Game.Set.Match

Iam a big tennis fan. Playing the game gives me a lot of joy. I love the feeling of the racquet meeting the ball, and the intense concentration involved in playing proper tennis shots. As all good coaches would tell you, to hit a good shot, you should keep your eyes on the ball until the last moment. Sometimes, this has almost a meditative effect. Kind of similar to table tennis (ping pong) that way.

When you are playing a shot, you just focus on playing that shot well, and forget everything else. It is a little hard to describe, but if you have heard players talking about being in the "zone", thats what Iam talking about.

The other thing I like about tennis is that it is one of the few sports that involve all-round exercise. It requires some athletic ability to play the sport well.

My favorite shots in tennis are, by far, the volleys. Good volleying involves not only good reflexes but also good racquet control. It is hard to find good volleyers in modern professional tennis, mainly due to the overwhelming power generated by today's baseline players, which reduces the efficacy of the serve-and-volley game.

Its no wonder then that my all-time favorite tennis player is Stefan Edberg. I have yet to see a game as graceful as Edberg's. Federer comes close to it. Pretty close.

Mostly, I play singles, but occasionally I get to play doubles, and its a lot of fun. The fast and thrilling exchanges at the net are my favourite ones.

In the last two years, I have participated in an amateur summer tennis tournament here in Boston, organized by the Euroclub here. It has been one of the highlights of my stay here. Its a lot of fun to play others at similar or higher skill levels. Some of the players on this ladder were REALLY good, they had played in the European junior tennis circuit!

I look forward to playing in it this summer too - but its doubtful if it would be organized - coz the person who's been organizing it has moved and is not going to do so anymore.

BTW, Happy new year! Ok, I cannot resist writing this joke that I have been entertaining my friends with ("torturing" is probably the word that they might use to describe it) ..

You know, this year, I haven't made any new year resolutions. You know why?
Coz one of my resolutions last year was not to make one this year. :-)

- V.