Injuries

No Tennis career is complete without injuries. Anyone over 40 knows that with age comes aches and pains. And with Tennis you get extra :-) Here are mine:

• Tennis elbow
• Wrist pain
• Black Toe
• Shoulder Bursitis
• Hip pain
• Lower back pain
• Whiplash

Then of course there are those that you get from accidents on the court. Like my friend who broke her wrist during a fall.

Sounds terrible doesn't it? We'll expect it. Tennis is great for keeping your heart in shape but the body does take a beating. I'll elaborate on a few of them in my next post. But don't get fooled, I wouldn't give up Tennis for the world!

West Side Tennis Club

Here's a picture of the clubhouse.  You may recognize it from old photos of the U.S. Open from the Jimmy Connors days.  This is the club people are talking about when they say "Forest Hills". 

The place is very regal and has an old classy air about it.  There are photos of all the past champions lining the hallway.  It's quite impressive.  I wanted to join the club when I notice a sale advertisement but got nervous when it said the discount was $1,000 off the membership price.  Gulp, I wonder what the full price is :-)

In the photo are Guy and Anand.  See the other posts I just made to read about them.  Here also is the link to the West Side Tennis Club website in case you are interested in checking it out.

http://www.foresthillstennis.com/

Pics from 2007 and 2004

Here are some other pics. The first on the grass courts is the 2007 one-point tournament (guess which one I am? hint: I'm on the left side) . The tournament draw is made just like a regular tournament, but whoever wins the (first) point advances. So it goes pretty fast. You have to be ready. It's fun but you also get thrown off because the ball doesn't bounce. It's even hard to bounce it before you serve so it's hard to get much rhythm. I guess it would be different if the grass were worn and brown (meaning mostly dirt) like at a finals at Wimbledon.

The other photo is my team from 2004. You'll recognize Guy there again. He's the contract programmer that used to work at McK. His wife used to work at the FACC NY (they're both French) so she was encouraging people to join. He approached us and we sign-up as a team (under Guy's company name). The other two guys are Bart and Anand. Anand is the one with shades. He used to be an IT Group Leader at McK and now is working for Morgan Stanley. Bart is an IT Director at McK and is who my wife and I call Golden Boy (shhh, he doesn't know that).

My team from the 2008 FACC Tennis Tournament

This tournament is a promotional event hosted annually by the French American Chamber of Commerce (FACC NY) and sponsored by French companies. Like Volvic - oooh, an ice cold bottle of orange flavored volvic spring water is too die for on a hot tournament day - i'm forever a fan and will always buy their products as long as they continue to sponsor my favorite tournament.

It's held at the West Side Tennis Club which is the site of the former US Open and has both Har-tru and Grass (yes!) courts. The main part of the tournament is played on the Har-tru, then the one-point tournament (whoever wins the point advances) is on grass.

Heres my team (L-R): Ronzo (i already told you about him), Guy (he used to work at Mck as a java programmer) and me. The second photo is of me and Guy's wife who was the fourth on our team. The photo was taken on the patio where they were serving a barbeque dinner with complementary champagne.

(now you know why it's my favorite tournament?)

Rotating on the forehand

Doesn't Ron's forehand look like Andre's? Ron's always said so but I never new what he meant.  I've always remembered Andre pointing at the ball with his left hand.  But I guess he sometimes let's his left hand follow his racquet back also.  Which results in a lot more power. 

Ron, the human backboard

Here's Ronnie, someone that I've been playing with since Day 1 at midtown tennis (that's at least 14 years at a minimum).  He's very deceiving.  In fact a lot of people don't like to play with him because they think he's a pusher.  And of course because they usually loose to him too.  Ron's a bit heavy but has great court sense.  And his ground strokes are super solid.  The only problem is his serve.  It's a low, weak slice sort of like Dementieva used to have.  She's finally faced her problem and has fixed it so that she could continue to move up.  But he hasn't.  That's my only complaint against Ron (aside from his sometimes bratty attitude).  He's just not willing to address his serve.  Says that it's so low to the backhand that no one can attack it.  May or may not be true but he's definitely not winning any easy points with it either.   Don't just rely on your groundstrokes.  Build your others skills too so that you continue to improve.

Jeremy, the one-hit wonder

A young kid who must do weights. Late 20's and married. He's very slim and doesn't look like a body builder but you can see a few muscles. His serve goes up to 120 mph, or so he said. But I believe him. Because there is a LOT of power in his serve. Clearly the most powerful one in the club, second only to the big banging pro. Only one problem - it almost never goes in. And he doesn't have a second serve at all. It's worse than a powder puff.

He's a 3.0 - 3.5 player. Mostly because he balls usually go out. But he has a game. Just needs to practice. When he was at the top of his game last year he was definitely in the 3.5 range with a potential to make it to 4.0. But when I played him again after a long time last Friday it looked like he hadn't played in a while. Because he was 100% streaky all over again. Back in the 3.0 bracket.