Tennis Anyone???
After pleading with my fellow residents to play tennis for the past 3 months regardless of the weather, be it rain or sleet or snow or shine or just being damn cold, I was finally able to play tennis a couple of times with my buddy, Krishna. Now don't get me wrong; I love playing tennis with Richel. But playing with Richel is a different type of tennis althogether, which is something I'm not accustomed to doing. With Richel, it's "I'm-playing-with-my-girlfriend-so-be-nice" tennis. Again, this is a new concept for me, one which I have difficulty adapting to because all my life I've been playing "I'm-going-to-ram-the-ball-down-your-throat" tennis. If I played like that with Richel, not only would she be way discouraged and give up tennis, but she'd probably hate me for doing that. And I want to encourage her, not discourage her from the sport. But I digress.
About a month ago, I purchased a new tennis racket, the Prince Turbo Shark, rated Editor's Choice for 2004. Eh. How good could it be? Well, it was listed as a "performance frame" and tennis star Maria Sharapova uses it. It must be good. But I was never really able to test the racket to its full potential until I played with Krishna by swinging the racket hard and smashing the ball. Having done that, I can honestly say it's a damn good racket. Great job, Prince (shameless plug).
But what's going on? Why the sudden intense interest in tennis, a sport that I last played seriously about 15 years ago? I watched a bit of Wimbledon with Sharapova vs. Serena Williams in 2004. To my astonishment, Sharapova won in straight sets, a decisive victory over the dominating Serena Williams. I remember back then thinking after I wrapped up a few loose ends and when I had more time, I'd like to get back to tennis.
And so I have. So not only have I played seriously a few times, but I've changed my game, changed rackets, and changed the way I hold my grip. Again, why the sudden intense interest? Well, whenever I set my mind out to do something, it's usually because I get inspired by something or someone. With osteopathic medicine it was my brother, Quinn who inspired me; with teaching and academics it was my good friend and mentor, Brian who inspired me; with tennis it was Maria Sharapova who re-inspired me. How odd that I would choose her to be my tennis idol. In 1987, it was another 17 year-old hotshot who won Wimbledon who inspired me back then, Steffi Graf.
So what's with the Sharapova fascination? I love her game; she plays from the baseline, good solid ground strokes, consistent, can place the ball ANYWHERE, good first serve AND second serve with perfect form, tries out new things during matches to improve her game, has an awesome 2-handed backhand, and has good POWER with every shot. Maybe I'm not in to tennis enough anymore to know who's like that on the men's tour. But watching men's tennis has always been the most boring thing in the world to me because no one is like that; if it's not serve-and-volley, the rallies last 2 or 3 strokes on average. One of the longest rallies I've seen in women's tennis was 17 strokes (that was a Sharapova match). I'm not sure what the record is, but watching longer rallies full of hard hitting and good placement is much more entertaining and inspiring than watching serve-and-volley all day.
So why didn't the Williams sister inspire me? Because they're ALL about power. It's all power and little else, their strokes/form is kinda ugly (no offense), which is partly why they're injured so often, they don't have the same finesse and ball placement, and they're not as consistent.
What about Anna Kournikova? Well, she's nice to look at but she never won any Grand Slams.
About a month ago, I purchased a new tennis racket, the Prince Turbo Shark, rated Editor's Choice for 2004. Eh. How good could it be? Well, it was listed as a "performance frame" and tennis star Maria Sharapova uses it. It must be good. But I was never really able to test the racket to its full potential until I played with Krishna by swinging the racket hard and smashing the ball. Having done that, I can honestly say it's a damn good racket. Great job, Prince (shameless plug).
But what's going on? Why the sudden intense interest in tennis, a sport that I last played seriously about 15 years ago? I watched a bit of Wimbledon with Sharapova vs. Serena Williams in 2004. To my astonishment, Sharapova won in straight sets, a decisive victory over the dominating Serena Williams. I remember back then thinking after I wrapped up a few loose ends and when I had more time, I'd like to get back to tennis.
And so I have. So not only have I played seriously a few times, but I've changed my game, changed rackets, and changed the way I hold my grip. Again, why the sudden intense interest? Well, whenever I set my mind out to do something, it's usually because I get inspired by something or someone. With osteopathic medicine it was my brother, Quinn who inspired me; with teaching and academics it was my good friend and mentor, Brian who inspired me; with tennis it was Maria Sharapova who re-inspired me. How odd that I would choose her to be my tennis idol. In 1987, it was another 17 year-old hotshot who won Wimbledon who inspired me back then, Steffi Graf.
So what's with the Sharapova fascination? I love her game; she plays from the baseline, good solid ground strokes, consistent, can place the ball ANYWHERE, good first serve AND second serve with perfect form, tries out new things during matches to improve her game, has an awesome 2-handed backhand, and has good POWER with every shot. Maybe I'm not in to tennis enough anymore to know who's like that on the men's tour. But watching men's tennis has always been the most boring thing in the world to me because no one is like that; if it's not serve-and-volley, the rallies last 2 or 3 strokes on average. One of the longest rallies I've seen in women's tennis was 17 strokes (that was a Sharapova match). I'm not sure what the record is, but watching longer rallies full of hard hitting and good placement is much more entertaining and inspiring than watching serve-and-volley all day.
So why didn't the Williams sister inspire me? Because they're ALL about power. It's all power and little else, their strokes/form is kinda ugly (no offense), which is partly why they're injured so often, they don't have the same finesse and ball placement, and they're not as consistent.
What about Anna Kournikova? Well, she's nice to look at but she never won any Grand Slams.
posted by V-Hume at 12:34 AM
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