Thoughts about Tennis Tradition...

[don_budge]

The French Open...one of tennis' great traditions.

There has been talk of moving from this "outdated" Roland Garros site...to accommodate the modern demands placed on tournaments.

Offensive in the "traditional sense":

Monfil's sleeveless purple outfit. In a word, garish.

Curtain calls to the victor...obvious grandstanding. Screaming women. This behavior is of course acceptable today, no questions asked, but to me it is...unnecessary and offensive to my taste.

The spin on the ball is unbelievable. The recent discussions on string are shedding some illumination on my dull, tradition oriented mind. A shame that equipment is playing such a large role in the play.

On the other hand...Roger's clothes matching the rusty red clay at Roland Garros is a nice touch. The guy is a class act, but who is going to deal him the knockout blow?

Nice to see some serve and volley from Isner, albeit a traditionally hopeless tactic on the clay...leave it to an American to try. It was a great try. Entertaining too. If only he could of disappeared Nadal. How many Americans are left in the draw now? Two? Traditionally not one of our best venues.

Possible interesting matchup...Djokovic and Del Potro. Is the Argentinean ready for this?

Twenty years ago there were 22 Swedes in the draw...now there is just one.

[gzhpcu]

For don_budge: parker versus drobny, Roland Garros.... 1947?

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=58331

[don_budge]

Amazing...

A white t-shirt, two racquets and a towel, spectacles and a wood racquet. Probably were drinking out of the can for the tennis balls. Savages. This is even before my time, but I can appreciate the tradition...anthropologically speaking. Look at that Parisian skyline...one lone tower. Maybe Ferdinand Celine was in the stands.

It's amazing how we have evolved from the savage to the civilized. Even in tennis. Beautiful. Keep 'em coming. How about a couple of Aussies at Roland Garros? You are a classic, my friend. Thanks Phil.

[don_budge]

ahem...

Ahem...

Re # 6,
what happened to Olof?
He was studying for a physics exam but he chickened out of calling me...I got the message from Gustav.

Or is it simply that, because of all the socialism, the standard of living has dropped so low in Sweden that nobody can afford new shoes?
The standard of living remains largely status quo but I see signs...struggling auto companies, inflated real estate prices, families living beyond their means on credit. Sound familiar? Some say it is the 51st state. The most obvious thing identified with socialism is the healthcare system...which all have access to. It isn't free...but nearly so. The people do tend to think that it is better to be part of the middle class with few sticking their neck out to become outlandishly rich. The object of the game is to not stand out...to become to obvious. Blend in with the crowd.

Now, Steve, you say you want to write, but your writing is too personal.
Wanting to write and having talent to write are two separate things. You, sir, are a creative writer and I am but a timid translator of Swedish research papers. I wish that I would have taken your lit classes when I was younger. I am just a hermit who lives in the woods with the other dumb beasts, trying to stay in touch with civilization by participating on this blog.

About Olof-- by using that name you mean to imply that he is "a stupid Swede," right?
Olof is anything but stupid. I believe that he could do anything he set his mind to. He could be the next "Olof Palme" if he chose to. He is one of the most handsome, smartest, talented young men you could ever hope to meet. My neighbor's wife met him at the Davis Cup match against Italy and she said, "He looks like one of those perfect boys that a older Italian gentlemen would keep for his amusement." That comment had her husband looking a bit perplexed. Olof could be "Larry" from Maughm's "On the Razor's Edge".

I'm glad you won his match for him, and I'd say, don't feel bad about beating up on a 15-year-old.
The kid actually took it quite well. He seemed to get a kick out of the "blast from the past". He mumbled something about "having to practice more" after our match as we shook hands. I sort of avoided his parents.

I'm 71 and recently, in a board game, beat a 7-year-old of Czech extraction who regularly beats his father. Pinned his queen, I did.
I wish that I could have seen the look on your face.

Afterwards, I started to feel guilty, too, especially since, when I wasn't looking, he went to his father, our host, and cried.
I wish I could of have seen the look on your face when the tears started to flow. You are killing me!

It's hard though when you haven't played chess in 18 years to throw the game.
Really?

If you don't mind me saying so...bottle, you are a real classic. Please continue.

[gzhpcu]

How about Laver - Rosewall Roland Garros?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCsIEx7ykDY

or History of Roland Garros...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezUDv...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwcrH...eature=related

[don_budge]

Wrist bands...

No vanity sofa for the boys to take a bit of a rest between changeovers. Laver retrieves a couple of dry wristbands from his racquet cover. No suitcases or accessory bags.

God bless Mr.Budge...see how his chest is out over his front knee giving him the leverage for a powerful swing on the backhand. Look at those white pants with the shirt still tucked without a single wrinkle at the conclusion of his match. He never changed. Not a wrinkle.

Gave me a chance to brush up on my French....Merci Phil!

[bottle]

Celine, ha-ha. That's where those...three dots come from. Samuel Putnam translation of DON QUIXOTE in Phil's bookcase...the best.

