Tennis Prose




Feb/12

12

Do We Truly Watch And Love Tennis?


By Ganapathy Viswanathan

I am a big tennis fan. Or am I really? I am raising this introspective question because I am beginning to realize that being fond of certain players isn’t the same as loving the sport itself. Over the years of watching this wonderful sport, I am now beginning to realize that I may be evolving (or maturing) as a tennis fan and with a bit of luck, even as a person!

On surface, it appears so much fun to root for a player (or a side in a team sport). Yes, there is thrill in it! This thrill probably comes from the release of a chemical called dopamine in our brain cells. When the stakes are higher more dopamine is secreted and released. The same dopamine that is responsible for happiness, pleasure and thrill may also lead to depression according to latest research. Should our favorite player lose, we often end up with a bitter feeling. I have been there, done that.

These days, I am becoming more appreciative of the struggle itself. There could be several reasons for this metamorphosis. Since 2008, I have been playing in addition to watching, which began to shed some light on the difficulty behind mastering the techniques, the discipline needed to stay fit, the mental aspect and all that.

Timothy Gallwey’s book that I read some time back, “The Inner Game of Tennis” improved my understanding of the game and gave me a new sense of appreciation for competition itself. Dan Markowitz’s and Vince Spadea’s, “Break Point: The Secret Diary of a Pro Tennis Player”, enlightened me on the unimaginable struggles of a pro athlete. Playing with my son and seeing him progress as he is learning this wonderful sport has also given me a chance to appreciate all of it. I still have a liking for a particular player to win- it’s such a natural instinct to take a side. However, for all the reasons mentioned above, I am now more balanced than ever.

Philosophically speaking it all boils down to why we watch or play. It would be interesting to think about why we develop a liking for a particular player. [Maybe Scoop could have this as one of the questions for his Bio files. :)] Sticking to a player gives us the much sought after thrill. We go through ups and downs throughout a match. Our state of mind is highly volatile and quite vulnerable to the outcome. The more we want our favorite player to win, the more we become biased. We don’t enjoy the struggle anymore and in fact, we fail to observe it.

Sometimes this bias would make us want the other guy to lose more than our favorite player to win. During the 2009 Wimbledon final, my wife’s aunt who is otherwise such a nice, affable, loving and caring person begged and screamed several times for Federer to double-fault for Roddick to win. Until then we had never witnessed this side of her. In her mind she was being reasonable. Her logic was Federer had won too many, he was being greedy and therefore he was not letting someone else win. While rooting for someone, often times, we forget our own roots. May be we can call it, “extreme rooting!”

When we begin to “extreme root” for someone, we want the struggle to end as quickly as possible in our favor! That isn’t enjoying a sport. We are either celebrating victory or grieving loss- the two extremes.

On the contrary, what I have come to notice is that when I begin to turn my attention to watching the contest more than the result, every point seems to offer so much more. In fact, only then I realize how the points are constructed and how the players think. I begin to truly watch the sport. In the end, I am left with better appreciation for both players and for the sport itself. It’s healthier that way because you have no hate. Only love!

The emphasis on winning is so much that it is easy to forget the moral and ethical values of sport. While supporting our home crowd is natural, showing respect and appreciation for a visiting team is fundamentally important. There is no shame or dishonor in losing. What is shameful is losing one’s temper, throwing fits and resorting to swearing or even worse, cheating. All these players, no matter what their ranking is, who show up to play fair and compete, again and again against their formidable opponents knowing they could lose another close contest, are champions!

Without rhyme and pun, life is no fun! Here you go……

No offense in taking a side,
Be prepared for a roller coaster ride;
Learn to enjoy the slugfest,
You will never end up depressed!

Wanting your boy to win,
Isn’t particularly a sin;
Wanting the other side to lose,
Is putting your energy to poor use!

Federer, Djokovic or Nadal,
Learn to respect them all;
When they give it all out there,
Why can’t we be just fair?

