“I’ve begun to get the hang of it,” I said to a fellow tennis player the other day, which is ironic considering I can no longer move. But it is a consolation to know, even at this late date, that things are coming together, and to think that the compound-fractured racket I have had as a reminder in my office may actually be a thing of the (not-so-distant) past.
Georgie, when she was 6 or so, said out of the blue that when I died she’d like me to leave her my tennis racket. My dad thought that was presumptuous for a 6-year-old to say, but it was all right with me. I said I would. The compound-fractured one may be a fitting memento, though it’s in my car’s trunk now. I use it to prop up the hood when I want to check the oil.
We were told this month by Steve Annacone in one of his periodic Long Island Tennis magazine tips that Roger Federer’s graceful movement and dominating play have been owing in large part to the fact that he’s been “a master of watching the ball,” which, because he’s so good at it, has enabled him to get to the ball far quicker than his opponents, which, in turn, has been translated into constant sweet spot contact.
“Try to keep your focus on the ball throughout the point, game, set, and match and you will feel some of the smoothness that Roger has displayed over his brilliant career,” Steve said. Which interested me inasmuch as it’s rare that I ever keep my eye on the ball, “once every 40 years,” I said the other day to Mary, who was disbelieving. “Well, once in every 20 years, then.”
“Pay attention,” Leander Arnold used to say to Georgie and Johnna when they were Lassie Leaguers swinging at pitches over their heads, and I imagine that’s uniformly good advice when it comes to just about anything in life, especially in this Age of Distractions when it’s very hard to keep one’s eye on the ball.
Yet Roger Federer has done it. And while obviously we are not going to be able to play like him, Steve Annacone tells us, if we sharpen our focus, if we watch the ball as it comes off our opponent’s racket and as it comes across the net onto ours, we might now and then move gracefully, as Roger Federer always does, which for me, and I think for all the guys I play with, would be enough.