Port Washington: competitive tennis is largely mental
Competitive tennis is largely mental, once you’re at a certain plateau of skill and conditioning. Schtitt’d say spiritual instead of mental, but as far as Schacht can see it’s the same thing.
Context
The scene's thesis, and its own chapter's title: past "a certain plateau of skill and conditioning," the bodies are close enough to equal that the match is decided elsewhere — "competitive tennis is largely mental." The conditioning is the price of admission, not the contest; once everyone can hit, the game becomes a contest of what Schtitt would call spiritual and Schacht calls mental. In most junior matches "everything past the fourth game or so is kind of a formality," both players having already privately settled who will lose. The body only gets you to the plateau where the real, invisible match is played.