Phoenix Chestnut & Tennis

I can't remember when I first started playing tennis. Possibly junior high school. I remember hitting balls against a concrete wall. Seemed like fun. I had a cousin I'd hit balls with. We didn't play structured games, just hit balls and gain a comfortable and consistent forehand. 

In high school I started playing real games. Learning how to keep score, change sides, etc.

It stopped being fun. Seemed like torture. All I wanted to do was hit. I was playing against better players in PE class. 

After high school I joined a racquet club with then intentions of playing regularly. Didn't happen. If the members didn't know you, they didn't want to play you. I was making next to nothing, but paying $65-$70 (in mid 90's dollars). It was an expense I couldn't keep up with so I quit the club.

I enrolled in tennis classes at the local junior college. It enabled me to play twice a week. I liked it. In my mind I was a tennis player. I mean a TENNIS PLAYER. Looking back I was nothing more than a recreational player. Not good, not great, not bad. 

Tennis became an old love. I'd let her go, then run back to her. I took up the game during the 2010's. Again, just looking to hit, nothing serious. However I focused my attention towards golf. So I let her go again. I moved to rural northern California. The girl I was living with was a country girl. Up in her neck of the woods, tennis was a city slickers game. Eventually we broke up and I loved back to Sacramento.

I'd casually follow tennis on TV or other social media outlets. I followed just so I can engage in water cooler talk about the game. No one cared. I once wrote on another blog of mine (deleted it a few years ago) about the death of tennis in the United States. Honestly no one cares about tennis nowadays. Look at your local tennis courts, I bet most times they're empty. 

Anyways lately I'm slowly embracing the things that once made me happy...preppy clothes, tennis books, tennis gear, watching old tennis matches on YouTube. On a flight back home last week I read 'Portrait In Motion' by Arthur Ashe. I haven't read it since my junior college days. Fascinating book about the grind of playing professional tennis. I downloaded a book on my Kindle about tennis instruction. Last night I re-gripped two tennis racquets I've had since the mid 1990's. 

I think it's time I get back to the courts. I can't play like I used to, but I can hit the ball and talk. Tennis anyone? Anyone at all?