Joseph Epstein, ballboy
Tennis, Anyone? My 10-year-old grandson Nick is in town for a month or so this summer, and I wanted to give him a gift. As with many middle-class kids his age, his play is almost entirely...
...His taste in clothes—not at all bad, by the way—is already formed, so there isn't much I can do for him there, either...
...These lessons are being given at the Northwestern University tennis courts, which, as it happens, were the scene of the best job I've ever had...
...Among current players, Rafael Nadal, James Blake, and Roger Federer hark back to the time when sportsmanship and decent behavior on court were standard...
...When I was a kid, beginning around the age of 13, tennis became my sport—also my passion—and just now I'm hoping it might become his...
...The courts at Northwestern are no longer clay...
...While there, we discovered that the pro, a man named Paul Bennett who was also the university's tennis coach, was looking for someone to shag balls for him during his lessons...
...in any case, they are blue, running to slightly purplish...
...When I was playing, the Australians Rod Laver, Lew Hoad, Kenny Rosewall, and Roy Emerson dominated the game...
...The job paid, as I recall, $1.25 an hour...
...When I was 14, a friend named Bob Swenson and I took the El to Evan-ston to try out Northwestern's cafe-au-lait-colored clay courts...
...I preferred to go down to defeat looking good over winning ugly...
...Looking back on the two fine summers that followed, I remember drinking a vast quantity of something called Bireley's Grape Soda, sliding around in the tan clay after drop shots, and hearing the almost continuous pock-pock sound of tennis balls being thwacked through the day...
...Really fine...
...Nick, like his grandfather, is on the small side, well-coordinated, and already interested in good form, which is to say, eager to appear stylish...
...The really splendid athletes master form but are always ready to abandon it rather than lose a point (or basket, catch, touchdown, race, you name it...
...I hope my grandson takes up better models...
...he exclaims when Nick bangs a solid forehand or a two-handed backhand over the net...
...They are made of HAR-TRU, or some other new composite surface...
...its perks included a 10 percent discount on tennis equipment and togs and unlimited free court time...
...It gives me something to do during the long hour, while I watch my grandson and contemplate the prospect of him, five or so years from now, hitting away with style and authority and with a deep pleasure he may not truly understand until long after...
...An excellent teacher, Alex has shown my grandson a number of helpful devices to groove his strokes and toss up the ball for his serve...
...Good job...
...Joseph Epstein August 20 / August 27, 2007...
...Their tennis was elegant, their manners perfect...
...Thus far he has had four one-hour lessons, and, I'm pleased to report, he is taking to the game beautifully...
...In the name of competitiveness, they brought a mean and mewling note to tennis, questioning calls, insulting umpires and linesmen, congratulating themselves (with pumping fists) on their own successful shots...
...Because of the new racquets, the very nature of approaching and stroking the ball is radically different...
...One thing that has remained the same is that I am still shagging balls, no longer for Paul Bennett, but now for Alex while he is instructing Nick...
...Nick's teacher is a young Welshman named Alex (no last name has been given), who plays college tennis and has an accent that is a pleasing admixture of English and American...
...I entered a number of tournaments for boys 15 and under, usually winning a round or two before being defeated by someone I felt was less good than I. What these kids who beat me really were was not less good but merely less stylish...
...Not enough, though, to make me anywhere near as good as I hoped to be...
...The new metal tennis racquets have of course revolutionized the game, allowing players to hit the ball much harder and with greater control and all kinds of spins unavailable to players of an earlier era...
...As with many middle-class kids his age, his play is almost entirely electronified—Wii-ed, XBoxed, and computerfied—and I haven't a clue as to what he might still want in this high-tech line...
...Paul Bennett, heavyset and good-natured, was the most easygoing of bosses...
...What I decided on was tennis lessons, which, when I suggested it, he thought a good idea...
...As a player, I go back to the days of wooden racquets and all-white clothes...
...On the latter score, the game went through a bad patch when Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe were dominant...
...standing by while he gave lessons, I picked up some pointers for my own game, which improved a fair amount...
...This, I now realize, was a serious weakness...
...We both, Bob and I, took it...
Vol. 12 • August 2007 • No. 46
