(Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
As I’ve watched this year’s U.S. Open, I’ve come closer than ever to understanding what Lewis H. Lapham was saying in Money and Class in America when he wrote:
“[sports is]…not the game or the match or the bout, but the ritual portrayal of a world in which time stops and all hope remains plausible, in which everybody present can recover the blameless expectations of a child, where the forces of light always triumph over the power of darkness.”
For while none of the players themselves represent light or darkness, the battles they wage represent the struggles we all have with the good and evil inherent in our own souls.
Sports, and tennis in particular, seem easily able to let us glimpse what it takes to overcome those inner demons and triumph in our own lives, just as these sports heroes we marvel at triumph over the adversities they face on the court (or the hardwood, or the field).
Tennis seems singularly able to do this, though, because, as Billie Jean King once said, it’s “a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility.”
Such a combination is apparently the perfect place for contemplation of the battles we face as human beings.
Don’t get me wrong, all sports in one way or another, grant us this opportunity of self-examination and reflection. I just feel tennis is perfect for it, and it’s one of the reasons I love the sport so dearly, even though I was never all that great at it (the majority of my sports passions are sports I played, and played well).
That being said, I’ve watched this U.S. Open with special interest, wondering and marveling at all the great stories that have unfolded, from the emergence of the young Melanie Oudin as a possible heir to the throne, to the tale of Serena Williams' total dominance of the sport, to the return of a great maven to the court in Kim Clijsters.
I’ve thrilled to the action on the men’s side of the draw as well, as we’ve seen the storylines of the great upset of Andy Murray, and early ouster of the Americans, to the ongoing sagas of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, the latter trying to win his sixth straight title in New York.
63 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete