Tennis anyone?

Another goal of mine coming down here is to play copious amounts of tennis if possible.  Tennis is one of my few real passions in life + I have my dad to thank for putting a (in those days wooden) racket in my hands when I was 5.  When I was a teenager I spent 5-6 days a week around a tennis court teaching or playing.  When I started at grad school and then in NY it became very hard to play more than once every 2-3 weeks and even though I'm an older man these days I miss the work out and competition of it.  I resolved I would try to play every day if possible down here and although I fell short of that my first week here I did finally get that ball going towards the end of last week. 

I first played with a friend of a friend named Pedro who was in a previous post.  He is a really good soul, generally happy and helpful guy and teaches kids in the am while trying to start a Pilates studio in the afternoon.  He made me get up the earliest by far since I have been here at 8:45am last week (I did say it was a passion) and hit with me for an hour before the kids engulfed him for his clinic.  Once he got my tennis juices flowing I decided to keep the momentum and had a taxi take me to the most famous club here called Club Vilas named after the sometimes hot-headed veteran of the Connors & McEnroe days.  I poked around and they told me they had a summer special of 1,400 Argentinan pesos/month which lets me play during non-peak hours.  This works out to around $370/mo which is more than my club in NY which is more than a little ridiculoso.  I left my name and told them I am an americano in town looking for people to hit with and checked out a few more reasonable clubs that were just down the road.

The next day I got a call from a guy named Ricky who spoke very little English but was quite enthusiastic on the phone to hit at club Vilas.  This is Ricky:

Ricky does some type of importing/exporting I didn't understand, but when I first asked him what he did, that's not what he said.  He told me he is a Bass player in a band.  He's ok at tennis, but he hustles his butt off + I give him an A for effort.  Like everyone else here he has been super kind and has offered to help me with anything I need.  I used to think that the people of Nashville were the nicest of anywhere I've lived but the people here are definitely giving Nasvhillians a run for their money.  I am hitting with Ricky manana + will try to check out his band one of these nights.

After our match he offered check the gym to see if there were any good players for me there.  He explained it was quiet that day and that most of the good players are on vacation in Uruguay or other parts of Argentina.  There was one coach there named Diego who used to be on the ATP tour + was ranked in the top 200 in the world.  Diego was another nice guy who told me his 22 yr old student was coming in 2 hours if I wanted to wait and hit with him.  I hadn't been feeling well the previous two days but wasn't about to pass up this opportunity.  His student's name was Federico:

Despite my mini-illness, all the white blood cells in the world wouldn't have helped me against Federico.  He put so much topspin on the ball that it felt I was hitting everything around my ears.  I hung in there the best I could but in the end he beat me 6-1, 6-4.  It's good to be humbled once in a while.

After my beat down, I was exhausted and decided to sit at the cafe there and watch some of the other players.  As it turns out, there were some much better players there than Federico.  On tour courts next to where I was hitting, Hernan Gumy (ranked 39 in the world in 1996) was playing the current #10 junior in the world.  Next to that the current #7 ranked junior was playing Carlos Berlocq who was ranked #66 in the world in 2007.  Hard to see them but here they are:

For a tennista like me this was a supreme thrill as the quality was high and it was fun to see clay court experts at work on their surface.   The interesting thing is that these guys all got game.  They are fast, strong, athletic, smart, literally world class athletes yet, the chances of them making a living from tennis are slim.  If you are the 100th ranked athlete in football (american or soccer), basketball, or perhaps 100th ranked hedge fund manager or CEO, you are making millions.  In tennis, all it gets you is to the break even point where your expenses (constant travel & lodging, meals, possibly a coach) match your earnings.  Any lower ranking and you are operating at a loss and believe me the 150 or 200th ranked player is amazing!  Of course the lower your ranking is the higher your earnings and fame change exponentially.  All it means is that the odds are very much stacked against you in a sport like tennis so a more realistic goal if you are very good is to get a college scholarship for 4 years and receive a solid education. 

Hopefully I can parlay my Vilas day into more solid matches throughout my time here.  Since the Aussie Open starts tonight I will make a few predictions.  On the women's side I like Clijsters again with Henin as a dark horse (the Belgians are back!).  On the men's I like Roger with Roddick as my dark horse (Murray has a shot too!).  Remember, Love means nothing in tennis...