Player style in tennis arises from innate nature and background and is expressed through motor patterns and shot selection. Style develops from cumulative small decisions: racket grip, second-serve philosophy, baseline patrolling or net rushing. Deliberateness in personality yields deliberateness in play, with traits becoming evident after thousands of hours of practice. Rival opponents are necessary to reveal and define a player's unique style. Contrasting identities, such as differing racial or political backgrounds, can manifest in shot choices and match conduct. Sports fandom often projects ethical or regional meanings onto teams and players, and one-on-one tennis uniquely invites character interpretations without teammates to diffuse accountability.
Your style is an expression of your innate self, a product of small decisions, such as the way you hold your racket, your second-serve philosophy, your tendency to patrol the baseline or rush the net. "If he is deliberate," McPhee continues, "he is a deliberate tennis player," just as a flamboyant person plays flamboyantly; these self-discoveries emerge over thousands of hours of practice.
McPhee was focussing on a single match during the 1968 U.S. Open, between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner, exploring how these young players' contrasting identities-Black vs. white, liberal vs. conservative-manifested in each shot. It's an alluring habit of sportswriters and fans to try to turn fandom into something ethical: we want the teams to embody the places they represent, and for the players' decisions to say something about our own identities.
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