A Tennis Weekend in Atlanta–Roddick, Isner and Me

Tennis fans know there is nothing more frustrating than a bad day on the court, where you go to deuce but don’t walk away with the point, you keep missing your lines by a stinkin’ inch and what’s supposed to be your putaway shot ends up coming back at you.

I had one of those games yesterday during a playoff match that could have sent my team back to the state championships again.  Pretty bad timing, huh?  The only good news is I played against a gal who was very, very good.  I don’t feel as bad losing when I know it was a really good game, against a quality opponent.

I was hoping it would be a very different outcome as I was watching another match the night before.

This other match was a semifinal face-off between John Isner and Andy Roddick.  Yeah, the big guys (literally and figuratively in Isner’s case).  They were in town for the ATP Tour BB&T Atlanta Open and I was excited to watch them in person.

Watching them in real life, instead of on TV, I am always blown away by just how good they are, how hard they can hit the ball, yet put enough spin on it to make it drop just inside the line.  Their serves are like dynamite.  I dream of one day being able to put the kind of power on a serve that they produce each and every time.  Seriously–Isner’s serves were consistently hovering around 140 miles an hour.  That’s freakin’ fast!

And it was a great match, of course.  The only downsides were a rain delay for a bit and some of Roddick’s antics when he threw his racquet all the way from the base line into the net.  That’s such a bad show of sportsmanship in my opinion.  Trust me, I’ve wanted to throw my own racquet plenty of times, but then I remember I kind of need it for the next point.

Anyway, Roddick went on to win that match (and the entire tournament)–it’s truly his turn again–and his gorgeous wife was on hand to watch.  The fans who noticed certainly got a kick out of that.

And I hoped that I soaked up some better skills simply by being in their presence.  Guess it wasn’t enough, since I lost my match the next day.  But at least the gal I played never threw her racquet.  Probably because she didn’t miss a shot, unlike me.  Hopefully we’ll play again some day and I’ll end up the winner (after I really master the slice).