My son once asked me, “Why do you love tennis so much?”
Why?
Because . . .
Tennis is art. Tennis is beauty. Tennis is life. It is grace with strength, elegance with power, sophistication with might. A strange juxtaposition of seeming opposites that, when fused together in this particular game of sport, create perfect poetry in motion.
Tennis asks the grand questions of life: will you commit? Will you stay motivated? Will you respond? Will you be invincible? Will you play each point like your future depends on it? Will you get back up when you fall down? Will you serve again when you double fault? Will you win the next point when you lost the last?
Will you persevere, or will you give up?
Tennis reveals your character. It is one against one. If you lose, if you double fault, if you hit the ball long, it’s no one else’s fault but your own. Tennis reveals your drive. You are offense and defense, in the same game, at the same time, as the same player. Tennis reveals your preparation. It is practicing the same stroke, the same swing, again and again and again. Tennis reveals your work ethic. Because trophies are won when no one is watching, day after day, practice after practice. Alone.
Tennis is mental toughness. Tennis is emotional isolation. Tennis is staggering seclusion. Just you and your opponent. No coaches calling a time out, no substitutions for fatigue. An epic struggle engaged by two warriors with everything to gain AND everything to lose. It is a battle between two soldiers that involves the world; multiple countries represented in a single match. The audience reacts in appreciation, from subdued whispers to triumphant shouts. The crowd cheers, the crowd jeers. The nations unite, oooing and ahhing at precise baselines and thunderous serves.
Tennis is overcoming fear – not of your opponent, but your own flaws and failures. Tennis is overcoming your limits – digging deep when you are tired and hurting. Tennis is overcoming the pain – the bleeding fingers and the blistered toes and the sore muscles and the pulled hamstrings.
Tennis is action and reaction. It is proactive and reactive. It is massive. It is small. It is the huge gesture, and the smallest detail.
Tennis is balletic. Tennis is athletic. Tennis is magnetic.
Tennis is life. And that’s why I love it so much.
