Part 10 (1/2)
What has been the actual tendency in the last decade? In America the hard courts erected have been approximately nine to one gra.s.s. America is rapidly become a hard-court country. France is entirely on a hard-court basis; there are no gra.s.s courts at all.
Play in South Africa is entirely on hard courts. Australia and the British Isles have successfully repelled the hard-court invasion thus far, although during the past two years the number of hard courts put up in England has exceeded gra.s.s.
The en-tout-cas court of peculiar red surface is the most popular composition in England and the Continent.
There seems little doubt but that the hard court is the coming surface in the next decade. Gra.s.s will continue to be used for the most important events, but the great majority of the tennis played, exclusive of the champions.h.i.+ps, will be on hard courts.
The result on the game will be one of increasing the value of the ground stroke and partially cutting down the net attack, since the surface of a hard court is slippery and tends to make it hard to reach the net to volley. Thus the natural attack will become a drive and not a volley. Hard-court play speeds up the ground strokes, and makes the game more orthodox.
The installation of hard courts universally should spread tennis rapidly, since it will afford more chance to play over a longer period. The growth of public courts in the parks and the munic.i.p.al play grounds in America has been a big factor in the spread of the game's popularity. Formerly a man or boy had to belong to a club in order to have an opportunity to play tennis.
Now all he needs is a racquet and b.a.l.l.s, and he may play on a public court in his own city. This movement will spread, not only in America but throughout the world. England and France have some public courts; but their systems are not quite as well organized as the American.
The branch of tennis which England and France foster, and in which America is woefully lax, is the indoor game. Unfortunately the majority of the courts abroad have wood surfaces, true but lightning fast. The perfect indoor court should retain its true bound, but slow up the skid of the ball. The most successful surface I have ever played upon is battles.h.i.+p linoleum--the heavy covering used on men-of-war. This gives a true, slightly r.e.t.a.r.ded bound, not unlike a very fast gra.s.s court.
Indoor play in America is sadly crippled by reason of no adequate facilities for play. The so-called National Indoor Champions.h.i.+p is held at the Seventh Regiment Armoury in New York City on a wood floor, with such frightful lighting that it is impossible to play real tennis. The two covered courts at Longwood Club, Boston, are very fine, well lighted, with plenty of s.p.a.ce. There is a magnificent court at Providence, and another at Buffalo.
Utica boasts of another, while there are several fine courts, privately owned, on Long Island. New York City uses the big armouries for indoor play; but the surface and light in these are not fit for real tennis. The Brooklyn Heights Casino has the only adequate court in the Metropolitan district.
Philadelphia and Chicago, cities of enormous populations and great tennis interest, have no courts or facilities for indoor play. This condition must be rectified in America if we wish to keep our supremacy in the tennis world. The French players are remarkable on wood. Gobert is said to be the superior of any player in the world, when playing under good conditions indoors.
The game of tennis is worthy of having all types of play within reach of its devotees. Why should a player drop his sport in October because the weather is cold? Indoor play during the winter means an improvement from season to season. Lack of it is practically stagnation or retrogression.
The future will see a growth of hard-court play the world over.
Gra.s.s must fight to hold its position. Indoor play will come more and more into vogue.
CHAPTER XI. THE PROBABLE FUTURE OF THE GAME
What will be the outcome of the world-wide boom in tennis? Will the game change materially in the coming years? Time, alone, can answer; but with that rashness that seizes one when the opportunity to prophesy arrives and no one is at hand to cry ”Hold, hold,” I dare to submit my views on the coming years in international tennis.
I do not look to see a material change in the playing rules. A revival of the footfault fiend, who desires to handicap the server, is international in character and, like the poor, ”always with us.” The International Federation has practically adopted a footfault rule for 1921 that prohibits the server lifting one foot unless replaced behind the baseline. It is believed this will do away with the terrific services. The only effect I can see from it is to move the server back a few inches, or possibly a foot, while he delivers the same service and follows in with a little more speed of foot. It will not change the game at all.
Sir Oliver Lodge, the eminent scientist, has joined the advocates of but one service per point. This seems so radical and in all so useless, since it entirely kills service as other than a mere formality, and puts it back where it was twenty-five years ago, that I doubt if even the weight of Sir Oliver Lodge's eminent opinion can put it over. To allow one service is to hand the game more fully into the receiver's hands than it now rests in the server's.
The playing rules are adequate in every way, and the perfect accord with which representatives of the various countries meet and play, happily, successfully, and what is more important, annually, is sufficient endors.e.m.e.nt of the fundamental principles. The few slight variations of the different countries are easily learned and work no hards.h.i.+ps on visiting players. Why change a known successful quant.i.ty for an unknown? It seldom pays.
The style of play is now approaching a type which I believe will prove to have a long life. To-day we are beginning to combine the various styles in one man. The champion of the future will necessarily need more equipment than the champion of to-day. The present shows us the forehand driving of Johnston, the service of Murray, the volleying of Richards, the chop of Wallace F.
Johnson, the smash of Patterson, the half volley of Williams, and the back hand of Pell. The future will find the greatest players combining much of these games. It can be done if the player will study. I believe that every leading player in the world in 1950 will have a drive and a chop, fore- and backhand from the baseline. He will use at least two styles of service, since one will not suffice against the stroke of that period. He will be a volleyer who can safely advance to the net, yet his attack will be based on a ground game. He must smash well. In short, I believe that the key to future tennis success lies in variety of stroke. The day of the one-stroke player is pa.s.sing. Each year sees the versatile game striding forward by leaps and bounds.
The future champion of the world must be a man of keen intellect, since psychology is a.s.suming the importance that is its due. He must train earnestly, carefully, and consistently. The day of playing successful tennis and staying up till daybreak is over.
The game is too fast and too severe for that. As compet.i.tion increases the price of success goes up; but its worth increases in a greater ratio, for the man who triumphs in the World's Champions.h.i.+p in 1950 will survive a field of stars beyond our wildest dreams in 1920.
What of the various countries? America should retain her place at or near the top, for the boys we are now developing should not only make great players themselves, but should carry on the work of training the coming generations.
England has but to interest her youth in the game to hold her place with the leaders. I believe it will be done. I look to see great advances made in tennis among the boys in England in the next few years. I believe the game will change to conform more to the modern net attack. England will never be the advanced tennis-playing country that her colonies are, for her whole atmosphere is one of conservatism in sport. Still her game will change. Already a slight modification is at work. The next decade will see a big change coming over the style of English tennis.
The wonderful sporting abilities of the Englishman, his ability to produce his best when seemingly down and out mean that, no matter how low the ebb to which tennis might fall, the inherent abilities of the English athlete would always bring it up. I sound pessimistic about the immediate future. I am not, provided English boyhood is interested in the game.
j.a.pan is the country of the future. There is no more remarkable race of students on the globe than the j.a.panese. They like tennis, and are coming with increasing numbers to our tournaments. They prove themselves sterling sportsmen and remarkable players. I look to see j.a.pan a power in tennis in the next twenty-five years.
France, with her brilliant temperamental unstable people, will always provide interesting players and charming opponents. I do not look to see France materially change her present position--which is one of extreme honour, of great friendliness, and keen compet.i.tion. Her game will not greatly rise, nor will she lose in any way the prestige that is hers.