[bottle]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI-QiXbIw_I

I include the above video simply because I like it. I have no ulterior motive.

The freedom to kid around here is surely one of the great features of this forum, but I want to be serious now-- very, very serious.

Stepping back and viewing everything sub specie aeternitatis, as my Swedish girlfriend used to say, I am intrigued by the two seeming expats who contribute with such regularity.

I use the word "seeming" on purpose because these two fellows, the one living in Lugano, the other in the Swedish countryside, do not appear to suffer from the glibness and bitterness so apt to characterize expats everywhere. This makes me think they're not expats at all but rather simply Americans living well in another country.

The way that tennis fits into this equation, along with Steve's translation, has to appeal to me in a personal way (despite the contempt that the American publishing industry holds for all things personal) since about a decade ago or more I tried to move to Budapest hoping to teach English and maybe tennis and then to graduate into translation, which would be the way to actually succeed by earning money, according to my pro-active Hungarian friends.

Learning Magyarul, one of the most difficult languages in the world, however, proved beyond me, especially when I wasn't out in the street engaging in constant conversation but rather was sequestered in a bullet-riddled apartment building writing unpublishable American fiction.

Listen, surviving in this country is pretty damned difficult. Where I live now,
Grosse Pointe, Michigan, has one of the highest cancer rates in America, for instance. Living in another country, though-- making the tennis or whatever
work-- is a terrific accomplishment. I'm thinking of the Swedes, Swiss and Hungarians I've known who made it in the United States as well.

One of the many reasons tennis is so great is the way it contributes to multi-culturalism. There is nothing this country needs right now more than the ability to get outside of itself.

Just as I seem to go nowhere in my tennis invention until I start comparing two different players trying to achieve some shared, very specific and technical aim, one may not be able to think straight, ever, if one is a
landlocked American. One doesn't have to travel all the time, though that would be nice, but one does need to be more open to other cultures.

So as an Escher whose family comes from Zurich I'd like to say to Phil, please
do anything to make us more aware of where you live. (And your tennis videos and memorabilia are indeed very, very priceless.)

And to Steve, keep hanging out with those intelligent beasts and maybe add
two pinches of Thoreau. Your promise as a writer is considerable because you're willing to put yourself out there, with honesty, which means that your ego can take a hit.

I remember when I said something in one of William Golding's classes about self-indulgence, and suddenly he was taking me seriously. Self-indulgence is a big thing in writing. That subject certain comes up frequently in the posts here and yes, we can all easily become so personal that nobody knows what the hell we're talking about.

On the other hand there are a lot of scared people, too, deathly afraid that
they will embarrass themselves. Does that lead to good tennis or any other kind of good writing or even talk? I don't think so.

Best, when somebody reveals something of themselves we can see that they're having a good time, and without some kind of a good time there is nothing.

Take the greatest novel ever written, DON QUIXOTE. Is it self-indulgent? Of course. Except when it isn't.

As a former student of John Hawkes at Brown, I would have to say that everything is about finding the right voice-- for talking about tennis or anything else.

It's easy to find great voice in a forum as lively as this one-- happens all the time for a significant number of people. There's a lesson in this. This forum
happens to be a special place right now (but please, nobody, don't take it for granted, and believe me when I say it hasn't always been so good).

Readers, let us have our fun-- we won't hurt you, I promise.

P.S. When I first came to Stockholm, I stayed in the Superior Judge's apartment on Odengatan. In his daughter's bedroom I read my first novel,
WINDWAY, out loud. But the judge kept bursting through the door. Well,
we weren't just listening to my fiction. We talked, too, and stuff. One time when the judge burst in one or the other of our four legs was still up on the bed, and I was banished from that bedroom forever. So we rented an apartment one block away.

[gzhpcu]

bottle,
I am not an expat. I am Swiss Italian, and at the tender age of three immigrated to Los Angeles with my parents.


My Dad played tennis and taught me to play at the tender age of 10, from my Mom I learned to swim and excercise. My Mom also taught me to paint, which I still do to this age...

Always an avid reader and bookworm, as a kid I'd read up on dinosaurs, Roman history, cosmology, etc., not forgetting Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, however...

Was lucky enough to see the two Panchos train now and then as a kid, and my Dad lucky enough to play mixed doubles with Gorgeous Gussy Moran (my Mom didn't particularly like it...).

Came back to Zurich when I was 21 to study electrical engineering at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technogy).

Played interclub tennis in Zurich for close to 40 years.

Figured I had made enough money to retire at the age of 56, and returned to my home town Lugano, where I now work out a lot, play tennis daily, surf the internet, paint, read books (so much to learn, so little time...), enjoying life with my beautiful wife...

Here is a short video, showing a rainbow over Lugano, as seen from our balcony...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8quZaPZ1L0

[stotty]

Phil

I am married to an Italian who worked in Lugano, at a jewellers call Bonaglia. She lived in a place called Porto Ceresio on the Italian side of the border. Her parents still live there. She came over to England to marry me 15 years ago.

