September 2003
There exist such distinct levels of the game that what is played by a beginner is, in a way, entirely different from what is played by someone competing for prize money. The novice player is satisfied just to make contact. Maintaining a simple rally defines the next level. Slicing a serve and employing lobs that are offensive and defensive are plays of the intermediate player. When one can maintain depth from the baseline and also take quick advantage of a short ball, he's indisputably an advanced player (although most anyone who plays tournaments call themselves advanced). Making first serves on crucial points, and regularly putting away easy shots (such a misnomer) puts a player in the category of money winner.
One of the beginner's first confidence builders is when they master the scoring system. It's no small thing when they know which court to serve into when the score is 15-30. About this time they get an inkling into the quirky nature of the sport.
Although it seems more about picking up balls than playing, a weekly tussle with a reliable friend is of great value. Additional instruction would seem more needful and will speed up the learning process, but many lessons are learned through trial and error. Many things are learned through trial and error. With neither player knowing where the ball is going, or coming, mistakes are free-flowing (and laughable, especially when one executes the beginner's most common blunder: volleying, and missing, from behind the baseline.
Certainly tennis can make a person feel silly. After missing a shot he shouldn't have tried in the first place, the player questions his intelligence. But, in his defense, he isn't dumb as much as untrained and inexperienced.