101 reasons why tennis is the best sport in the world: 1. The Hit

Tennis is the best sport ever invented – and our new series sets out to prove it with 101 reasons why.

First up, The Hit…. It’s just the sweet bits of tennis, like eating cream and jam without the scone…

Playing singles tennis matches is, generally, brutally combative. Very often it’s a case of the stronger player discovering the weakness of the other and ruthlessly exploiting it over and over. The odd nature of the scoring system consistently creates cruel, disproportionate scorelines between players of only marginal difference in ability. If you’ve ever been double-bagelled, you’ll know the pain.

But there is a completely different way of playing tennis: the hit. This is tennis without serving or returning, the two most important but stressful shots in match play. It’s just the sweet bits of tennis, like scoffing jam and cream without the scone. It’s tennis without the tightness, the scoreboard pressure. 

You can express yourself, unleash your inner Roger or Serena, play your best tennis. 

A hit is collaborative. If neither player is trying to blast down-the-line winners or sneak in nasty dropshots, then the pair of you can get into the hypnotic, addictive, even sublime rhythm of steady rallying. On a crisp sunny day outdoors, there really is nothing in sport to touch its transcendent joy. 

And it is still recognisably ‘playing tennis’ - much more than, say, kicking a football to and fro with a partner is ‘playing football’. Many tennis club members only ever have weekly hits, and gain enormous fun, fitness and fulfilment from them. 

But there’s a subtlety to a hit that’s hard to describe - it’s like a conversation without words, or perhaps a friendly debate. This is where collaboration becomes more like ‘semi-collaboration’. With an equal partner you can test each other out, joust, push cooperative play right to the edge of competitiveness - hit the ball that little bit harder each time, seeing where the limit is before one of you breaks.

And, dare we mention it, with the appropriate partner a hit can be quite… sexy. Nobody who has read it will forget Andre Agassi’s account in Open of his first hit with Steffi Graf (whom he’d long fancied from afar)...

“We start to hit. She’s flawless, of course, and I’m struggling to get the ball over the net…Come on, Andre, it’s only a practice session. 

“But I can’t help myself. I’ve never seen a woman so beautiful. Standing still, she’s a goddess; in motion, she’s poetry. I’m a suitor, but also a fan. I’ve wondered for so long what Steffi Graf’s forehand feels like. I’ve watched her on TV and in tournaments and wondered how that ball feels when it comes flying off her racket. A ball feels different off every player’s racket – there are minute but concrete subtleties of force and spin. Now, hitting with her, I feel her subtleties. It’s like touching her, though we’re forty feet apart. Every forehand is foreplay.”

Ok, so it’s not always quite that exciting - and yes you can have a ‘hit’ in other games like ping pong or badminton where you play without keeping score. 

But a tennis hit is a much more nuanced, interesting and physically testing thing. And if your hitting partner is better than you, you can always console yourself by saying ‘Ah but I could beat him in a real match’...

Top: Roger Federer demonstrates the sublime Hit