The one thing I can confidently say about Grand Slam tennis – it brings my husband and me together. Tennis is the one sport that we can both watch on TV and actually care about. Even when we have our Super Bowl party blow-out each year, I barely pay attention to watching the game. Except of course to see the commercials and possible “wardrobe malfunctions.”
But right now, we are both heavily involved in figuring out when the Australian Open is on and what is happening in the matches. Since we DON'T have the Tennis Channel, we are often watching matches where we already know the outcome.
No matter. It is still a lot of fun to watch and critique this stuff together.
And, as you know from my previous post, I do not play pro tennis and have no illusions that what I'm playing is ever going to be anything close to pro tennis. But, even players like me, plain old ordinary tennis players, can learn a lot from watching the pros.
So what have I learned laterly? Roger Federer is two sets down playing Tomas Berdych and makes a huge comeback, ultimately winning 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. Dinara Safina wins her first set 6-2, loses the second 2-6, and then fights her way back to win the third 7-5 after facing several match points!
The lesson: never throw in the towel. Too many times we think we see the way a match is going and we just give up. I realize Roger Federer and Dinara Safina have a lot more at stake than I do in my Friday morning indoor league match. But if I'm going to show up to play a match, I may as well play right up to the very last point.
By the way, I happen to be a big Andy Roddick fan. Especially over the past few years when he seems to have been working so hard and is keeping sort of under the radar. And he's still in the Australian Open! He faces Novak Djokovic in his next match. Good luck Andy!