Gracie.

I played a bit when I was younger, but not that seriously. An old flame, back in my early 20s, was an avid fan and got me interested in tennis. Mid 1970’s, so I saw Everet, Billie Jean, I watched Navratilova come up and dominate, Graf come into her own…Borg, McEnroe, Connors, Lendl, etc…then Sampras. I do admit, I did love McEnroe’s tirades, growing up as a New Yorker too…I kind of understood that kind of outlet for one’s frustrations. He had a beautiful game and was an astonishing shotmaker. Always one of my favorites. I still follow the Champions tour a bit, to see him play… There’s some good players on that Outback tour.

Anyway, I guess I found my way into tennis during the time of all those ‘great rivalries’ they point back to today, once Open Era was in full swing. And tickets were easy enough to get, plus year-end championships used to be played at Madison Sq Gdn in NY, so we saw them play often. That person who introduced me to tennis is LONG gone from my life, but my addiction to tennis has hung on strong. After the first year or so, I was finally able to make myself stop watching the ball, as I realized how many pieces have to come together in motion for that beautiful game to happen. And I appreciated the One-ness of it. The nerve-bending dynamic of a match-up between two people, not a team sport. And ‘gentleman’s rules’ somehow still apply today. I like that they still shake hands at the end… I also had a bit of a hard time when the serve and volley game came to an end. It seemed boring, as you say. I still miss it. I like when I see Roger or some of the other guys trying to do more at the net these days.

Like you, I read a lot of stuff about tennis online and elsewhere, and I read about players and shotmaking, and strategies and equipment. I set my alarm early or stay up till all hours watching tennis when it’s on. I spend all our big ‘holiday weekends’ here watching tennis, because all the tournaments fall during those times. My friends always laugh when we watch together, because I have a habit of doing a bit of my own commentary about some great shotmaking, or whatever. And all too often, a second after the words come out, the TV commentator says almost the very same thing. So I guess after 30 years I’ve picked up a lot about the sport. Heh. Enough for my pals to say, ‘Hey, you should do commentary”. Yeah. Don’t I wish!