but there is no difference in the game itself corresponding to these varieties of court.
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| Fig. 1. | Fig. 2. |
The lawn-tennis court for the single-handed game, one player against one (“singles”), is shown in fig. 1, and that for the four-handed game (“doubles”) in fig. 2. The net stretched across the middle of the court is attached to the tops of two posts which stand 3 ft. outside the court on each side. The height of the net is 3 ft. 6 in. at the posts and 3 ft. at the centre. The court is bisected longitudinally by the half-court-line, which, however, is marked only between the two service-lines and at the points of junction with the base-lines. The divisions of the court on each side of the half-court-line are called respectively the right-hand and left-hand courts; and the portion of these divisions between the service-lines and the net are the right-hand service-court and left-hand service-court respectively. The balls, which are made of hollow india-rubber, tightly covered with white flannel, are 212 in. in diameter, and from 178 to 2 oz. in weight. The racquets (fig. 3), for which there are no regulation dimensions, are broader and lighter than those used in tennis.
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| Fig. 3. |
Before play begins, a racquet is spun as in tennis, and the winner of the spin elects either to take first service or to take choice of courts. If he takes choice of courts, he and his partner (if the game be doubles) take their position on the selected side of the net, one stationing himself in the right-hand court and the other in the left, which positions are retained throughout the set. If the winner of the spin takes choice of courts, his opponent has first service; and vice versa. The players change sides of the net at the end of the first, third and every subsequent alternate game, and at the end of each set; but they may agree not to change during any set except the last. Service is delivered by each player in turn, who retains it for one game irrespective of the winning or losing of points. In doubles the partner of the server in the first game serves in the third, and the partner of the server in the second game serves in the fourth; the same order being preserved till the end of the set; but each pair of partners decide for themselves before their first turn of service which of the two shall serve first. The server delivers the service from the right- and left-hand courts alternately, beginning in each of his service games from the right-hand court, even though odds be given or owed; he must stand behind (i.e. farther from the net than) the base-line, and must serve the ball so that it drops in the opponent’s service-court diagonally opposite to the court served from, or upon one of the lines enclosing that service-court. If in a serve, otherwise good, the ball touches the net, it is a “let” whether the serve be “taken” or not by striker-out; a “let” does not annul a previous “fault.” (For the meaning of “let,” “rest,” “striker-out” and other technical terms used in the game, see Tennis and Racquets.) The serve is a fault (1) if it be not delivered by the server from the proper court, and from behind the base-line; (2) if the ball drops into the net or out-of-court, or into any part of the court other than the proper service-court. The striker-out cannot, as in racquets, “take,” and thereby condone, a fault. When a fault has been served, the server must serve again from the same court, unless it was a fault because served from the wrong court, in which case the server crosses to the proper court before serving again. Two consecutive faults score a point against the side of the server. Lawn-tennis differs from tennis and racquets in that the service may not be taken on the volley by striker-out. After the serve has been returned the play proceeds until the “rest” (or “rally”) ends by one side or the other failing to make a “good return”; a good return in lawn-tennis meaning a stroke by which the ball, having been hit with the racquet before its second bound, is sent over the net, even if it touches the net, so as to fall within the limits of the court on the opposite side. A point is scored by the player, or side, whose opponent fails to return the serve or to make a good return in the rest. A player also loses a point if the ball when in play touches him or his partner, or their clothes; or if he or his racquet touches the net or any of its supports while the ball is in play; or if he leaps over the net to avoid touching it; or if he volley the ball before it has passed the net.
For him who would excel in lawn-tennis a strong fast service is hardly less necessary than a heavily “cut” service to the tennis player and the racquet player. High overhand service, by which alone any great pace can be obtained, was first perfected by the brothers Renshaw between 1880 and 1890, and is now universal even among players far below the first rank. The service in vogue among the best players in America, and from this circumstance known as the “American service,” has less pace than the English but is “cut” in such a way that it swerves in the air and “drags” off the ground, the advantage being that it gives the server more time to “run in” after his serve, so as to volley his opponent’s return from a position within a yard or two of the net. Both in singles and doubles the best players often make it their aim to get up comparatively near the net as soon as possible, whether they are serving or receiving the serve, the object being to volley the ball whenever possible before it begins to fall. The server’s partner, in doubles, stands about a yard and a half from the net, and rather nearer the side-line than the half-court-line; the receiver of the service, not being allowed to volley the serve, must take his stand according to the nature of the service, which, if very fast, will require him to stand outside the base-line; the receiver’s partner usually stands between the net and the service-line. All four players, if the rest lasts beyond a stroke or two, are generally found nearer to the net than the service-lines; and the game, assuming the players to be of the championship class, consists chiefly of rapid low volleying, varied by attempts on one side or the other to place the ball out of the opponents’ reach by “lobbing” it over their heads into the back part of the court. Good “lobbing” demands great skill, to avoid on the one hand sending the ball out of court beyond the base-line, and on the other allowing it to drop short enough for the adversary to kill it with a “smashing” volley. Of “lobbing” it has been laid down by the brothers Doherty that “the higher it is the better, so long as the length is good”; and as regards returning lobs the same authorities say, “you must get them if you can before they drop, for it is usually fatal to let them drop when playing against a good pair.” The reason for this is that if the lob be allowed to drop before being returned, so much time is given to the striker of it to gain position that he is almost certain to be able to kill the return, unless the lob be returned by an equally good and very high lob, dropping within a foot or so of the base-line in the opposite court, a stroke that requires the utmost accuracy of strength to accomplish safely. The game in the hands of first-class players consists largely in manœuvring for favourable position in the court while driving the opponent into a less favourable position on his side of the net; the player who gains the advantage of position in this way being generally able to finish the rest by a smashing volley impossible to return. Ability to play this “smash” stroke is essential to strong lawn-tennis. “To be good overhead,” say the Dohertys, “is the sign of a first-class player, even if a few have managed to get on without it.” The smash stroke is played very much in the same way as the overhand service, except that it is not from a defined position of known distance from the net; and therefore when making it the player must realize almost instinctively what his precise position is in relation to the net and the side-lines, for it is of the last importance that he should not take his eye off the ball “even for the hundredth part of a second.” By drawing the racquet across the ball at the moment of impact spin may be imparted to it as in tennis, or as “side” is imparted to a billiard ball, and the direction of this spin
