Tennis Chatter

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I am looking forward to the clay season. I know it will be tremendously competitive and there will be a lot of stories and surprises to tell. Not to mention it will rain South American players! I will not be around to witness it live. But I am only eyeing one story with confidence: Roger Federer winning the French Open. Thus this open letter even if I know he will not be able to read it himself.

Dear Roger,

You have been called many flattering names that at one time or another you must have turned blue. Or not. You deserve all your accolades only because you choose the path least traveled towards every goal you set in your career. You choose to do the hard work. And that has made all the difference. It still does.

It certainly is not a fluke that you are one of the nicest guys on tour. You must have earned it well by being the gentleman that you are who never failed to give each opponent his due. You are Mr. Nice but when it matters on court you are Mr. Slice. You slice your opponent’s game to strips! You are not wanting in unnecessary attention and only emerge when it is your turn. Well, Roger, this year, it is your turn to lift the championship trophy at the Tournoi de Roland-Garros.

I am confident because you have been very consistent in improving yourself and your game each season. It seems that we are just here to witness a diamond being properly cut and polished to shine its brightest at the right time.

You have paid your dues. You had your racket-throwing, temper tantrum, bratty days. You have learned that the world does not stop turning whenever you lose a match and that your potential is still ahead of you. You have shown us all what hard work is and how good and surprising the returns can be. Heck, you have learned to discard your tracksuits and donned some Armani!

You are the epitome of fairness and that is not to be reviled. You are who you are. Sure there are potential rivals. Count them as blessings. They are there to support and enhance your talent. I believe that the best of you is still ahead in the neverending horizon as long as you keep on stepping forward.

I am confident for you in the French Open simply because I believe in you. Last year, I watched your performance live and had you seen me, you would have thought I drank five different kinds of energy drinks. I rooted for you despite that off-day backhand stroke. I rooted for you up to the last point because I believe in the champion that you are. For me, the match was not over until it was. It was not your day but it was your great lesson, I bet. One of the best things about you is that you learn your lessons well. Tennis, after all, is about the application of the skills one has learned. We know your preparation now is geared to surpassing your insane achievement last year. You said it yourself that winning the French Open is the only way to surpass last season’s success.

I wish you the best of strokes and the fleetest of heels, Roger. May you never lose sight of your goal and may you always remain the good man that you are. May you never take your gifts for granted nor waste it. My beloved grandmother always reminded me while I was growing up that even the gifts you are born with are taken away if you do not use them well. I will never forget the men’s champion who cried a river in Australia in 2006 nor the one in Wimbledon in 2003. There are men and there are men. But you are the man, Roger. You affect people. They respond to you. That by itself is another gift.

Whatever it takes within the courts of Roland Garros, may you do it with courage, confidence, accuracy, and class. Although we may never perhaps know or meet each other, you can be assured that with a pumped fist I will be most happy for and proud of you in my own little corner in the world.

Most sincerely,

G. M.

While I must go and navigate through life’s bends and turns where it seems that it is such a solitary journey (it just seems, really, but am sure there are about 5,000 of us in my current endeavor), my felicitations to the birthday celebrants this March.

Giving credit to where it is due, I wish my tennis mentor many happy returns for next week. He is responsible for the tennis skills I have learned while I am responsible for the awful aberrations I have done with it. May you enjoy good health and a long life.