Tennis, Tiger, and Dads

Tennis

If it has been a while sense you have watched tennis, tune in this year's US Open, but be careful. It can be addictive. The new instant replay technology is revolutionizing tennis viewing. It shows the audience (and the chair umpire) with crystal clarity exactly where the ball hits. No more disputed line calls. No tirades at the line judge. With this technology, players can use instant replay to challenge the chair. So far, the umpire has only been overturned 33% of the time. That is pretty amazing since some of the shots are shown to be in by merely touching the line or out by missing by less than 1/8 of an inch. I wonder though, if this technology had been around during the days of Conner and McEnroe, how this would have affected their games and reputations. Would they have been as entertaining?

Andre

I stayed up late the other night to watch the classic match between Andre Agassi and Marcos Baghdatis. The entire stadium was cheering for Agassi in what could have been his last match. I felt for Baghdatis. He seems like the type of player who wants to be liked (unlike say, McEnroe or Nastassi). Yet, here he was playing the villain. At one point, Baghdatis was limping so badly from cramping that it looked like he would not be able to continue. Yet, he battled to the finish, as did Agassi with his aching back.

By the way, if you remember Agassi from his old days (“image is everything”) and still hold the sins of his youth against him, read Coming Into Focus. The article changed my perceptions of him.

Agassi’s father immigrated to the United States from Iran. He was on the Iranian Olympic team as a boxer, but he always wanted his children to be tennis players. So, when Andre was just a baby, he attached a tennis racquet and a ball above his crib. When Andre was a year old, his dad taped a ping pong paddle to his hand. He would then throw balloons half filled with water at him. Andre would hit them across the room. After each successful hit, his father would say, "15 - love", "30 - love", and so on. As soon as he could walk, his dad took him to the tennis court to learn the game.

By the time Andre was old enough to go to school, his dad would get him out of school early each day to go to the tennis courts where he had 32 garbage cans each filled with 300 balls. Andre would hit them everyday—365 days a year--Saturday, Sunday, Christmas, New Year. It didn't matter. Andre was going to be Number 1 in the world.

Read the full article for more details. It is a bit long, but well written. Besides being enlightening about Agassi, the article shows how our world takes something that is supposed to be fun (tennis specifically, but sports, particularly kids' sports in general) and corrupts it in such a way that it becomes destructive.

Tiger

Speaking of sports, I don’t know what else to say about Tiger Woods. This guy can spot the best players in the world a 3 stroke lead on the final day and still pass them before the turn. Whenever Tiger enters a tournament, everyone else is playing for second place. My advice to the other tour pros is this: Play in every event that Tiger does not because those will be the only ones you have any chance of winning.

Dads

Tiger and Andre actually have a lot in common. Both of them had fathers who were determined to make them the best in the world. Both of their fathers started them at a very early age. Tiger's father kept his son close to him during his training. Andre's father sent him to a boarding school for tennis protégés. I can't help but wonder if things might have turned out differently if Andre had been with his dad during his teen years.