Ganapathy “Gans” Viswanathan
For Tennis-Prose, Feb 12, 2012
Louisville, KY, USA.

14 comments

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 12, 2012 at 6:46 pm

    Very interesting read Gans. I think most people admire all the players, there is no hatred for any, even when tempermental players like Roddick or Serena erupt in rage. We know there’s a lot of pressure and stress involved in this sport and deep down they are good human beings, sometimes tennis will bring out the best and also sometimes the worst of our characters. As far as rooting for players, I actually find myself rooting for Fed, Djokovic, Nadal and Murray at different times. Like them all, but probably right now Djokovic the most. Because he is the best and he paid his dues to finally get to the top and like to see him fulfill his talents and potential he first showed beat Rogering in Montreal final in 07 or 08. Also suddenly began rooting for Roger at the end of the fourth set with Stan vs Bryan/Fish after seeing him try to pump up Stan in the last game, it showed how much he wanted it. Boy, it’s going to be one emotional moment when Roger decides to play his last match, if you the Agassi farewell vs. Becker was dramatic, we ain’t seen nothing yet. Gans thanks for identifying and touching on this sidebar aspect of tennis. Really enjoyed this read and laughed out loud at your wife’s aunt’s remarks during the Federer-Roddick Wimbledon final )

  • Gans · February 12, 2012 at 7:23 pm

    Thank you so much, Scoop.

    Lol 🙂

    No doubt Djokovic deserves it. Yeah, back in 2007, he defeated the then #3 Roddick, #2 Nadal and #1 Fed back to back to win the Montreal title. I figured he was there to stay. He had the talent, but took a while for him to mature and reach his peak. He needs to thank Fed and Nadal for making him a better player!

    Thanks, again!

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 13, 2012 at 12:14 am

    Gans Djokovic was too young back then to be able to handle all the obligations and responsibities to be #1. He wasn’t ready. Federer’s mom once said that she thought Boris Becker won his Wimbledon at too young of an age (17) and it would have been better if it happened a few years later for him. It’s a tough place for a teenager to live under the microscope of the world. It all worked out right for Djokovic. The talent and mind and champion qualities were always there. Too much too soon can be a detriment.

  • Dan Markowitz · February 13, 2012 at 12:07 pm

    I really think there’s more than one way of enjoying watching tennis. The first is to root for a player you may have followed for a long time or just a short time, but you’ve seen his game evolve and it’s just great to see him/her play even if they don’t win.

    Then there’s the meteoric rise of a new player like Jeremy Lin of the Knicks or Tim Tebow, who captivate many fans with their ardent style of play and winning (if you like Tebow’s style) off-court humbleness.

    And then there are plenty of matches in tennis where I just like watching a charismatic player, like a Tsonga or Monfils, but I don’t have a strong rooting interest in who wins. But there are many matches I’ve watched, I think of Jesse Witten when he made that run in the US Open qualis and even took a set off of Djokovic, where you start rooting hard for a guy and your whole interest is on getting on board of his wagon and watching him win. I have to say that’s a lot of fun, to boisterously root at a live match.

    I have to admit, I may go a little nuts when my son starts playing competitive sports. He’s five now and he starts Little League this spring and he’s scary good in tennis so tournaments will start soon and I may lose it. Many of use sports as a way to let our hair down and root hard. I mean sports is not art, we don’t usually go to a game or match and sit and observe. we let our juices flow and frankly, rooting for one team/player is more exciting than evenly rooting for both. We like to throw our allegiance to one side.

  • Steve · February 13, 2012 at 4:39 pm

    I was at a friends place this Sunday that had the Tennis Channel. So I was psyched but it was Bartoli vs. someone and Wickmeyer vs. someone and it was pretty boring. I used to love women’s tennis and then Leif Shiras pointed out that only 2 women in the top 100 had 1 handed backhands and realized it wasn’t my problem but women’s tennis is cookie cutter tennis. It’s freaking boring right now.
    I can watch Kvitova as he uses her leftyness in interesting ways.
    I’m with Scoop in that I can watch two 3.0 men battle at the local park and be riveted.

