Competitive tennis

Year 2007, ASU Olympics, Tennis: Number of participants 3, I finished 3rd.
Year 2008, ASU Olympics, Tennis: Number of participants 4 - but this time I finished 2nd, I won a set and it sure felt good. It was nice of the organizing 'Coalition of International Students' to award these medals; Its good to have something to remember things by.

Its not often that I play a regular game of tennis. I always prefer to just hit - it has always just been about improving strokeplay and pretty much going on without a goal, with getting better being the only motivation. I have come to believe it is important to play competitive tennis; it can still be fun. This is one of those things I find different in the way Americans approach the game and the way I have seen others play - no matter what the skill level, playing a game with rules and scores is something they just have to do.

Playing with scores, and more so in what was a tournament, showed me just how different the same thing could get. I wasn't half as good. Most of the game was getting played just in my head than on the court. With every swing I know, it needs to go in. The fear of losing a point, makes me not want to go for those winners, I would go for when I'm just hitting. I would be content at pushing the ball into play and keep alive in the point. I felt elated, when I knew I was going to win my first set. I was able to put that aside and just play through the final game. In my second match, I could feel the dismay, when I knew the set was out of my reach; I got myself to forget that and get back in the game until it was really over.

This was not the US Open; it was just four guys, who decided to show up. I cannot even begin to imagine how guys like Federer feel when playing for so much more and with so many eyes on them. While the scale of that I may never know, I surely tasted the spirit in which they play the game.