Morning journal and courier., 1882-07-24
Lawn Tennis in Ensln nd.


 The public have at length come to recog | nize the fact that lawn tennis, besides being | singularly graceful game to look at, is, ! when played by first rate performers, rare exercise of strength, endurance, dexterity, | judgment and temper. No one can hope to stand against the leading champions of lawn tennis without being either bit of an ath lete, or being splendidly and carefully trained that every inch and knot of muscle tells. Your f1abby man must necessarily go down before an antagonist who has rid him. self by regular discipline of all superfuous flesh, whose lungs are in capital condition. and who is as cool in his head as he is sound on his feet. It Is mean test of endurance to play five sets in succession, each of which must consist of six, and may consist of II, or even more games, without so much as pause between any of them. Twenty min utes may be taken as the average length of time set lasts and an hour and 40 minutes, which may easily become two hours, is con- siderable period for hand, eye, body and judgment to be at straining point without intermission. Severe as the game became under the style of playing for 8 time made imperative by the success of the Yorkshire curate, Mir. Hartley, it has become during | the last two years far more trying than un- der that regime. Mir, Hartley used to keep ! his antagonist at the far end of the court, \ and alway returned the ball to the farthest ! point possible, without attempting to make 8 l low, swiftsor difficult stroke, trusting almost entirely to wearing out either his antagonists ! strength or his patience, and to leading h1m ! to make weak an incautious return. No one, however, who combined personal prac tice with close observation could doubt that \ this style of play would be broken down by ] the first man who had sufficient dash-in l other words, one who united great precision ! to unshrinking confidence. The resulo was
 achieved by, MT. Renshaw, who, by dint of \ rushing up and volleying sharps, simply
 broke down MT. Hartley's guard and knock
 ed him out of time. This year, so far, we
 have seen the consequence of this striking
 triumph Mir. Wodehouse, Mir. Lubbock and \ Mir. Lawford having one and all of them be-
 taken themselves, more or less, to tLis dan l gerous, but, if we'll executed, effective re
 source of quick and close volleying.
 ! It is not often that dash is found united ! with coolness and strength, but we entertain I no doubt that even if two of these qualities ! could be associated in the same person he
 would bear away the ball over the most cir ! cumspect player; It is an excellent lesson,
 however, to the ordinary amateur to watch
 the extreme reluctance with which these pro
 fessional champions resort to risky" strokes The best amateurs are the men who send al
 once the lowest and the swiftest balls, with 6 ! certain amount of twist side on and ii ! stands to reason that the players who at tempt this difficult feat at every ! stroke will often send the | ball either into the net out of court. An inch too low produces the first result; ar inch too high produces the second Mer 3 who play to win, not merely to play, cannot
 afford to ''shave' their strokes so close as
 this, and therefore the strokes of profession als will never get so low as that of the bril- liant, reckless amateur. Still we suspect
 that as time goes on there will be tenden cy in this direction.