Tennis Anyone?

I play tennis. Not very often anymore, but I do.

I used to like to watch tennis. It started out back in high school when I first learned to play tennis. This was in the late 80s/early 90s and Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras had entered the scene. I was in love with Agassi because he had long hair (Yes, I know he is bald now, but seriously, he used to have long hair!) and was, at least for me, the ideal "tennis rebel."

The first match I watched between Agassi and Sampras was the 1993 Wimbeldon Quarter-finals. Though I didn't know much about Sampras at the time, since he beat Agassi, I vowed to hate him forever. But the more I watched tennis, though I was loyal to Agassi, Sampras began to grow on me. I realized that he was a great player and I began to admire him. For a decade I watched as many matches with these two players as I could and inevitably, my favorites were when they played each other.

I was a tennis fan and because the women also played at the Grand Slam Events, I also started watching them too. If I had favorites, they would have been Jennifer Capriati and Lindsay Davenport. Somewhere around 1998 I noticed this energetic American woman on the scene: her name was Venus Williams. And soon after, I noticed her sister, Serena.

At this time Agassi and Sampras were slumping a little and so I started having more fun watching women's tennis. However, somewhere along the way, Venus and Serena developed attitudes I didn't like and while Agassi is still chugging along, Sampras has retired. Occasionally I will catch a match, but tennis just isn't as fun for me anymore.

However, today I happened to catch a little bit of the Quarter-final match at the French Open between Capriati and S. Williams. Capriati has really managed to turn her career around in recent years and because I used to watch her when she first turned pro, I still like her. Coupled with the fact that I am not as fond of the Williams Sisters as I used to be, I was very happy to see Capriati make it to the Semis. Good Luck Jennifer. Here's to a win at the 2004 French Open!