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It is highly unimaginable that people will not have heard of the French Open tennis championship, because it is a competition which is a regular topic of conversation. In French the name of the competition is ‘Les Internationaux de France de Roland Garros’ or ‘Tournoi de Roland Garros’. This tournament, which lasts for about a fortnight is held in Paris at the Roland Garros Stadium, from which it got its name.

The French Open is one of the most advertised and broadcast sports events in the entire world of sport and many VIPs attend it. The attendees are fanatics who wait with baited breath on every stroke, especially when there is a close struggle between the two players, doing|trying| their best to win. Even TV viewers actually get a feeling of being there live.

The French Open tennis championship comes in second on the annual round of the Grand Slam tournaments and its history stretches back to the year of 1891 when it became an international competition. At that time it was named the ‘International Championship of Tennis of France’ or ‘Championat de France International de Tennis’ in French.

Initially, only players that were registered or licensed in France were allowed to join in this competition, but things took a different turn in 1925, when the French open tennis tournament finally was accessible to international players. Until 1912, the ground the participants used was made of crushed red brick dust. Actually the crushed brick was formed into a sort of red clay that was spread over the ground, which, until then, would have been a grass lawn.

The public’s enthusiasm for the French Open tennis tournament held at the Roland Garros stadium, dates back to a competition fought between the Philadelphia Four (Rene Lacoste, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet and Jacques Brugnon) who won the Davis Cup in 1927. It was the trigger of the desire in the French to defend their cup in future competitions. This new tournament was meant to return home the cup and was held at a stadium named after the World War I ace Roland Garros. The name has stuck since then.

The term ‘open’ was has been used from 1968, when the tournament allowed|was open to| both amateurs and professionals alike who wanted to test their skills at tennis. Since then the French Open tennis tournament has also brought some novelties in terms of prizes.

Beside the usual winners’ prizes, they also award a ‘Prix Orange’ for the most correct and press friendly player, a ‘Prix Citron’ for the player with the strongest personality and a ‘Prix Burgeon’ for the one that turns out to be the revelation of the tennis year.

The hard-hitting, erratic, net-rushing tennis-player is a creature of impulse. There is no real system to his/her game, no comprehension of your game. He will make brilliant coups at the drop of a hat, mostly by instinct; but there is no, mental power of consistent thinking. It is an interesting sort of character.

The really dangerous player is the one who mixes his/her style from back to fore court at the direction of an ever-active mind. This/her is the player to study and learn from. He is a player with a definite purpose. A player who has an answer to every problem you present him in your game. He is the most subtle opponent in the world of tennis. He is from the school of Brookes. Second only to him is the player of dogged determination that sets his/her mind on one plan and adheres to it, bitterly, fiercely fighting to the end, with never a thought of change.

This is the player whose psychology is fairly easy to work out, but whose mental viewpoint is difficult to derail, for he never allows himself to think of anything except his game. This/her player is your Johnston or your Wilding. I respect the intelligence of Brookes more, but I admire the tenacity of purpose of Johnston.

Pick out your kind from your own mental processes, and then plan your game along the lines most suited to you. When two men are in the same class as regards stroke and equipment, the determining factor in any given match is the mental standpoint. Luck, so-called, is often grasping the psychological value of a change of flow in the game, and turning it to your own advantage. We hear a lot about the “shots players have made.” Few realize the importance of the “shots players have missed.”

The science of missing shots is just as vital as that of making them, and at times a miss by an inch is of more value than a return that is killed by your opponent. Allow me to tell you why. A player drives you far out of court with an angle-shot. You run hard to it, and having reached it, you drive it hard and fast down the side-line, missing it by an inch. Your opponent is surprised and put off his stride, knowing that your shot might just as well have gone in as out. He will expect you to try it again and he will not take the risk next time. He will strive to play the ball, and may fall into error. You have thus stolen some of your opponent’s confidence, and increased his/her chance of error, all because of a miss.

If you had merely tapped back that ball, and it had been killed, your opponent would have felt increasingly confident of your inability to get the ball out of his/her reach, while you would merely have been winded for no reason.

Let’s suppose that you made the shot down the sideline. It was an apparently impossible get. First it amounts to TWO points in that it took one away from your opponent that should have been his/her and gave you one you ought never to have had. Second it also upsets your opponent, because he thinks that he has thrown away a big chance.

The psychology of a tennis match is very interesting, but easily understood. Both men begin with equal chances. Once one player establishes a real lead, his/her confidence goes up, while his/her opponent worries, and his/her mental viewpoint becomes weaker. The sole objective of the first player is to hold his/her lead, thus holding his/her confidence.

If the second player draws even or pulls ahead, the inevitable reaction is an even greater contrast in psychology. There is the natural confidence of the leader, but boosted by the great stimulus of having turned a seemingly inevitable defeat into a probable victory. The case of the other player is the reverse. He is likely to lose confidence and play worse. The collapse of his game plan soon follows.

Tennis psychology is the same as understanding the workings of your opponent’s mind, and assessing the effect of your own game on his/her mental viewpoint and also understanding the psychological effects resulting from the different external causes on your own mind.

However, it is also true that you no one can be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding his own mental processes. Therefore, you must study the effect on yourself of the same thing occurring under various circumstances. This is because people react differently in different moods and under different conditions.

You have to realize the effect on your game of the ensuing annoyance, joy, bewilderment, or whatever other form your reaction is. Does it increase your prowess? If so, go for it, but never offer it to your opponent. Does it deprive you of concentration? If so, either remove the cause, but if that isn’t possible, try to ignore it.

Once you have accurately assessed your own reaction to circumstances, observe your opponents in order to determine their characters. Like characters react similarly, and you can judge men of your own sort by yourself. Opposite temperaments you must seek to compare with people whose reactions you know.

Someone who can control his/her own mental processes runs an excellent chance of reading those of another for the mind works along certain lines of thought and can be examined. One can only control one’s own mental processes after carefully studying them.

The regular, unemotional baseline player is seldom a quick thinker. If he was, he would not stay on the baseline. The physical appearance of a player is usually a pretty clear indicator of his/her kind of mind. The stolid, easy-going player, who usually displays the baseline game, does so because he hates to activate up his/her torpid mind to work out a safe strategy of reaching the net.

Then there is the other sort of baseline player, who would rather stay at the back of the court while directing an attack intended to disrupt up your game. He is a very dangerous player and a deep, quick thinking antagonist. He obtains his/her results by changing his/her length and direction and worrying you with the variety of his/her game. This player is a good psychologist.

The first type of player mentioned above merely strikes the ball with little thought about what he is actually doing, while the latter always has a definite plan and sticks to it.