Tennis: February 2011

Rene Gharassemian

02/20/2011

AAS113b

Inspiration of Tennis

Tennis is a great sport that is not only fun to play but also watch. When I was a little boy I was determined to play tennis. I was only six years old but I saw that my older brother would play and it made me very interested in the sport. Tennis isn’t like other sports like soccer where you just need some grass and a ball and maybe some make shift goals to play. Tennis requires a lot of special equipment like tennis shoes, rackets, and the most expensive thing that you need to play is the court. Getting access to a Tennis Court isn’t always easy, especially if you aren’t very wealthy. For that reason tennis will probably never have as much popularity as soccer, basketball, and football. But it definitely is a sport that is worth playing and following. Any professional Tennis match is fun to watch, but the four Major tournaments, which are Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open, and French Open are very entertaining to watch. Every year these four majors or “Grand Slams” garner a lot of attention from Tennis fans across the globe. Tennis has a very rich history it was first developed by the French in the 12^th century, it was then called paume and the players would have to use their hands to hit the ball. It has come a far way from that and has developed a very extensive history. Tennis is a sport that everybody should enjoy both playing and watching.

When I first started playing Tennis I wasn’t a very good player, but my brother helped me a lot with my development. He started by first teaching me the fundamentals of the game and then he eventually started setting up matches for us to play in against his friends. At first it was all double’s matches because my brother wanted to help me and he wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t get embarrassed by others when we were playing. Little by little I improved and I became very competitive in the sport. By the time I was 12 years old I started competing in tournaments that players from all over Iran participated in. My brother was a very good mentor at first, but I also had my coach Ghezik, Coach Ghezik was a former Tennis player himself and he taught me a lot about the game. I hoped to one day be able to play professional tennis, unfortunately I didn’t take that path, but I still enjoy watching the sport very much.

Tennis is a great sport to watch, in my opinion there is nothing more exciting then watching then “Grand Slams”. But those aren’t the only interesting Tennis matches to watch. I often watch normal tennis matches, but unfortunately Tennis isn’t always shown on TV how other sports are, but with the Internet I’m able to watch the Tennis match that I want. I especially enjoy watching tennis matches that Rogger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Serena Williams compete in. If you are a real tennis fan you enjoy watching every single second of the game because the most interesting stuff happen in tennis including amazing shots, injuries, and also lot of emotions. The most important thing for a professional tennis player is to compete in the Grand Slams that’s why every single player does their best to finish the game with a victory.

Tennis has helped me grow physically, mentally and sichologicly. I have learned many important lessons from tennis. I have experienced so many hardships and I have been in so many hard positions during the practices and also tournaments so this have helped me become a stronger person and learn how to fight back to reach to my goals in the future and become a person that I always wanted to be. I also read lot of tennis magazins and book that all the professional tennis players share their life story good or bad to their fans. For example Andre Agassis autobiography “open” has so many interesting stories from Andre Agassis life, it also talks about all the effort that he have put in to his carrier and the hardships that he had to face to become a great player and eight Grand Slam winner during his carrier. It also talks about the mistakes that he have made in his life and the impact that those mistakes have put in his carrier. In his book Andree Agassi admits he has used crystal meth at one point in his carrier. He also talks about how those hardships made him grow and become a stronger person. Andre Agassi learned his mistake and became a great player and a person with a very big hart that helps people in need all around the world. Andre Agassi tjhised a foundation for children in need to go to school and be helpful to the society in the future. “Together we're transforming public education in the United States through our school in Las Vegas and by influencing state and national policy. Since the inception of the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education in 1994, $150 million dollars has been raised to benefit the mission of the Foundation including $92 million from the Grand Slam for Children fundraising event”.

Every person in life follows a different path and goes throw different situations in life, which makes them grow as a person. In my life I have done many things, and I have been very active so I had to make hard decisions in my life sometimes including moving to America for getting a education. Moving to some country that I had no friends and no one who could have show me the right way. But thankfully I have able to make good choices and I have been successful to this date. One of the things that have helped me prepare for this decisions have been tennis. The stories the accidents and all other crazy stuff that I have experienced myself and I have learned from other players. Everyone has to face different hardships in their life, and it all up to them how to face those hardships and make the best choices for themselves.

In this blog I will be posting various tennis tips, videos, stats, facts, and interesting information. I hope to help everyone learn a thing or two about the sport. Not only will I be posting up tips that I can give from my experience playing the game but I will also be posting tips that come straight from the professionals. But the only thing about the sport isn’t playing it. There is also watching and following the sport which could be a very fun hobby for everybody. I plan on posting player biographies that I think will be interesting for any reader and many more things. I also plan to post videos of some of the best players playing the sport and some of the best moves, kind of like Sport Center’s top 10 plays, but exclusively for tennis. I am going to try to cover the sport from top to bottom so every reader can find something that they are interested in. From new playing techniques to who the highest ranked tennis players are at the time being this blog will cover tennis from top to bottom! Just how coach Ghezik inspired me to love the sport of tennis I hope to inspire you!

Work Cited:

Andre Agassi. “with education there is hope.” 2010 Grand Slam for children.

Andre Agassi foundation and education.Web.01/10/2010.

Alfred Knopt, Open an autobiography, New York, 2009.

Julie M Burton. The origins of Tennis..Web. 12/10,2010.

ATP, “Men Grand Slam title winners”. Web. 12/29/2010,

ATP, ranking, “top 100”. Web. 01/07/2010.