Of all games lawn tennis is the one most suited to girls.  Its claims are many and potent.  It is strenuous and very hard work, but if not overdone it is not too taxing for the average girl.  The exercise depends naturally upon the nature of the game played and the players engaged, from the championships to the garden-party patball game.  The greater the knowledge of the game the greater the enjoyment and benefit derived from it, and there is really no reason why a girl should not excel at the game and therefore thoroughly appreciate and enjoy it.  It is not physical and brute strength that is wanted so much as scientific application—­finesse, skill, and delicacy of touch, all of which women are just as capable of exercising as men.

I am well aware that if you compare the lady champion of any year with any first-class man of the same year you will find a great disparity between their actual play.  That is to say, the first-class man would be able to give the lady champion thirty or even more in order to have a close struggle.  I have often played Mr. R.F.  Doherty at the tremendous odds of receive half-forty, and have not always been returned the winner at that!  I wonder sometimes why there is this pronounced discrepancy.  Garments may make a little difference, but they do not account for it all.  I think perhaps that man’s stronger physique, naturally greater activity, and severer strokes prevent the girl from playing her own game.  She has to be nearly always on the defensive, and thus plays with less accuracy and power.

Another claim lawn tennis has for girls is that it is not an expensive game.  It is more or less within the reach of all, rich or poor.  It can be played on one’s own lawn or at any of the numerous clubs situated all over the world, or even nowadays in some of the public parks.  The time required to play a game is not excessive.  The implements, rackets, balls, nets, etc., are neither numerous nor prohibitive in price.  The club subscriptions are moderate, and the actual expenses of pursuing the game are small as compared with golf.

[Illustration:  Wimbledon, 1905:  Miss may Sutton winning the ladies’ championship for the first time.  She beat Miss Douglass in the challenge round.]

Then, again, lawn tennis is not difficult to learn, although of course by this I do not mean that it is an easy game to play well—­far from it.  But a rudimentary idea of it suffices to give any one a good deal of healthy exercise and enjoyment, and provided that one is keen and wishes to improve, and possesses what is known as a good games’ eye, there is no reason why advance should not be rapid.  It is also a pastime in which women can combine with and compete against men without in any way spoiling the game; and mixed doubles, to which I refer, are perhaps the most popular department with the average