Thank GOD for Tennis: Goolagong-Cawley, Evert, Borg, and McEnroe, Too

Inspiration

I got my inspiration for this article from Robert Orzechowski, who is a writer here on Bleacher Report. His article, “My Memories of US Open 2009” was very funny. 

He told about his frustration of trying to watch the US Open final while CBS switched to “Access Hollywood,” a gossip show. Being a staunch Federer fan didn’t help.

Equally as funny was the comment by Clarabella Bevis. She talked about watching the 2009 Australian Open and watching Federer lose that one. Her friends made comments like, “Oh, so you like tennis?”  This was while she was dying because Federer was losing.

To read Robert's article, please click on this link.

Reading this, I was reminded of my own situation, which occurred on July 4th, 1980. 

The Cincinnati Primitive Church

My wife was a member of the Cincinnati Primitive Baptist Church and they were having a picnic at Elder Lasserre Bradley’s house. I attended church at times, but not as frequently nor as fervently as my wife. 

It seems that practically everyone at the picnic were hard-right winger Baptists. I’m a conservative politically, but not out on the far right. I could never understand how the right-most conservative believers state that secondhand smoke has never been proven to be a problem. Are they saying that all of the scientists that say so are “liberals?” 

Sorry for the digression. It’s a bad habit of mine. Let me return to the story. 

The LORD

That day, the church members were all talking about their favorite subject: THE LORD. It was THE LORD said this, and THE LORD said that. I was definitely not as fervent a Primitive Baptist believer as the other people at the picnic.

After a while, I went into the house, by myself, to use the bathroom. It was the hottest day of the year and the sun was out in full force that day. The downstairs family room was very cool and felt so good. 

I noticed a TV set which was not turned on. I thought I would rest for a few minutes and turned on the TV. There was a tennis match going on. Evonne Goolagong-Cawley was playing Chris Evert in the finals at Wimbledon. 

Now, at that time, I had absolutely no interest in tennis. But, this seemed interesting; in fact, much more interesting than the conversations outside. Goolagong, who was a mother, won that match. It was not until Kim Clijsters in the 2009 U.S. Open that another mother won a grand slam title. 

I watched the conclusion of the match and kept watching the tube until my wife came in and told me it was time to go. 

A New Tennis Fan

The next day, I watched Bjorn Borg vs. John McEnroe and I was hooked. I became a tennis fanatic.  The match of Borg vs. McEnroe has been called the most exciting of all time. My personal favorites are: 

1. 1984 French Open, Ivan Lendl over McEnroe
2. 1989 French Open, Steffi Graf over Martina Hingis
3. 2008 Wimbledon, Rafael Nadal over Roger Federer
4. 1980 Wimbledon, Borg over McEnroe

Also, I liked the 2009 French Open Men’s Final a lot because of its significance. It was exciting in its own way.

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