There’s a yellow colored sticky note in my room that says, “Sports build character and that’s why Tennis.” Period.

When I was 12 or 13, I vividly remember asking my dad if he could look for some tennis courts in the city (I did not own an Android phone back then!) and talk with the authorities to get me registered for playing tennis. The city that I was raised in India had only limited number of tennis courts owned by some big Clubs that charged high annual membership fees to allow its members to play tennis. With tennis in my heart, I grew up watching Federer and Nadal play and often used to think that hitting balls the way they did was easy. All you have to do is to be very energetic and active while you’re on the court. Alas! I WAS WRONG!!!

Me trying a backhand while playing on one of the University Village Courts near NDSU-Main Campus.

Years passed by and I never got a chance to play tennis until 2017. I got into IIT KGP to pursue my master’s study and it was for the first time when I saw 5–6 open tennis courts on-campus. My love for tennis was rejuvenated. But the biggest hurdle was to buy a good racquet and a set of balls to play with (which indeed was expensive!). I was a bit hesitant to ask my dad to sponsor a significant amount just to buy a racquet and set of balls (although I knew he would definitely pay for it!). However, I was able to talk with someone and managed to procure a Wilson racquet. Since then, I have been playing tennis and enjoying the sport more each day (but I am not consistent at all). Over time I have thought that I played many sports including, Volleyball, Cricket (I don’t like Cricket at all for some reason!), Squash, Badminton, Football (Soccer and not the American Football), Table-Tennis (Ping-pong), and Tennis (of-course). But I love tennis the most and is special to me due to following reasons:

Tennis demands mental strength: I won’t be bias at all if I say that tennis demands mental strength. That does not mean that the other sports does not. But playing tennis as singles is really exhausting and that too for 5-6 sets straight (think about the professionals!). It demands strong characters of an athelete. Tennis also involves strategic thinking ability to attack your opponent’ weakness + judging the balls. One has to be actively thinking and “BE PRESENT MENTALLY” on the court while playing this sport.

Tennis demands physical strength that leads to hitting strategic shots: This part is directly linked to the mental strength. If one can think to attack the opponent, one has to act too. In spite of not just simply running on the court, one should have charasmatic reflexes too in order to hit the ball just in the direction they might have thought. It requires a coordination between what one thinks and how one acts.  

Fighting for each point: In a way, tennis has taught me so much about life. No matter how challenging life can get on an every day basis (for points when playing), one always get an opportunity to fight back sometime! One of the major reason when I am on the court, I always have this inner feeling to fight and play the best as per my strength both mentally and physically.

Because of Rafael Nadal: The GOAT player of Tennis in my opinion. I wish I could see him play live someday soon. His amazing athleticism, control over his emotions for not breaking his tennis racquet (like Djoko and others), and not being disrespectful or abusive to this opponent. For me, this is a standalone quality of an amazing professional sports player.