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Once again this year I had the privilege and opportunity to travel down to Flushing Meadow, New York and see the top male and female players in the world at the U.S. Open.
 
As someone who's taught and played the game for over thirty-five years, I always find it especially instructive and motivational to view these incredible athletes up close and personal. You can't help but be impressed, as I am every year, by their incredible footwork, anticipation, and conditioning. I always find myself awestruck by their power, their ability to hit endless topspin drives in a row, and their amazing defensive prowess. I always return home after watching these world-class players for two weeks inspired by this experience - really fired up to work on my own tennis game, and absolutely convinced that I'm going to play the best tennis of my life.
 
Then reality sets in... I go on court to play a match and realize that I'm almost fifty, overweight, out of shape, and never again going to have the quickness, speed, and racquet skills that I possessed twenty years ago. Hey, but it's always nice to dream!
 
SOME FANS JUST DON'T GET IT...
 
I'm always amazed every year at the U.S. Open how often the casual tennis fan is unaware of the true level of many of the players they are watching. During one of the early round men's matches this year, I was sitting with a group of people I didn't know and watching Mariano Puerta, the #10 seed from Argentina, playing Noam Okun, ranked #185 in the world.
 
One of the individuals sitting behind me remarked how uncompetitive the match was probably going to be, what with the #10 seed (and in this case #10 in the world at the time), having to play this "lowly ranked guy." I remember thinking to myself, if only this "fan" could get on a court with this "lowly ranked guy" and really see how incredible an athlete and player you are if you're ranked the 185th best player in the world. If only this "fan" could play a few points and see how fast the balls would go blazing past him! Unfortunately, this individual doesn't understand the relativity of it all; he doesn't understand that, yes, the #10 player in the world will usually beat the #185 player in the world, but that shouldn't diminish the incredible talent of this "lowly ranked player," and what an unbelievable accomplishment it is to be ranked in the world at all!
 
HOW NOT TO CHOKE ON $2.2 MILLION...
 
I always come back from the matches in New York in awe of how mentally tough these world-class players are. I mean, how mentally tough must someone like Kim Clijsters of Belgium be (the #4 player in the world before the tournament began) to be able to go out and play a match, (the U.S. Open final in this case), in front of family and friends and millions watching all over the world, and know that if she was to win, she would receive the largest paycheck in the history of women's tennis?
 
Going into the final match against Mary Pierce of Canada, Clijsters knew that if she was victorious she would not only receive the winners' purse of $1.1 million, but would effectively double this amount as a reward for her dominance of the U.S. women's summer circuit. As I watched her methodically dismantle her opponent in the final, I couldn't help thinking how unshakeable you must be to perform as well as she did - to not choke and or be affected by the pressure and the stark reality that if she were to win, she would be receiving a check for $2.2 million!!! (Not to mention the millions in endorsements one receives for winning a major tournament like the U.S. Open!)
 
To put it in perspective... I played a match a week earlier against a friend for twenty-five bucks and was choking so badly my shots were barely reaching the net! (I guess it's all relative!)
 
IS THERE HOPE FOR THE VIAGRA CROWD? ...
 
And finally (as it's been for the past twenty years in New York) it's been a privilege to watch Andre Agassi play at the U.S. Open. Who could ever forget the incredible match he played against James Blake? I certainly never will; it was bad enough that my wife was there in person (and I wasn't!) to witness this epic battle between Agassi, the old warrior, and Blake, the up and coming superstar. What made it worse was that as the match dragged on to it's incredible climax after midnight, all six of the brand new TVs I just had installed at my house stopped working! I still have nightmares about me running from room to room, trying to find a set that would work so I could see the amazing 5th set tiebreaker that had just begun. I ended up watching the match's closing moments on a 5 x 5 inch screen in my kitchen, but hey, at least I got to see the end of a battle t they'll be talking about at the U.S. Open for years to come.
 
(Getting back to the great Agassi...) If you're a true tennis fan, you can't help but be impressed by his amazing racquet skill, footwork, and conditioning. You can't help but be impressed that, at thirty-five years of age, he's almost always in better shape then his opponents who are typically ten to fifteen years younger!
 
Obviously, he's going to go down as one of the greatest players in the history of the game. That being said, how incredible must Roger Federer be to finish him off so decisively in the Men's Single's Final?
 

 

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