Taking Weekend Tennis Seriously

Recreational tennis is heralded as one of those sports adults should play: it’s life-long fun; it’s good for the physical health; and it brings together strangers who, at best, may end up being friends for life, and, at the very least, may enrich each other’s lives.

We know better.

There is something wrong with my knee now. There was nothing wrong with my knee until last week when I played scrabble tennis. As I was scrambling madly around during a point in a doubles practice match, I inadvertently banged my racquet on the side of my knee, and I felt…something. I never would have played in said match except one of my “friends” said, “I am free for tennis on such-and-such morning within this particular time frame” and then looked at me expectantly. “Um, o-okay, I-I’ll set something up then!” Because that’s what I do. As a sucker friend.

All of the women I played with in that fateful practice match – this will be the match I look back at when I have to have knee surgery – are all “friends.” You know what they said when I was trying to walk out the wobbliness in my knee?

<sarcastically>“Uh-huh, sure looks serious.”</>

“She’s faking it.”

“Come on, Vutam.”

To their credit, they did offer to stop the match prematurely…as they were taking their respective places for the next point.

Now in the ideal world, I would stop playing tennis for about a week or so. Maybe go see a doctor. Except 1) I didn’t have time to go see a doctor because I had tennis every day that week including a team tennis tournament that weekend and 2) it doesn’t matter what the doctor would have said because weekend tennis players do not actually listen to their doctors if it means they have to stop playing tennis for more than a day. We go see the doctor because we just want to make sure nothing is at risk of being amputated. We keep playing tennis because recreational tennis leads innocent players down a dark path to team tennis, which is an addictive, warped culture that compels people to keep tennising.

Prior to that weekend’s team tennis tournament, I had practice singles matches I needed to play. Do you know why I needed to play those practice singles matches and never once considered rescheduling? Because I had somehow scored extremely good competition for both matches, and neither opponent had ever seen me play singles. I needed to impress them. That’s how you make friends in recreational tennis.

Singles, by the way, is awesome on knees.

So I went to the nearest Sports Whatever Store and bought the most impressive looking knee brace I could find, slapped that on, and played all the gazillion tennis matches I had scheduled that week.

I ended up taking off the knee brace during one of the tournament matches. My partner and I were down big in the first set and that knee brace, I decided, was restricting me from playing my best and I needed to be free from any shackles…even if said shackle was keeping my knee in place and preventing any more drastic harm to it.

My partner and I came back to take the match, and my team won overall 2-1 (format for each head-to-head team match was three lines of doubles) to stay undefeated in our flight. Clearly, taking off my knee brace played an instrumental role in the comeback (just as much if not more than my doubles partner taking over the match, setting herself up repeatedly, and hitting a bazillion winners).

I didn’t wear my knee brace again for the rest of the weekend. A teammate said I should keep it off, that I played better without it. Naturally, I agreed with my “friend.” Who cares about the long-term effects of playing tennis on a wonky knee without any padding or support? We have tennis matches to win!

Which we did. Fast forward to my team advancing to the tournament finals. Man, talk about having fun! Fast forward to my partner and me losing in the finals and cementing the tournament win for the other team. I’m sorry; what’s fun about recreational tennis, again?

I was tortured for the rest of the day by that finals loss. I couldn’t sleep that night. I’d close my eyes, and I’d think about the match. I’d open my eyes, and I’d think about the match. I couldn’t turn my mind off. It’s been a couple of days since that debacle, and I still find myself randomly punching the air in frustration at all the things I should have done differently in the match that decided my team’s fate.

Fun, fun, fun!

Now that the tournament is over, I finally get to rest my knee, right? The next batch of soul-sucking, cities-spanning tennis leagues don’t start for a couple of weeks. I’m doing the smart thing and taking it easy, right?

Are you kidding me? I can’t be worrying about my physical well-being; I gotta get better at tennis! Otherwise, I’ll lose friends, and this sport will stop being fun.

So much fun.

And that’s why I encourage people of all ages to pick up tennis. It’s a great sport. I wish everyone could experience all the joy I have playing it! 😀

~ Christy Vutam