It's a beautiful place Lugano. I went there many times when visiting my wife before we married. When my wife and I next visit Porto Ceresio, I will drop you a line. We can meet up and have a singles!

Small world, isn't it?

[gzhpcu]

Phil

I am married to an Italian who worked in Lugano, at a jewellers call Bonaglia. She lived in a place called Porto Ceresio on the Italian side of the border. Her parents still live there. She came over to England to marry me 15 years ago.

It's a beautiful place Lugano. I went there many times when visiting my wife before we married. When my wife and I next visit Porto Ceresio, I will drop you a line. We can meet up and have a singles!

Small world, isn't it?

Small world indeed Stotty! We often go to Porto Ceresio for a walk on its promenade... Great if you can make it! Not only can we play some singles, but my wife is a very good cook...

[stotty]

I'll look forward to it, Phil. We are off to Majorca this year, but next year (or even later at the end of the year) will be spent in Porto Ceresio. Be great to meet you and have a game....shall we spin for serve now?

Yes, the promenade in Porto Ceresio is lovely, isn't it? There is a wonderful ice-cream parlour called Il Golosone there too... do try it....best ice-cream I've ever tasted!

[gzhpcu]

Porto Ceresio in the winter time... Golosone means gluttonous.... Will try it out...

[stotty]

Thanks for the photo.

That tall block of apartments (on the far side of the photo) is where my wife's parents live!

The world gets smaller and smaller, doesn't it?

[don_budge]

Yesterday...

What did I miss? Yesterday I was off on a bit of a cyber intervention...a cyber rescue. It was a friend of mine...her name is Francois...a French girl that I met in the Swedish For Immigrants class here. She was the first person that I began my teaching comeback with, my first student in the modern age of tennis. I gave her a couple of lessons over at the local golf club here that has a couple of courts that have been eroding over the years.

Things went sour here for her...she and Magnus dissolved things because of an infatuation she had for some Italian boxer for some six years, she was keeping it to herself all those years, he just happened to be Magnus' best friend. Nothing ever happened between her and the boxer...it was just an infatuation she says. Now she is in the Caribbean, in the Gulf of Mexico and life is still playing havoc with her. She sent me a rambling email about the diving business, drugs, men, gypsies and of course Magnus...he was her "rock" she says but they didn't want to get married. She just couldn't get over the Italian. Computers are good like that...cyber rescues, cyber missions!


But...upon my return to reality and the French Open, I caught Mats Wilander on the Eurosport channel (sort of Europe's version of ESPN lite I suppose). He was talking with his comely British cohost, Annabelle something or other, at the French Open...they host a show called "Game, Set and Mats" every evening after the matches to recap what was going on, even if nothing was. They sort of make it up as they go along. A lot of drivel sometimes it seems. They showed one of the women victors doing the "moon walk" when she did her victory dance. Victory dance?

Boring day, except for Nadal's third set, if you ask me...not that anybody is, but Wilander said something interesting about a meeting that he attended. Mats commented that he hoped that the tournament did not change venues, from Rolland Garros to someplace else...I think that I detected a bit of nostalgia in his demeanor. A weak moment. He didn't really say who the meeting was with, but the topic of discussion was, apparently they are back at it again...they are thinking of ways to "modify and improve" the game because they are losing audience.

He specifically mentioned the age group of under 50 as being MIA. But that seems to be just about everyone that might possibly be interested in watching a game that is currently being played at nearly the speed of light on the professional level. The audience under 50...that is pretty funny. Down right crazy if you think about it. Houston...we have a problem.

Anyways, his mentioning the meeting was a bit of a ramble...the only thing I remember him saying was something about speeding up the matches. He said something about eliminating the let call on the serve and I forget everything else he said. They are back at it again. Changing the thing that was never broken in the first place. What will they think of next? What about all of that tradition? Oh never mind.

All of this discussion about strings in the forum has sort of woken me up a bit. I pulled a Rip Van Winkle...never touched a racquet for 15 years. The spin on the ball is just unbelievable. I cannot believe how the ball is arching. I wonder what Tilden would of said. I never did care for the equipment guy types, no offense, geoff. It's only past experience. Besides, you are the exception because of your contributions to our forum. I'm gleaning from you, too. I follow all the clues, no matter the source.

No wonder nobody wants to go to the net. They would be taking their own life into their hands. It was sort of surprising how much Laver and Rosewall were going to the net in that archaic piece that Phil was so kind to post in this thread earlier.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring...for Djokovic. Yawn. An early exit at the hands of Del Potro, I hope. I am dreading another Nadal vs. Djokovic final. Soon they will be calling it one of the greatest rivalries of all time...like Federer vs. Nadal. Roger may have his hands full...his opponent reads Dostoyevsky from what I understand.

Phil, Stotty...it's only x number degrees of separation isn't it! So cool!