8. In this case, one stroke will lose the set, and unless there is good reason to expect to win that stroke the bisque should be taken. As a rule, it is wrong to take a bisque to make deuce, but in this case something must be done and done at once.
9. This rule simply means—don’t forget the bisque. There have been a great many matches lost because a player has forgotten to take the set when it was won.
As said above, it is seldom right to take a bisque to make deuce, because at deuce the giver of odds will probably win, and the bisque will have been wasted. The probability, of course, varies with the difference between the two players. Thus, if receiving thirty and a bisque, it would be folly for the worse player to take his bisque to make deuce; if giving thirty for a bisque, the bisque should not be taken to make game. In both these cases deuce should mean a certainty for the better player.
Where a bisque is given with small odds, as at half-fifteen and a bisque, the difference between the two players is not so marked, and the bisque may be taken to make deuce or game as occasion demands.
All that has been said is meant to apply to cases where a bisque is given alone or to increase other odds, as it is not now the custom in lawn-tennis to give a bisque to diminish other odds. Should this be done, the bisque should be taken to make deuce, and not game.
It is well to remember that there is a moral effect in a bisque. Few men play up with as much confidence with a bisque hanging over them as they do when it is gone, and for this reason a bisque should not be taken early in a set except to secure a commanding lead. It should never be taken in the first two games.
There ought to be no need to explain that there can be no use in taking a bisque at forty-love or at forty-fifteen. The bisque will make game just as well at forty-thirty, and if the game can be won without it so much the better. Moreover, no good can come of taking a bisque at deuce; there is quite time enough at advantage for either player. There is another point too often overlooked. There is no object in taking a bisque unless there is a reasonable prospect of winning the set after the bisque is gone. With the score at five games-love, a bisque should not be taken to make one game to five, because at that score there is no real chance for the set. The only hope is to win two or three games with the bisque still in. This may not be possible to do, but it is the right thing to try for.