“Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility.” – Billie Jean King
My first memory of watching a tennis match was Björn Borg playing Ilie Nastase. I saw the match on a black and white TV, complete with grains. The match did not make any sense to me. Two tall men were hitting a little ball across the net, the crowd was cheering wildly and at times politely. My father was sitting at the edge of his seat. And I couldn’t even pronounce the names, let alone spell them.
Maybe a couple of years later when I could read, the names John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors came into play. Although the game still didn’t make sense, I did manage to develop a crush on McEnroe, the brat of the tennis world. I would support his ravings, his ranting, his verbal abuse on the umpires, the smashing of rackets. Basically, everything about him!
But the game, rather its existence was firmly seared on my conscious mind.
Those were the days when tennis was ruled by Borg, McEnroe, Ashe, and Connors ably challenged by Vitas Gerulaitis, Guillermo Vilas, John Lloyd, and Peter Fleming. Borg was the “ice man” from Sweden, the cool unflappable gentleman. The classicist! The contrast offered by McEnroe was extreme; he was rash, loudmouthed, unpredictable, irreverent, and yet somehow cool.
McEnroe finally took over the No. 1 spot from Borg, though he had a worthy opponent in the indefatigable Jimmy Connors, yet another unpredictable, loudmouthed player. And still, they instilled the love for the game in the hearts of fans everywhere. Serve and volley was the way to play the game – nearly every player in the top 10 were proponents of this kind of play with their special skills added in.
And although not all matches or tournaments were telecast in India, there were still enough to whet the appetite.
The 80s saw the arrival of the Swedes into the world of tennis – Stefan Edberg, Mats Wilander, Anders Järryd, Joakim Nyström – to name a few. It’s interesting to see how in every decade there have been extraordinarily good players from a single country. For example, if the 70s were dominated by the Americans but the 80s definitely belonged to the Swedes. There were also very good players like Kevin Curren, Pat Cash, our very own Ramesh Krishnan, lest you think that tennis was played only by a few people!
But of all the Swedish players who made their debut at the world stage, Stefan Edberg after Borg, remains the most respected and beloved. Graceful, debonair, he was a worthy successor to the great man from Stockholm. He took over from John McEnroe, but this perfect scenario was shaken by Ivan Lendl, one of the greatest Czech players ever. Lendl was pure hard work, his grouchy demeanor, however did not win him too many women fans. Between Edberg, Lendl and Wilander, one could be guaranteed a real entertainer of a match.
And then on July 7, 1984 everything changed and that too at the most classical Centre Courts in the Slams – Wimbledon. An unseeded player Boris Becker became the first German and the youngest player to win at Wimbledon. He brought with him a giant serve, earning him the nickname “Boom Boom Becker”. My second crush and I admit I still have a soft spot for the guy.
Ivan Lendl did offer stiff competition, as did Goran Ivanisevic, and Frenchmen Henri Leconte and Yannick Noah, but for a while it was the Boris Becker Show, till the arrival upon the scene of a completely unassuming man, Pete Sampras.
Sampras, one of the greatest players of his era, had the most unlikely persona; needed for a champion. He wasn’t the glamorous type, not flashy, no chocolate good looks, but he was a pure god-gifted talent. His laidback approach was as misleading to his opponents as to the hordes of tennis lovers across the globe. He also led a fresh stock of American blood into the tennis world – Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Michael Chang. Among them they dominated the game till the 2000s.
I must confess that I liked Agassi more than Sampras. Agassi was the guy with the heart of a lion, talent infused with hard work. It wasn’t hard to feel sorry for Agassi, someone who gave his all, yet Sampras took every title he possibly could, time and again and that too with seemingly little effort. (No crush there though, and I can feel a few people wanting to ask the question: are you a lover of the game or do you watch it for the guys? Well, duh! Both. Why can’t it be both? After all the guys do watch the ladies play, and it’s not just for the game…we all know that! Double standards, as always.)
I still have a huge respect for Sampras – 14 Grand Slam titles – whose achievements paved the way for the next champion, and a fan of the great Sampras himself.
I talk about none other than the legend himself – Roger Federer. Fedex, in my view is the greatest tennis player to have graced the game. I know a lot of eyebrows would be raised. But frankly, no one can beat his style, his unflappable nature, his forehand, his backhand, his humility. Do you get my drift here? In short (sorry to disappoint you guys) my feelings for Federer border on reverence. Without an iota of doubt, Federer is a player who makes it look so easy, so simple. He has the ability to not fold under pressure, the level-headedness needed at crucial turning points, and of course the ability to hit winners even on an off-day.
In the present era, we tennis fans are blessed to witness not only Federer, but Rafael Nadal (another lion-hearted player and Federer’s fiercest rival), Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray. And what matches they have given us!
In all my musings above, one might ask the question, and justly so, if tennis is just a man’s sport. I mean, I haven’t mentioned a single female player till now, have I?
The answer is of course, NO! Tennis is not just a man’s sport. We have had the pleasure of watching many lovely (and not so lovely) ladies over the years. Champions, great fighters, delicate-seeming yet with a serve that makes you wonder where that strength came from. The legendary Billie Jean King (the only woman with an arena named after her), Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Gabriela Sabatini (which guy hasn’t had a crush on her?), Maria Sharapova, Anna Kournikova (the only tennis player known for purely looks and oomph), the extraordinary Williams sisters (Serena and Venus), and last but definitely not the least our very own Sania Mirza, who has shown all her detractors that you cannot break the spirit with inane objections like religion, and length of dress (could anything be more ridiculous).
And I haven’t even mentioned the Indian contingent (the Amritraj brothers, Ramesh Krishnan, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi), who in various decades, have made the Indian flag soar with pride, and Indian hearts swell with patriotic spirit. Not because they haven’t been great, but it’s just that the sport has been dominated by players from the Western world.
We can only hope that kids from India take Sania as their role model; that sports in India will someday be free of political interferences; that Indian parents will understand that sports as a career is an option too. We are a country of more than a billion people. We are a sports loving nation, we have had great role models in almost every sport, and yet when it comes to encouraging our child to pick up a bat, a racket or kick a ball, we are scared that he or she might not concentrate on studies, and not become successful.
I can only thank GOD that Borg, Becker, Sampras, Federer etc. were supported by their parents, and otherwise this article would not have been written. I bow my head in respect to the many greats who have entertained us on the tennis courts over the years, both champions and runners-up. To play in front of millions, to hold your head up high in defeat, to dissolve in tears when holding the trophy and as a FAN of the sport I look forward to many more matches and players.
-Bindu Nayar.
FanGaadi 