Tennis Friends

During a officials clinic I recently attended, the instructor told us this story to help us understand about using our best judgement in individual cases;

She had been umpiring a National 80s event and two ladies who were engaged in a singles battle were taking an enormous amount of time on changeovers. For those of you who aren't aware, a player is allotted 90 seconds on the changeovers and 120 between sets. Evidently, these two were taking anywhere from 5 to 8 minutes. Before putting the clock on these two, the umpire went and checked the court schedule. Since there was no one scheduled to use the courts afterwards, the temperature in sunny California that day was peaking at 92 degrees and the sum of the age of the two competitors was a three digit number, the umpire let the ladies play at their own pace.

"These two ladies have probably been playing against each other for sixty years," the trainer said.

Sixty years?

Wow.

I think of all my opponents in tennis and hockey and soccer. And I think about how many times, I seriously think, my life will be so enhanced if I never played them again! Never saw them again. And God-willing, never see them do that annoying thing they do just before they (serve the ball/shoot the puck/dribble the ball).

But then I heard that story and I thought, how cool would that be? How cool would it be to sit and chat with someone you've played year after year until those years became decades? Obviously many things color a memory and help make them vivid. And I have to say, my opponents are sometimes the most colorful part of my memories. I can never purge my thoughts of the opponent who awards herself first serves after calling phantom lets. Or the team that we affectionately refer to as the "pod people" because of the way they always hit the court like someone has got a gun on them, forcing them to be there. I remember my longest doubles match ever, a match that was about as long as any singles match I've ever played. And I remember the opponents. It's been three years, I've never played them since, but every time I've seen them, we spend a good ten minutes "remembering" the points of that match.

As vivid as the memory is to me, relaying it to people who weren't on the court is not the same as reliving it with my opponents.

There are many things that I look forward to as a tennis player in search of my first of many gold balls in Adult and Senior national tournaments. Since hearing that story at my training class, I look forward to something else; fifty years from now, sitting in my chair on a changeover and reminiscing about matches played over the decades of history I have with my opponent.

Stay tunes,
KS