Lawn Tennis for Ladies by Mrs. Lambert Chambers
page 64 of 82 (78%)
page 64 of 82 (78%)
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It is extraordinary how naïve the general public sometimes are. People
will watch first-class tennis, sitting for hours together perhaps in great discomfort, and yet display a lamentable want of knowledge about the game. In fact, to many its object is a mystery! This seems hardly possible, but it is quite true. I once overheard a lady who was watching a match in the centre court at Wimbledon remark, "There, that's the very first time that man has hit the net with the ball, and he has had hundreds of tries!" I thought the man mentioned must be playing pretty good tennis! One really wonders why these onlookers spend so much time round a court, or where the pleasure can come in for them. At a garden party not so very long ago where tennis was on the programme, the visitors, arriving on the court, found one solitary ball, tied round with a long piece of string, the other end being attached to the net. To a natural inquiry the hostess replied, "Oh, they lost so many balls in the shrubbery last year, I really couldn't afford it, and thought of this plan. It has been most successful. This ball has lasted for ages!" Another lady at Eastbourne, whom I had noticed because she never left her seat, bringing her lunch with her so as not to lose a moment's play, asked me at the end of the week, while watching a double, whether the partners were side by side or opposite, as in bridge! One of the most rooted mistakes in the public mind is that the first-class player is a professional. Many times people have said to me, "You must be making quite a nice bit of pocket-money from your tennis." "Making?" I say. "Spending, you mean!"--which always makes them stare in amazement. This fallacy annoys me very much, and is, I find, very common. Let me take the opportunity here of pointing out that there are no professional lawn tennis players excepting a few coaches at Queen's Club, London, and at some of the clubs abroad; these men, of course, |
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