10 Reasons Why I Love Tennis

I thought I should do something like this. Heh.

1. I just love to hit tennis balls with my racket!
2. Tennis helps me to exercise my scrawny body
3. Daniela Hantuchova (Need I say more?)
4. Its just FUN!
5. Only you affect how you play. No other stupid glory hogger to make a mistake that leads to a loss.
6. It is a joy just to watch this man play.
7. Because I can make the ball move at 90mph!
8. Because I can roar my approval when I hit a forehand passing shot down the line.
9. Thousands of rackets to choose from.
10. Not many other sports where you can look good and play at the same time.

Lose-Win-Lose-Win

So it happened again. I lost another tennis match. Good God, how many more do I have to lose before I start winning? And why do people always say that you learn more when you lose. Why do we have to lose before learning more? Can’t we win AND learn more?

Anyway, I lost the singles match. I’ve still got a doubles match coming up and I’m teaming up with the person who beat me! How ironic is that?

On the bright side, my volleying has improved and my serve-and-volleying didn’t work out too badly during the match. Praise God.

Well, its nearly the end of my stay in Singapore Polytechnic. I can’t help but feel that it all just passed by so quickly. In the blink of an eye, I’ve changed so much. Some changes are good – I see things in a different mindset now, and I’ve drawn closer to God. Some changes are still not the finished product yet – I’m too cautious around people, not myself.

But, bear with me, I’m still changing, trying to better myself.

SP Open Death!

Oh no. I’m drafted to play Zhong Yuan for the first round of the SP Open. I am going to DIE. I haven’t played in ages, my neck feels stiff, and I am I bad shape! What am I going to do?!

Biased Basis

Crap! Federer lost to Djokovic in the Basel tournament in his hometown! Fed must’ve been devastated. Ever since the early times in his career, he’s been trying to win every time he came to the Davidoff Swiss Indoors tournament. When he lost to Tim Henman in 2001, he was disappointed as anything.

When and if he wins the tournament, he would treat the ball boys and girls to pizza after the final match, and its been like that for the past 3 years where he won the tournament continuously. But, today, that streak was broken by Novak Djokovic.

Sorry boys and girls, no pizza.

I went out on Sunday afternoon last week to support Darryl ‘Zaza’ Wang in the Red Bull Street style Singapore (RBSS) competition! There was me, Benedict, Ezal, Uva and 2 other girls. Namely, Regina and Hui Yan whom I got to know a little later.

Darryl got a little frustrated with the competition and how it was judged and all. He didn’t win it, but after it all he was rambling about on how unfair it was, and I really think that he was right. The rules were not made out properly, and all that mattered was pleasing the crowd.

After we cooled our heads, there was much ado about Jacob Black.

I really don’t think I look like him!

Not to be, or not to be

That is the question. I always like to think about the life I was born into and also how other people’s lives develop to this stage. You could say its a ‘Nature or Nurture’ discussion. And one of the people I like to analyze is the Greatest Tennis player of all time, Roger Federer.

He was born in Basel, Switzerland. As a young boy, he was very active. He could play for hours with a ball, any kind of ball, really. In his teenage years, he decided to leave home to pursue tennis as a career. Although it took him a while, he finally took the Wimbledon crown as his own and that forever changed his life.

Boy, what a nice fairytale story. It actually almost sounds surreal to be as successful as him. In fact, I want to know what else he could actually live for. He’s got a great career, great family, great wife, and new born baby girls. Its like he’s peRFect! But I wonder what that does to your psyche. Does that give you a feeling of untouchability? Do you feel like there’s anything left to live for? Life is everything anyone ever wanted!

Sick and tired

I’m sick. Half sick. Sick post. Again. Its always the same isn’t it? Like a machine that never misses its deadline, I never miss the chance to post while I’m ill.

Anyway, I lost my singles match against my fellow club member Zhong Yuan. It was a tight affair, and I wasn’t at my peak or anything close to it on that day. The weather was bad, my socks were wet and troubling, and I was bloody nervous.

I first played a match with Yufang against Freddy and Josephine in the mixed doubles. We won 6-2. It wasn’t tiring, but it just upped my nerves for the following match against Zhong Yuan. I served so many double faults and I couldn’t keep my mind clear. I hit more winners, but he was surely more consistent.

Final score 7-6(4).

Hopes

Its already close to the end of the 2nd week of school, and I’ve finished one match of the SP novice tournament! I won, 6-1. The next opponent will be Zhong Yuan. Not so easy then. He has proper ground-strokes, though they’re a little shoddy. His serve is really strong, which is what I’m really worried about. Truth to be told, I don’t know if I can win. I hope I can look back to this post in the future and smile!

Wish me luck!

Targets targets

I just went for a Tennis Club meeting today. The main committee was introduced to the new sub-committee and vice versa and there were smiles and laughter all around. I realized that there were many interesting new people, especially the only new girl and the chinese speaking indian. I can’t believe I just forgot their names! Idiot.

After that was a very short session of tennis with Yufang, Zhen Long, and Josephine. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day. Back to FYP.

Oh yeah! And I’m going to get my new ‘target’ and ‘fire’ dampeners tomorrow! Can’t wait!

THE Shot

“His next trick, he’s walking home right on top of the Hudson River.”

The Mighty Federer

Fallhand

I went to play tennis again yesterday and I totally sucked. Beyond sucked! I was like William Hung trying to dance cool only to fail like mad. My backhand was feeling fine, but the biggest weapon I had on court – the forehand – was totally failing me!

Routine underhanded serve returns flew everywhere. I couldn’t get any court penetration with it because if i managed to hit it, it would be loaded with too much topspin and just ‘stand up’ in the court. I have got to revise my forehand technique. Horrible!

I just returned from a meeting with my FYP group-mates John, Shao Hui, Jimmy and Dalton. We’re going to start production tomorrow! Its really boring stuff, our project, don’t ask. Heh.