The Broken Racket

Text 1: Double Fault, by Saskia Vane

An original novel extract.

Double fault. Marcus stared at the ball lying against the back fence as if it had betrayed him personally. That made it five games to one, in the final, in front of his father, who was sitting in the third row with his arms folded and his sunglasses on, so that Marcus could not see his eyes.

He bounced the next ball. Bounced it again. Again. The umpire said, ‘Time,’ in a flat, bored voice. Across the net, his opponent, a lanky boy with a headband, was shifting from foot to foot, relaxed, almost smiling, as if he were waiting for a bus. Marcus hated him. He hated the headband. He hated the hot, white glare of the court and the polite little ripple of applause that followed every one of the boy’s points like a bad smell.

He threw the ball up and hit it as hard as he had ever hit anything. It thudded into the net. For a second he did nothing. Then he raised his racket above his head and brought it down on the court, once, twice, three times, until the frame cracked with a sound like a gunshot and the crowd went silent. In the third row, his father stood up and walked away.

How does Saskia Vane use language and structure to show Marcus’s anger during the match?

You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.