Attack and Defense

The right shot at the right time has swung many a match. A chain is as strong as its weakest link--and no stronger. In these days of modern tennis a player is as strong as his weakest stroke. The old days of the one-stroke player, the lop-sided game, are gone forever. Today to reach the top a player must have everything. Therefore I turn to the vital question of the use of strokes. Many a great match is won because the victor used the right stroke at the right time; and, conversely, many a championship has been lost by the player who picked the wrong stroke in the pinch. The most beautiful stroke, from a technical standpoint, is useless if it is hit to the wrong place at the wrong time, while often a sloppy-looking shot, to the right place in the court at the critical period, has swung defeat to victory. One could cite hundreds of cases where one shot in the pinch won or lost a match, but the point which I am about to take up is not merely the one shot at the key psychological moment, but the question of the correct shots to play throughout...