impossible achievement. First it amounts to TWO points, because it stole 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, because he feels that he has thrown away a big opportunity.

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

If the second player draws even or pulls ahead, the inevitable reaction is an even more drastic contrast in psychology of the players. First, there is the natural confidence of the leader of the game, but it is coupled with the great stimulus of having turned a seemingly inevitable defeat into a likely 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 soon follows.

If you are interested in the psychology of tennis, you should visit our website entitled Tennis Tips for Beginners