I witnessed tennis joy in its purest form over Memorial Day weekend at the Westwood Country Club in Austin. The daughter of one of the players was hitting off the backboard at the top of a hill, and her balls kept getting snagged in a mesh net installed over the top of the board. When that would happen, she would run down the hill to get another ball and then sprint back up to resume hitting.
Later in the day, I wound up near the same kid in the tournament desk area. I jokingly told her that it was “too bad you don’t like tennis” and was treated to an earnest declaration of her love for the sport. It was a gratuitous statement deliberately intended to see her enthusiasm for tennis spill over again.
Sitting on the lawn at Westwood, watching that child bound up and down the hill in pursuit of tennis, was one of my favorite moments of the year. It was a gentle reminder that all players at that tournament were there because they experience the same level of joy from the sport. It doesn’t look exactly the same as we age, but the spark is still there.
It was one of my favorite moments from 2023.
That kid hitting on the backboard might have been me 80 some years ago. Only my hitting was on the wall of an old garage. Thanks for sharing.
Merry Christmas!