Playing A Tennis Player

William T. Tilden II

Unfortunately for defending title holders and aspiring champions, every man you play is not Old Jo Gettem or Young Pete Swattem, those examples of typical opponents we have previously described. (Click Here) Some of them are Tennis Players. These are men who either force you to learn something about combined attack and defense, or else place you quietly in the discards of the Also Rans.

Let me outline my method of playing a Tennis Player, in contrast to meeting Old Jo or Young Pete. My first rule is "Take the offensive at the earliest possible moment." If you are serving you should attack with an aggressive service. If you are receiving, you should strive to make your first return sufficiently aggressive to force your opponent into defense. There is only one thing worse than handing over the attack to your opponent and that is an unforced error. Therefore I qualify my statement concerning returning service to make it read, sufficiently aggressive to force your opponent into defense, provided first you are certain to put the ball into play.

Since most points in tennis are lost by errors and not won by earned points--and I mean in average tournament tennis--I find it impossible to overstress the slogan: "Put the ball in play." Therefore, if your opponent's shot is sufficiently difficult to give you the choice of a likely error in attempting an aggressive stroke, or of putting a defensive shot into play, I advocate putting the defensive shot in play.

My only variations of this rule are when your opponent has perfect net position, or when you are thrown hopelessly out of position to make a difficult recovery, with little chance to come back into court and play the next return. In these two cases I say take a chance on an offensive shot to win outright. The only defensive shot worth anything under these two cases is a very high lob that will provide you time to come back to court, and this is so difficult to make that I advocate the attempt at a winner.

Few players realize the value of the shots you miss in the pinch. They can have just as distinct and definite a value as the ones you make. Many a missed stroke at one time, wins another point later by its effect on your opponent. Let me explain what I mean. Your opponent draws you far out of court with a short shot angled to your forehand. He expects a defensive lob or at best a floating return down the centre of the court. You drive it hard. It hits the tape of the net and fails to go over, or it goes over but over the baseline by a few inches. An error and a lost point--but its near-success may shake your opponent, who next time will come in not quite so confidently, wondering if this time you will make that shot. The result is often that if you now put up a lob or a high cross-court return the net man is caught off balance, because he was watching for the shot you almost made the previous time.

Just as I strive to break my opponent's confidence by making, or almost making, the shots that he does not believe I can reach, so also I would rather destroy his confidence by forcing him into error than by winning outright myself. Nothing destroys a man's confidence, breaks up his game, and ruins his fighting spirit like errors. The more shots he misses, the more he worries and, ultimately, the worse he plays. That is why so many players are said to be "off their game" against me. I set out to put them "off their game."

A good tennis player plays matches just as well as his opponent allows him. A tennis player who knows his game may be "off" one day through accident, injury, or illness, but it is never so over a series of matches. Unless, that is, his opponent puts him "off."

I consider that double faults, missed "sitters" (easy kills) and errors on the return of easy services, are absolutely inexcusable and actually tennis crimes. All great tennis players miss ridiculously easy shots, shots that a "dub" would blush to boot, but the difference between the Champions and others is that the Champions seldom if ever miss in the pinch, while that is the moment the other players break down. In other words, the game of the Champions stiffens under strain while that of the others cracks apart.

Many players who have a sound defense and a good attack never arrive at their best because their judgment is faulty on what shot to use at any given time. The safe and certain shot in the pinch, when the opening is there, is the one to play. Do not take unnecessary chances when an error may spell defeat, but make sure of your victory when it is in your hands.

I have seen players go out and use the wrong tactics throughout an entire match and afterward not know why they lost. One of the most common failings in tactics is the one of overhitting against a player with better average pace than you. We will suppose you are a baseliner playing a baseliner, and that he has a slighter harder drive than you, which he hits you on the first ball. In return, you drive a shade faster than his shot. He drives back with added speed but does not come in to the net. The next shot is the crucial one and, incidentally, is the one on which the mistake in tactics is always made. It is always played even harder than the preceding ones. In nine cases out of ten, it will be missed by the player with the less pace.

The correct way to play the shot is to defend it, either drive it high and slow or, better yet, slice it deep. The reason for this is that your opponent may be fooled by the change of pace, and even if he is not, he is required to make his pace all over again, a thing few hard drivers like. The average hard hitter prefers speed, or at least average standard pace to drive against, and mixed speed, mixed spin, and mixed pace confuse him. The main error of most players is the lack of knowledge of when to defend and when to attack. But some players seem born with this sense.

There is another time when many players are led into the mistake of attack instead of defense. That is when they are being run across the court from corner to corner. The average player will chase back and forth, driving medium pace, mid court drives back almost into the hands of his waiting opponent, who relentlessly runs him on and on. The correct defense is either a high, deep slice or a drive that slows up the pace; or, better yet, a high deep lob. This will allow the chasing player time to return to position and stop running.

The only other alternative is to hit out for a winner off a drive, into one corner or the other, relying on speed and surprise to beat your waiting opponent. The midcourt drive I mentioned first is not defense, because it is too fast; and it is not attack because it is not fast enough. It is neither fish, flesh, nor fowl.

As I said, the slice is the better defensive tactic than the drive against a baseliner who is running you but not forcing the net, because it is slower in flight and, incidentally, requires less effort to make. But just as soon as you find a chance to wrest the offensive from your opponent, discard the slice and drive your way to attacking position.

With the exception of a lob, you cannot defend against a net player; nor can a net player ever defend at the net. Once a player takes the net both men are at once forced into the offensive and must hit for the point at the earliest possible moment.

William Johnston and I play each other from the baseline because we each fear the other's passing shots too much to come to the net indiscriminately. Nevertheless in every point we are sparring for an opening that will allow us to take the offensive and carry it to the net position. I can say that our matches are an example of sound defensive tennis on both sides, with each of us holding an attacking mental viewpoint. That, to my mind, is the ideal type of tennis, ready to attack yet sound in defense.

The first essential of either attack or defense is to learn to keep the ball in play. When your opponent is at net,, it is far better to hit deep and take a chance of putting the shot out than it is to play too short and net the return. There is always the chance your opponent will play a shot that is going out, so give him that chance.

Similarily, I know of no one thing in tennis more wearing to an opponent or that gives you more confidence than to consistently put the ball in play off service.

The return of service is a comparatively simple matter. There are only a few times when anything difficult must be accomplished with the return of service. Naturally, if your opponent is following his service to the net, then something of actual import is demanded. You must either put the ball slow and low at his feet, or fast enough to pass him out of reach as he advances. These are real accomplishments, yet they are seldom demanded because there are few players who force the net behind their service.

There is the even more exceptional player who has one stroke from the baseline, so strong that you dare not let him use it. He forces the receiver to put the return of service away from the strength, again an actual accomplishment. There are only a few such players.

The average player serves and stays back on the baseline. He has no punishing, point-winning stroke. The receiver knows this, yet how often will you see a player net or hit his service return out by trying to do too much with it?

I claim that the receiver should allow himself a margin of at least two feet above the net and place his shot deep but with a margin of several feet inside the baseline to insure safety. It is deep enough to put your opponent on the defensive, yet safe enough to allow for a margin. It is not essential how you hit it there. You should preferably drive it, but it will be just as effective to keep the ball in play if it is hit with a chop, slice, poke or in any other way. The point at stake is to put the ball into your opponent's court. Once the service is put in play then comes the time to jump to attack or to fall back on actual defense--but at least put the ball in play and give yourself a chance.