the Steeply–Poutrincourt colloquy: Wayne is pure force; the difference is the head
But Wayne’s gestalt’s chief edge over Hal is the head. Wayne is pure force. He doesn’t feel fear, pity, remorse—when a point’s over, it might as well have never happened. [...] Hal actually has finer groundstrokes than Wayne, and he could have Wayne’s pace if he wanted. But the reason Wayne is Three continentally and Hal’s Six is the head.
Context
The form-vs-inspiration question resolved into a single variable: not the strokes, the head. Wayne outranks Hal not on groundstrokes — Hal's are finer — but because "Wayne is pure force," feeling no "fear, pity, remorse," a point once over erased. Hal has the better body and the better tennis brain and still ranks lower, because the same mind that builds the chess-architecture also "remembers points" and can be discouraged. The completest body loses to the emptiest head.