Some Tennis Nostalgia
Tennis reports bring nostalgia.
I saw ‘veteran’ Kaia Kanepi’s name today as news of her victory over Sofia Kenin in the second round of the Australian Open came up on my screen. It was like seeing an old friend again, because this was a name I recognised from the years when I pored over sports news in the Hindu. I’d look at the tiny columns of results below the main report, fascinated by the names, even as the ‘toppled seeds’ hogged the limelight.
Kanepi turned pro when I was in school. What must it feel like to be considered a veteran at an age when, in most other traditional careers, you are just ascending to your prime? Kanepi’s highest-ever singles ranking is 15, which she achieved in 2012. So what keeps her going? There is something phenomenal about being such a driven sportsperson: the persistence of going for title after title, or chasing that elusive victory that will define your career. Imagine winning the title on Centre Court at Wimbledon. I’ve never played competitive sport, but I can absolutely feel the energy the pursuit of grand things must bring.
So many names pop up in my mind now. Dinara Safina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva, Elena Dementieva…young women with Eastern European origins arrived on the scene in full force in the early 2000s. A lot of them showed promise, to disappear soon after. I didn’t know the game much, but I enjoyed following the tournaments and keeping track of results. My favourite female player in the years that I actively watched was Justine Henin. Looking at her Wikipedia page today, I learnt about her ‘hand incident’ with Serena Williams at the 2003 French Open, which Henin went on to win. It has left me with slightly confused feelings about Henin, who later acknowledged that the incident wasn’t one of her finest moments. These were also years when I didn’t have a very well-rounded view of life (not that I have one now, but I’m getting better!). I didn’t imagine these sportspersons to have complex personalities or even personal lives, though their relationships were liberally mentioned in the newspapers, but saw them as people who lived solely for sport. After all, what could be more fun that training hard, being competitive, flying around the world, and winning titles? It is only now that we are openly talking about the mental health struggles that come with the territory.
One thing is for sure, Kanepi has reason to feel young, if she is still able to perform at a competitive level in a sport she has been playing professionally for over two decades. Let’s not even talk about the Williams sisters or the three men who have, for the most part, distributed Grand Slam titles among themselves for about fifteen years now. The aforementioned schoolgirl is a thing of history, but I am reassured by Rafael Nadal’s lined, smiling face, which seems to say, carry on, everything is right with the world.
