Now Serving

On my Friendster profile, I say I'm into tennis as a spectator (since nobody bothered to enroll me in a tennis class). I got into tennis watching because my mother, her brothers, and her father are huge tennis fans. Whenever I went to visit my maternal grandparents in June, the television would be tuned to a replay of the Wimbledon match that happened in the wee hours of the morning. One of my uncles would be doing a play-by-play because he had already watched it live. My mom would be rooting for Pete Sampras, who was still at the peak of his game. I got dragged into it when I saw that commercial Sampras and Andre Agassi did for Nike, where they set up a net and started playing tennis in the middle of Times Square. I got filled in on their friendly rivalry by my grandfather.

So, last year, when Sampras retired and Agassi was beaten out by Ferrero in the U.S. Open semifinals, I thought I had no more reason to keep watching tennis. It turns out that yes, it was the end of an era, but it was also the beginning of another. Andy Roddick won that Grand Slam with his powerful serve and became world number one (for a few months). And then Roger Federer with his strong all-around game stepped up, having won Wimbledon and the Australian Open.

You can imagine how many late nights I've been up the last weeks of June 2004, pissed off at the rain delays that kept me from watching Roddick and Federer eliminate their opponents until they finally met on Wimbledon's Centre Court last July 4. World number one and number two facing off: I could barely watch since I couldn't decide who to root for. As always, I ended up rooting for the underdog (Roddick) and thus was devastated by his defeat. But he accepted runner-up position with such grace and good humor that I felt justified in naming him my favorite tennis player.

Anyway, the sports news writers have been trumpeting this Roddick-Federer rivalry as the new Agassi-Sampras. Time will tell if that's going to be the case. I'll be glued to the edge of my seat in the meantime.

(Originally posted on July 10, 2004.)

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 11:36 AM