Carlos seriously injured
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Well, I've put my foot in my mouth.
@andyd I just didn't know
My favorite was Chris vs Martina growing up. I watched their rivalry until their last matches.
Martina might have been the better player with a stronger game but Chris was a worthy opponent imo.
Chris's baseline two-handed background, most conducive to clay of course, my favorite surface by far, and the slowest for those of you who don't know (hence Alcaraz). She would be at the baseline and hit backhand side side with with precision leaving Martina in the middle doing whatever she was doing.
Then that era of the women's game was over. I was a young adult. I stopped following tennis for many years.
I didn't return until Nadal.
BTW, Alcaraz is playing live in a quarterfinal match right now.
@mik Duh! Of course I remember you talking about this!
Recently too.
Forgive me.
Lucky for you!!
Now I'm wondering if you brought war horns disguised as brass instruments. j/k! : )
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@daniel not at all.
I used a two handed backhand finding it gave better control, and a forehand similar to Borg but less top spin so flatter.
Couldn't serve properly though, never had lessons, saved up for a quality Slazenger laminated raquet.
Remember Vitas Gerulaitis? US/Lithuanian with long fair hair? At times he would be zen like, play instinctively, goodness in full flow he was fantastic to watch. Intercepting early, jumping athletically, and he'd mercilessly wallop the ball. (like the great Ronaldinho playing football, so naturally dribbling round and through multiple players without thought). -
@andyd I'll post about my HS tennis "career" some time. Lol.
I never had professional lessons but once.
Our HS coach booked lessons for the team at Bardmoor.
For this of you who don't know, Bardmoor is kind of a big deal tennis establishment/ couching center a few miles from me as the crow flies. It is clay courts. All of them. At least then.
It's not in inner city Tampa. Lol.
So, I did get to spend a day taking a lesson on clay.
I haven't been able to step on a clay cour since.
This is the US.
They had this business model of selling these public school teams lessons.
It was something far below the level of seriousness.
My lesson- the trainer was "over it" before we started.
My only memory (the lesson was 30 min or as little as 15 min so there wasn't much to take away from it) is:
The trainer was hitting balls to me while standing at the net.
So he hit a few to me.
Then he hit another one.
I turned to my left, coached, set up a two handed backhand, and aimed at his person (I guess a violation of etiquette in this situation but whatever).
My shot was fast, cleared the net by a few inches, and slammed into him .
That's how you would play it and since this was once in forever time to hit on a clay court, I don't regret doing this at all.
So then he got all berserk.
I just kind of ignored him.
I was 16. He was unprofessional.
He was "the tennis player" (and I have no doubt a very mediocre one).
He has a racket in his hand.
He had little awareness and poor reflexes. Too bad.
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Link to video
Ok, I lell my HS story. My best friend Hara and I were the two alternates.
We couldn't serve well enough.
We had no game to speak of.
We didn't have the knowledge needed to get through a match.
If we had the experience we would still not have the stamina.
So we enjoyed hitting with each other. I loved hitting in the concrete "courts" they have for this.
We spent a lot of time together at city parks for tennis.
We listened to music (Broadway, Streisand, almost every album). No disrespect to Streisand at all, but when I hear her voice now, I switch it off. It was definitely a brief musical phase for me though.
We talked outback dating (others, not each other, lol).
Good times.
I wish I could have done more in HS but there wasn't much opportunity for playing tennis in inner city Tampa, and more to the point, I didn't have the opportunity to take lessons.
So yeah. Glorified waterboy. Lol!
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