Long Live Tennis! (Though no one asked)

During my teens, the only sports I dabbled in were table tennis, tennis and swimming, none connected to school. The swimming lead to my years as a life guard who also taught adults, who had never learned to swim, to swim. Table tennis has been a life long love (I'm still pretty good) and the love for tennis led to a brief job after college at a racquet club in Houston. I've retained that interest in tennis and passionately follow the sport on a daily basis.

My first heroes of the tennis court were: Jimmy Connors, Chris Evert, Billy Jean King and Martina Navratilova. (I found I learned more from watching the women stars than the men.) I remain a big fan of Roger Federer and the Williams Sisters, though I doubt we'll ever see Roger or Serena back at the top of the sport again.

I admit to cheering for any player against current World #1 mens player Serbian Novak Djokovic (though my dislike is more of his politics and anti-vaccine stance than his play). I'm a big fan of Spaniard Rafael Nadal, but can't watch him play. He has too many distracting ticks prior to every point, especially when he serves.

My current favorite mens players are: Stephano Tsisipas of Greece, Americans Taylor Fritz, Sebastian Korda and Maxime Cressy, the young Italian Jacob Sinner and emerging superstar Carlos Alcaraz of Spain. On the women's side, I enjoy Americans Jessica Pegula, and Coco Gauff (though Coco's recent play has been disappointing), Maria Sakkari of Greece and the new Women's World #1 Iga Swiatek of Poland.

This week, Carlos Alcaraz won the Mutua Madrid tournament in Spain and Pegula made the Womens Final. During his tournament run, Alcaraz beat Nadal and Djokovic back to back on clay. That is a phenomenal accomplishment!! He has won five events this year, four at the age of 18 and now the tournament in Madrid as a freshly-minted 19 year old. It is so exciting and refreshing to have new names and faces to cheer on!

Long live tennis!