I played my first match against J. C. Parke at Wimbledon in 1920.
The time before that I had been on the court with him was at
Germantown Cricket Club in 1911, when I acted as ball-boy in the
Davis Cup between him and W. A. Larned. The Junior members of the
club, sons of the members, used to consider it a great honour to
act as ball-boy in these matches, and worked every means to be
picked. I picked up much tennis in those days, for I have worked
at the ball-boy position for Parke, Crawley, Dixon, Larned,
Wright, and Ward.
CHAPTER IX. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SINGLES AND DOUBLES
Singles, the greatest strain in tennis, is the game for two
players. It is in this phase of the game that the personal
equation reaches its crest of importance. This is the game of
individual effort, mental and physical.
A hard 5-set singles match is the greatest strain on the body and
nervous system of any form of sport. Richard Harte and L. C.
Wister, the former a famous Harvard University football and
baseball player, the latter a football star at Princeton, both of
whom are famous tennis players, have told me that a close 5-set
tennis match was far more wearing on them than the biggest
football game they had ever played.
Singles is a game of daring, dash, speed of foot and stroke. It
is a game of chance far more than doubles. Since you have no
partner dependent upon you, you can afford to risk error for the
possibility of speedy victory.
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