It was 9:30 a.m. in Melbourne during the Australian Open. Tennis Channel analyst Martina Navratilova was sitting in the network’s studio. Soon she would be in the thick of it on TC Live, the pregame show that aired just prior to live match coverage. On one of the studio’s large monitors, a series of highlights from the previous day and night rolled in front of her. Navratilova closely watched each set of points.
And then, to a friend sitting on a nearby couch, she said, “Tennis isn’t just a hitting game. It’s a game of motion.”
Motion. This is the gestalt of the tennis zealot. Consider the tennis lifestyle of a man we’ll call Bill, a passionate UTR 4.76 who’s on three league teams, annually attends the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and is planning a family trip to Roland Garros in 2020. Bill plays at least three days a week, takes lessons twice a month and is also on the hunt for a new racquet. He’s certain there’s one out there that will add more to his second serve.
Over the course of a typical weekend in Bill’s life, there was tennis to be played—two league matches—and others to be watched, ranging from his friends at the nearby park to a smattering of pro contests Bill was curious about. Would Federer win that tournament again? What about that team event in Europe? And who was that new contender who’d reached his first semi? Did he really play like Pete Sampras?
Time was when to juggle all that, Bill would have to figure out when he could be near a TV set. The one at his club wasn’t bad, but of course there was none at the park where he’d be watching his buddy’s league match. Often, Bill would find himself scrambling between his own matches and racing home.
