The Sports Diaries: A tango with Tennis

Hello everyone!

Do you remember how your first ever attempt at a sport was? Unless it happened rather late in life, there is nearly no feasible way of doing so. Games like cricket and football would require a lot of brain racking, since nearly everyone played these games really early in their lives. So I am going to stick with something easy for my first sports diary entry. Although I do realize it’s a crime in itself, I had my first crack at tennis only last December, and that is going to have to settle for my article.

I still remember my first hand at tennis (I would have an incredibly bad memory not to). Being a pretty coordinated and athletic bloke, I tried out nearly every game the sporting world could throw at, and could take most to a level of competence at the minimum (working the washing machine isn’t a sport, right?). My arch nemesis in this field (or should I say court?) are the racket sports. Trust me, I can work wonders with my arms and feet, but when it comes to having a extension of any form, a bat, a racket, a paddle, a cue, or a club, my athleticism starts rivaling that of a hat stand. Which is why my tennis racket had more time on the hook on a wall rather than hammering green cosco balls. But when I got new tennis balls as a (uncalled) gift from my uncle, who felt one Leander Paes isn’t enough, and when our neighborhood tennis court got renovated, I ran short of excuses. So I decided to run to the court itself. Bad Idea.

My friends Shomo, Sayantan and Shashank joined me in my endeavor to master at least one racket sport, and I ended up making a mess of things. My racket and I were playing different sports. I was “trying” to play tennis, while Mr. Racket had other plans and decided to play dodge ball. And when I was making contact, my ball wouldn’t move 3 meters, and would hit the net and stop. My friends encouraged me to start from the basics rather than fantasizing myself to be Roger Federer. I decided I needed to learn serving. I had it settled, I would become the next Andy Roddick, my serves would be blinding! I took my stance, which resembled that of a basket baller’s in all honesty, tossed the ball and whacked it as hard as possible. The serve was indeed blinding, and could put Chris Gayle‘s DLF Maximums to shame, with both height AND distance. That settled it, I was going to rely on something that not even racket sports could beat out of me: speed. You might call me bloated, but trust me, I’m pretty darn quick on my feet. My friends and I had a few matches, ones with more double faults than winners. I lost, needless to say, with a serve like that, but I was getting better. The score difference between the opponent’s and mine stopped resembling an average ODI target-to-chase, and dropped down to where I could win one game in a set (we weren’t very sure about the tennis scoring system, so we kept it the same way we keep score in badminton, only later on did we figure out the blasted methods to keep count).

I knew where I was missing out, I needed some guidance. So I asked my best friend Shashank to bail me out of this one. His serve was downright amazing, and he said he tried to emulate Roger Federer, who once scored an astonishing 52 aces against Andy Roddick (I told him there are only 4 aces and 52 cards in all, but he was ranting about tennis and I drifted towards rummy). His tips were fine, but my serve was still atrocious! He would say “don’t hit the ball too hard, try to hit on the top, in fact, dont try to hit it at all!”. Not hitting it at all! Now that was something I can pull off, but could do without. I tried taking help from Youtube, and that wasn’t very beneficial either. After some amount of practice and hours spent rummaging through nettles searching for the ball, I finally started getting my serves somewhere in the vicinity of the opponent’s court.

My last ever tennis game was undoubtedly the best, for I won two games in the set (yes, I lost). It involved this winner where I hammered the ball back, and the racket went flailing out of my hands. I lunged for the racket with a dive that could put Busquets to shame, followed by another one to return the ball, which ended up being a winner! I hung my racket up after that, and tennis fans have been weeping ever since…

Author’s comments on the game :-

Tennis is a very active, yet very infuriating game. It requires a whole lot of coaching if you are interested to take it up, take it from someone who still can’t serve! Tennis isn’t a casual game that you can play while routinely hammering the ball back and forth without any concentration. Each and every shot requires utmost attention. But when you do get going in tennis, it’s popularity around the world doesn’t leave you astonished.