“And the new, Wimbledon Champion 2023 is …”
Argh, those words will never be said about me or, for that matter, anyone I play tennis with. The last time I looked, I think my doubles team were about 140th in the Surrey District League … and if I played singles I would be infinity further down the league tables to a place of near obscurity.
In fact, I do not think I could actually even return the serve of any Wimbledon champion past, present or even dead! And that’s including the juniors!
However, never being able to achieve the number one position in tennis has ever stopped me from enjoying it. Never having played a match with an umpire in attendance has ever stopped me from making instant and fair decisions. Never having an expensive racket has stopped me from being able to compete and never having been professionally coached has stopped me from teaching myself.
And, what follows, are my thoughts on how tennis has not only provided me with oodles and oodles of fun, and friendships, it has also taught me lots about life….

Performance

“It’s not the winning that matters, it’s the taking part”.
Really? I don’t think so. It’s absolutely about the winning that makes the taking part so much fun. I’m not talking here about a friendly knock up with the kids in the park, that’s different. But most people who have ‘invested’ in their sport, play to win in my experience and embracing that mentality, within reason, forms the very nuance of what makes ‘sport’ a healthy, fun and valuable investment. Read my blog here about the match I just HAD to win … and why!

Scoring

This is my opportunity to apologise to all those poor unsuspecting people I have bored witless at various times over the years with my fascination of the tennis scoring system. It’s genius!
A match is not won or lost until the last shot is made. At 40-0 down, 2 sets to nil, 0-5 … you can still come back to win. And it happens! Admittedly not so often these days for myself, but Andy Murray has made a career out of it and he’s still going strong!

Winning

As I mentioned, ‘winning’ is important and in my experience, those of us who seek to win competitively, enjoy a long and happy relationship with tennis. Remove that ‘competitive’ element and the playing becomes less rewarding and ultimately erodes the motivation to play.

Losing

Losing is good for us. If nothing else it helps us to enjoy winning more. Of course, there are ‘good losers’ and ‘bad losers’. Personally, I think I’m too accepting of losing.
More self-belief, more commitment to the match and less ‘drifting off’ would result in more wins, which in turn will inspire me to play more, and better. It’s always a good thing to ‘play up’ too. Where possible, play against those you aspire to be as good as, if they’ll let you. And therein lies another skill of subtle persuasion.

A gentleman’s draw

Two things here. One … why is it referred to as a ‘gentleman’s draw’ as opposed to a ‘lady’s draw’, a pronoun or similar? No doubt a delve into ChatGPT will reveal more about the origins of this phrase. However, it is worth noting that such a conclusion is very rarely reached in tennis, unless, of course, the Pimms has been left standing too long or the salmon sandwiches are beginning to turn up on the corners. Tennis players want to win, not bloody draw!

People

For me, one of my main reasons for getting in to tennis almost fifty years ago in the local park and then going on to join tennis clubs has been as much to do with the people as with the sport itself.
From little Ken, the ‘Ernie Wise’ of my first club back in Huddersfield to more recently, my team partner and erstwhile ‘Cancer Twin’, Patrick Crabtree.

Credited with allowing possibly the most unorthodox player to join the gorgeous little club that is Barnes TC, Patrick, then the club Chairman, welcomed me on day one and instantly made me feel very welcomed.
We soon become good friends off the court too as we would often finish off a match with a pint or two at the clubhouse bar or further afield at a riverside pub, chatting about Barnes life and contrasting our upbringings which had brought us to a point in our lives where we played matches together and ultimately were both diagnosed cancer in the same month.
“Nadio. I’ve got the same as you”, he exclaimed over the phone as I was leaving one of my pretreatment tests.

“What? No backhand?” I replied, curiously.
“No. Cancer!” Came the response.
I was floored. Somehow, the thought of this great man, with a beautiful, caring wife and daughter, having cancer, was so not fair. It just seemed so wrong to me.
“I couldn’t think of anyone better to have it with”, came his rather odd next sentence.
But I knew what he meant, no offence intended and certainly none taken!
And so, for the next few months we would continue to play tennis together and often meet up just for chats and some soft fruit. Yes, that’s how basic our treats became, soft fruit and a sip of water. Each.

Eventually, my treatment plan prevented me from joining him for a while as my body gave in to the rather punishing treatment by which time his immune therapy programme had only just started. And so he cared for me.
But then, I started to get better but sadly, whilst Boris partied, Patrick often suffered in near isolation as his immune system left him prone to everything going. Hence long stays in badly staffed hospital wards (did I mention whilst Boris partied?).

In the end, suddenly and certainly far sooner than either of us dared to speculate whilst sucking on our mangos (no, not a euphemism lol) it sadly did not work out for Patrick Crabtree … ‘A True Gentleman Both On and Off The Court’ as is inscribed on the Trophy we now play for in his name.

Mentioning Patrick does not happen without triggering thoughts to the biggest match of my life, so far. I blogged about it then, but in short, nobody on the court knew at that time that my own health was deteriorating so rapidly that it was destined to be my last match for some time. Winning was all that mattered, in more ways than one! You can read about it here.

Nicknames

I have had the pleasure of playing with and against many great players. Not so great in the sense that they were world class, but great personalities. And with that comes the nicknames and anecdotes. Such as ‘Brenda’. Steve was highly competitive, so much so that at 4-5 down in the deciding set, and losing 30-40, he ‘called for light’. Meaning that he declared he could not see sufficiently well to complete the match and it had to be paused.
This results in the opposition having to return at a later date to complete the match. All for the sake of what could have been just another 10 seconds. I think I would have chosen a more apt nickname than ‘Brenda’ (which rhymes with his surname. No offence to any Brenda’s reading this!).

Umpiring

Only players of a certain level will have experienced playing with umpires. That renders me unqualified to say much other than what I have witnessed on the TV. However, the fact that thousands, if not millions, of people are competing at any time of day, globally, without the need for an umpire, is credit to a sport that has a set of rules that are easy to understand, administer and replicate globally. Rarely does ‘interpretation’ get in the way of a correct decision in tennis. A pity we couldn’t say the same for other aspects of our lives.

Protocols

Standards, morals, ethics and traditions are all coming into question more now than ever as we tussle with the impact of ChatGPT. But tennis has its own and I have to say, they are polite, respectful and transferable to the pub, boardroom or even dare I say bedroom (I’ll save that for the memoirs!).

Social skills

When we were all confined to our homes apart from a few minutes of outdoor exercise (Hunt comes to mind!), we realised then how much we missed not just the physical side of tennis but the mental benefits too. Learning how to socialise both on and off the court, often with people from vastly different backgrounds and often different generations, is both a pleasure and a treat.

Productivity

Last but not least, are the lessons we can learn about productivity. I include in this the benefits of preparedness (Luke, are you reading this?), equipment maintenance and mindfulness. All are worthwhile investments. And to that point, comes the serve. Serve big, serve fast and serve it deep … statistically produces a massive ROI even though for that 5 seconds, the level of effort required seems disproportionate to the outcome.
It’s not.
Take it from me … you don’t want to get into a rally if you can help it!

Written by me, Nadio Granata on the 2nd anniversary of ringing the bell. In fond memory of those who didn’t make it … your legacies live on.

#NoChatGPT

Chiswick Quay Marina
Thursday 13th July

#bemoremandy

Supporting Macmillan Cancer Research