TENNIS: The Players
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Making of a good player:
Many formulas exist, none, with a guarantee, because individual response is unpredictable. Player’s ambition, ambiance and values in the society they live in, are the deciding factors. More later.
Who makes who?
Swedish Tennis legend, Bjorn Borg made coach Bergelin. Humble coach Bergelin himself has said this. Borg was bought up in the Swedish Tennis club system. Swedish clubs did an amazing job and still doing it. I had the opportunity to study it. The reality is players make themselves while countries, clubs and coaches provide and walk the rough road with them. Good players are a precious few, capable to address all the needs of development. Bergelin was a world ranked player, also won Sri Lanka’s National Championships in the fifties.
Who plays in Clubs?
World beaters are the “show piece” of the game while the everyday recreation players are the “participatory base” on which Tennis exists as a global sport. Clubs are their homes. Development Tennis means conducting events, providing courts and the logistics for players of all levels. In many countries and in many sports, clubs have the best position to achieve this. Playing is the final expression of the game and clubs enable it.
World beaters – The precious few!
World beaters of the recent times are Djokovic and Williams sisters, in the past it was ever green Roger Federer, Pete Sampras and 
Hennin; Lendl and Steffi Graf; Becker and Sabatini; Borg, McEnroe and Chris Evert; Connors and Navratilova. Locally, we had our own.
What is a club? – player’s Tennis home
Club is the home for loyal, round-the-year players. Do you play Tennis? If you are a regular player you will be attached to a club. This category enjoys the game most. Clubs have lasted over 100 years worldwide. Private and institution courts appear and disappear. What happens in clubs that is very unique? Clubs are an “Open congregation of players”. All age and skill groups play there. Some are good examples; good challengers; administrators; and facility experts. The presence of this multifaceted expertise, make a club last and mature. This integration provides services needed and it is the motivating engine for Tennis players. Others with commercial interests can only provide isolated benefits for a short time. It is easy to identify a club player from a private facility user. They behave different, on and off the court.
Survival history of Tennis
Tennis survived because of the players in many instances. Internationally, when the game went down in popularity, players revived it.
About 12 years ago, worldwide Tennis spectator interest dropped. One reason was artistry was drowned by power play. It was caused by the peaking of “speed domination of the game” over a period of 15 years. Many conferences and workshops discussed this issue in great length. Change the court; change the rules; and many more ideas came up, especially for the serve.
Luckily, nothing was changed. Subsequent players adapted to the challenge of speed and now it has the right spectator interest and to play. Speed, which was killing the artistry of the game, was mastered by the “Players”. Today Tennis is a powerful and skillful expression. Players achieved it!
Argument not to change:
The main argument not to change rules by International Tennis Federation was putting participatory interest of the millions worldwide above handful of world beaters. Very sensible move! Tennis is a very unique sport which has a stronger participatory base than other sports. Tennis recognized everyone who plays regularly as “players”.
Changes & Five Game Situations:
The winning Tennis changes every 5 years. Although not seen in a clear cut form, Tennis has five game situations. They are the service advantage; return advantage; baseline play; net play; and passing situations. Well developed players will have the liberty to choose the right one, depending on the court, opponent and external conditions. It is a part of the tactics in Tennis. Remember this in player development.
Why our Tennis standard is low?
As I said before, we were the third best in Asia. We are way down now. Why? How do we play Tennis today? How much Tennis do we play? Till when do we play? Answers to these will tell us why!
Tennis standard of a nation is judged by the quality of the Game of Singles. Today, a Singles Game is hardly seen. Court pressure does not permit singles in the evening.
How much is played?
Sri Lanka has around 4000 players. With our court availability a simple calculation will reveal that our players average 20 hours of Tennis a year! It is hardly a sporting pursuit. If anyone out there is saying ‘I get 20 hours a week’, you are telling the truth. It is also true that more than 300 players do not get any Tennis for a week. We need to protect the courts from sun and rain to increase our playing hours. Percentage of Singles play must increase for our standard to improve. To be a good player, count only the singles hours. In Tennis you are, what you are in Singles. Singles is Tennis bench mark. More later…
Happy New Year !
– georgepaldano@yahoo.com
Follow @timesonlinelk
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