The Whimsical Foolishness of a Would-Be Tennis Star

After the conclusion of Roland Garros 2008, I was struck by a whim to learn tennis. So acting upon this whim of mine, I dutifully joined a tennis coaching centre.

The first thing the coach asked me was, "why do you want to learn tennis?"

When I told him I want to be like Roger Federer, he didn't give me any answer but proceeded to give me the payment details, the timings, and other stuff.

But all throughout, there was a strange look on his face which I couldn't fathom then and even now!

So, I paid the fees, and was a regular, obedient student.

But, this is not the end of the story...on the first day of my coaching, the coach taught me how to tap balls and how to play the forehand without opening the face of the racquet.

Now this was difficult, because the coach was right-handed, while I am a left-handed player. When he showed me how to hit the shots, for him it was a backhand while for me, it was a forehand.

The coach also made it clear that I would have to purchase a racquet. He gave me a Babolat racquet and told me that Rafa uses this particular brand.

I was very dumb at that particular moment and told the coach: "Know what? Now Rafa and I have two things in common. We are both left-handed players, and we use the same brand of racquet." My coach wasn't pleased [I guess no person would be!]

So with my brand new racquet, I set about learning tennis and found that it wasn't all that simple.

To my surprise, I learned to play the forehand very badly. I've always prided myself on the fact that I've a good grasping power, but maybe sports and studies are poles apart.

Some of my shots went soaring like sixes hit by Yuvraj Singh against England during the T20 World Cup. Thankfully, they didn't hit anyone.

I was so enthusiastic on the first day that I asked my coach, "When will you teach me to serve and to hit service aces?"

His reply was: "You have to wait for a month; your forehand itself has to improve.  serve and aces are a long way to go !

Thankfully, by the next two days, my forehand visibly improved, and the coach started to give me backhand shots. That's where all the problems started!

While hitting the shots, suddenly I found that I was getting tired very quickly. I was very surprised, and I didn't understand what was the problem.

I never used to get so tired at least while I was playing. So I attributed it to the heat of the day, and felt that I would be better the next day perhaps.

But the next day was even worse, and then it clicked! Since the coach was giving me backhand shots as well as forehands, I couldn't run and was huffing and puffing like a grampus, and that made me feel very tired.

Now, I am not obese. The problem was that my body was not at all used to strenuous exercise, and that's what caused all the problems.

So that day as I went home, I decided that I'd call it quits. My friends to whom I had boasted about my [probable] future tennis plans were amused and I was totally shamefaced.

Now, my racquet is lying somewhere [I don't know where it is], and my tennis learning days ended as soon as they started. It was something like: "a comedy of errors!"