Singles, the best strain in tennis, is the game for 2 players. It is in this part of the game the private equation reaches its crest of significance.
This is the game of individual effort, psychological and physical.
A hard 5-set singles match is the best stress on the body and nervous system of any sort of sport. Singles is a game of daring, dash, speed of foot and stroke. It’s a game of luck much more than doubles. Since you haven’t any partner dependent on you, you are able to afford to chance blunder for the chance of rapid victory. Much of what I wrote under match play is more for singles than doubles, yet let me call your attention to certain affectations of singles from the perspective of the beholder. Singles brings 2 folks into close and active relations that show the quirks of each player much more acutely than doubles. The observer is in the position of a person watching an insect under a microscope.
The liberty of restraint felt on a single court is in marked contrast to the necessity for team work in doubles. Go out for your shot in singles whenever there’s a reasonable chance of getting it. Hit harder at every point in singles than in doubles, for you’ve got more chance of scoring and can take more risk. Singles is a game of the imagination, doubles a science of precise angles. It is just as vital to play to your better half in tennis as in bridge. Each time you are making a stroke you should do it with a definite plan to avoid putting your partner in difficulty.
The keynote of doubles success is team work ; not individual brilliancy. There’s a specific kind of team work dependent wholly on individual brilliancy. Where both players are in the same class, a team is as robust as its weakest player at any given point, for here it is even team work with an equal division of the court that should be the strategy of play. In the case of one strong player and one weaker player, the team is as good as the robust player can make it by defending and protecting the weaker. This pair should develop its team work on the individual brilliancy of the stronger man. The 1st essential of doubles play is to PUT the ball in play. A double fault is bad in singles, but it is inexcusable in doubles. After that it should be low and to the server coming in.
Don’t attempt for clean aces in doubles till you’ve got the opening. Remember that to pass 2 men is a hard task.
The net is the last place in the court to play the doubles game, and you should generally attempt to accomplish the net position. I have a belief in always trying[*(*]for the kill when you see a genuine opening. “Poach” ( go for a shot which isn’t truly on your side of the court ) when you see an opportunity to score. It’s a win or nothing shot since it opens your entire court. If you are missing badly don’t poach, as it is awfully disconcerting to your better half. The issue of covering a doubles court shouldn’t be a significant one. With all blokes attempting to reach the net all of the time each shot should be built up with that concept. When the ball goes toward the side-line the net player on that side goes in close and toward the line. His partner falls a touch back and to the centre of the court, thus covering the shot between the men. If the following return goes to the opposite side, the 2 men reverse positions. The concept of court covering is 2 sides of a triangle, with the angle in the centre and the 2 sides running to the side-lines and in the direction of the net. Each man should cover overhead balls over his very own head, and hit them in the air whenever it’s possible, since to permit them to drop gives the net to the other team. The one time for the partner to offer protection to the overhead is when the net man “poaches,” is outguessed, and the ball tossed over his head. Then the server covers and attempts for a kill instantly.
Always be in a position to look after your partner, but don’t take shots over his head unless he calls for you to, or you see a certain kill.
Then say “Mine,” step in and hit decisively. I only offer general rules that may be altered to meet the wishes of the people. Use the pitch as a defence, and to give time to extricate yourself and your better half from a bad position.
The value of service in doubles can’t be too strongly stressed since it gives the net to the server. To lose service is an unpardonable sin in firstclass doubles. All shots in doubles should be low or terribly high. Don’t hit shoulder-high as it is too simple to kill. Each shot you make should be made with a definite concept of opening the court. Hit down the centre to interrupt the team work of the away team ; but hit to the side-lines for your aces. Pick one man, ideally the weaker of your opponents, and centre your attack on him and keep it there. Pound him unmercifully, and in time he should crack under the assault.
It is extremely dumb to alternate attack, since it simply puts both men on their game and tires neither. If your better half starts badly play safely and certainly till he rounds to form. He does the best he can, and fighting with him does little good.
A team that is fighting among themselves has little time left to play tennis, and after all tennis is the main object of doubles.
Offer recommendations to your partner at any point in a match ; but don’t insist on his following them, and don’t get peevish if he does not. He simply does not agree with you, and he might be right. It is policy of attack not kind of stroke the leader should determine. He deserves to be a person you like and wish to play with, and he should need to play with you. His style shouldn’t be too almost your own, since you double the faults without significantly inflating the virtues.