  • Steve · February 13, 2012 at 4:42 pm

    The players I despised over the years did turn out to be real jerks behind the scenes. Journalists wouldn’t know but talk to the stringers at the big events –they have all the good stories. 🙂

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 13, 2012 at 5:23 pm

    Steve I agree, watching two passionless robotic pros is not as entertaining and compelling as watching two 3.0s who are battling tooth and nail throwing kitchen sinks at each other, with some grudge and bad blood too. I think the tennis channel should show some local basic matches between unknown players, instead of repeating the same stuff all the time. Tennis Channel should send out feelers at clubs: Do you know two rivals who have contrasting styles and play close matches? The Tennis Channel is interested to televise it. Creative ideas like that would be welcome at Tennis Channel IMO.

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 13, 2012 at 5:24 pm

    Steve you are right, I have heard some good stories from stringers at pro events, there are some ridiculously finicky players about their strings, two mentioned to me were Kenneth Carlsen and Philip Bester. I have only talked to two stringers, definitely going to pursue this angle more this year.

  • Steve · February 13, 2012 at 8:34 pm

    Not so much about being picky but about how they treat the stringers, how they treat people when not not on the big stage.

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 13, 2012 at 10:55 pm

    Steve I can pretty much assure you Federer and Nadal have always treated EVERYBODY behind the scenes with high respect. But there are some other players who have had some bad episodes with tour personnel, very bad, such as a former French Open champ yelling at an ATP media rep who bothered him about media obligations after a third set tiebreaker loss in a Masters Series. Stuff happens in the heat of the battle. But Fed and Rafa are and have been impeccable sportsman from my experiences and accounts I have heard from many other insiders.

  • Steve · February 14, 2012 at 2:33 am

    Fed & Rafa are the greatest reps in all of sports. We are lucky to have them.
    I was thinking more of a certain sleek headed former great that would toss his racquets at the stringer dismissively and just say “70” and walk away. And this particular millionaire didn’t like to pay in a timely manner either. Blowing kisses in front of the cameras though.

    Interestingly, the high drama guys on court were reported as the nicest.

  • Gans · February 14, 2012 at 2:51 am

    Dan, I agree w you, there is thrill combined with tension in rooting for one.

    However, there are lots of people I know who can’t watch a match because they are afraid that their guy might lose! Yes, seriously, they don’t have the nerves to go through the match live. It’s hell for them. And then there are others who simply quit watching as soon as they find their favorite losing!

    So where is the joy then? Too bad they are losing all the fun!

    I have come to realize that I enjoy tennis more when I don’t resort to this sort of ‘extreme’ rooting! 🙂 It’s sort of like finding equanimity in inequality. You like this guy to win, but when the other person puts up a great fight, you really begin to enjoy the show instead of getting nervous. In fact, you truly want to see a great match! May be you already have that approach that you can keep it all together!

    I have my own doubts how I am going to handle when my son starts playing tournaments regularly. Right now, I am behaving well when I take him to chess tournaments, which is encouraging! 🙂

    Glad to know that your son is really good. May be one day, we will see our sons play against each other and both of us can still be friends! 🙂

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 14, 2012 at 2:54 am

    Oh that guy. Yes he was a disrespectful bad mannered punk in his earlier days but to his credit, did change and mature later. One thing though, it’s not easy being a big star when everybody wants something from you, everybody. Kids, media, fans, other players, everybody wants something. They have to have self defense mechanisms. If that makes it any easier to empathize in their shoes.

  • Dan Markowitz · February 14, 2012 at 11:09 am

    Gans, you sound like a true sportsman. Cheers. A chess-playing, tennis-playing son, this kid is going to have all the tools.

<<

>>

Find it!

Copyright 2010
Tennis-Prose.com
To top