More tennis
My wife is a big tennis fan. She played in high school and followed the careers of Monica Seles, Steffi Graff, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Michael Chang, and others who were all in their prime together. Neither of us has really even paid attention to tennis in the last five years except to watch the occasional Williams sister play. This year, though, we lucked into some free tickets to a couple of U.S. Open matches, which had the effect of reminding my wife what it felt like to be out on a court. Her reminiscences of practicing every day and playing in day-long tournaments inspired us to watch every match of the U.S. Open that we could catch on TV.
The semifinal matches provided a lot more excitement than the finals this year. Justine Henin-Hardenne battled severe dehydration and leg cramps to pull off an incredible and epic performance to beat Jennifer Capriati, then go on to dispatch Kim Clijsters fairly abruptly in the final. Both Andy Roddick and Juan Carlos Ferrero played brilliant matches against brilliant opponents in the semifinals, but Roddick won his first grand slam title in decisive fashion yesterday, serving up 23 aces and winning 23 consecutive service points.
All this excitement has made Mrs. Happy want to start playing tennis again. So Saturday we broke out the equipment and went to a nearby tennis court. I have actually never been a tennis player. Everything I know about swinging a racket has come from a lifetime of intermittent Ping-Pong and a short, frustrating period of instruction from The Happy Girlfriend before we married. So after we warmed up on Saturday we played a match. Actually, it was less a match than a single set. And actually, it more closely resembled a 6-game trouncing (30 points to 5) than a real set. But I gave it my all, got in a few good shots, laughed a lot, and spent some quality time with my wife. Athletic humiliation and a resulting sore (in some awkward places, I might add) body don't often add up to a good time, but this was an exception.
