Tennis 101

I decided to start taking tennis lessons again. It’s probably been about a year since my last game, but I am hoping that I’ll get my form back after a few shots. And hopefully this time I can play and train enough to be fairly decent at the end of it all.

I was supposed to play last Monday actually, but then it was storming heavily so I had to postpone my first lesson. Was supposed to have it yesterday but then my trainer texted me and said that the shell court we were gonna play on was still wet. So the plan now is for me to hit my first shot later today. And I’m really excited about it.

Speaking of tennis, I’m really pleased about the Wimbledon results. The men’s final was an awesome display of high caliber tennis from the best two tennis players in the world right now – Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. It didn’t go the full distance of 5 sets, and after the first set I think people thought it would be a whitewash. But as we all know, the next three sets were really tough with lots of magnificent rallies and brilliant shot-making from both sides of the net. In the end, Roger took home his 4th Wimbledon title in a row (Borg is the only man to win more in a row than that) and his 8th Grand Slam, putting him alongside legends like Lendl, Connors, and Agassi.

In the women’s side, Amelie Mauresmo lived up to her #1 ranking and seeding by taking the Wimbledon trophy for the first time, besting Justine Henin-Hardenne in three sets. JHH outclassed Mauresmo in the first set by playing more aggressively, retrieving better, and hitting out more. But things turned around in the 2nd set. Mauresmo essentially served her way to the title, by winning almost 30 points with service winners and aces. That is a scary stat if you are on the receiving end of those booming serves. This proves that her Australian Open title earlier in the year was no fluke.

To cap it all off, the Bryan twins won the men’s doubles while the women’s doubles title went to an all-Chinese pair (I can’t recall which pair). This essentially meant that all the people I was rooting for won the title. Well, apart from Bob Bryan and Venus Williams, who fell short in the mixed-doubles final (I didn’t care too much for that loss, though so it doesn’t really count).

One interesting little stat. It seems that Steffi Graf has the best win-loss percentage at Wimbledon. I would’ve thought that this distinction would be held by Martina Navratilova who has won more singles matches on Wimbledon than anyone. Anyway, it was cool to hear the commentators mention this little piece of trivia. Too bad though that Agassi is retiring after this year. I won’t get to see Steffi in the stands anymore.