Are you watching the Australian Open? I love to watch tennis…both the womens’ and mens’ matches. Their athleticism is amazing and so is their physical stamina to play matches that can go as long as 5 hours – starting before midnight and ending after 4:30 AM. (Baghdatis vs. Hewitt) It doesn’t seem natural to play sports in the middle of the night. The only thing I want to being doing during those hours is sleeping, and maybe dreaming about playing tennis and looking like Maria Sharapova… “Hey, didn’t I say I dreaming?”
Tennis players have to be in incredible shape to play a singles match for 5 hours which makes tennis different from playing golf. A beer belly is a liability in tennis. (Okay, no beer belly for Tiger) With golf, the Pro-golfer has a caddy to carry his/her golf bag… the caddy hands the Pro a club...he swings it and hands it back to the caddy. He’s a Pro, remember, so he only swings about 65 times for 18 holes. “Whew…that was a toughy.” About a third of the time, he uses his putter to roll the ball into the hole. Then the Pro-golfer walks to the next tee…no sprint…or even a jog…just a leisurely walk over.
My favorite player for the men is Roger Federer.er.er.er.er….He is half tennis player, half machine. At least that five-setter he barely won at 10-8, tipped the scales toward human. He wins most the time he plays (kinda like the Patriots.) Roddick can sometimes act like the name within his name…or to be less crude, “a big baby” when he cries to the umpire. “Get over it Rod dick…your serve is out!!!” Marcos Baghdatis is fun to watch…he never gives up and has a smile that never gives out.
For the women, I think Justin Henin is a little bulldog or hedgehog. Okay, she is a good player…but personally I don’t care for her personality. My favorite of the women is Venus Williams who has a wing span of a condor. She already lost in the Australian Open…but she’ll be back. I like her sister Serena too…but I wish their dad would stay home.
To continue serving up some more tennis rhetoric…What stuns me the most about watching tennis on TV…is the announcers. They love to refer to the tennis players by their nationality instead of their names. They will say, “The Spaniard has got a lead on the American 40 – 15.” You never hear, “The Asian is ready to tee-off on Hole 16” in the game of golf. For some reason it just sounds like the tennis announcers are being rude and asking for trouble. “The German killed the Russian today in an easy match-up.” “The Puerto Rican out hit the Italian.” Nothing like trying to stir up global wars…
I thought tennis was a game of love.
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