My 'Roland Garros'

I have been diligently watching any Live matches streamed on BBC Sport that I can get my hands on to be in tune with the Roland Garros fever. It is amazing how you can just sit there and watch them drive those powered shots down the line, across the court, pound those aces....and you almost, ALMOST imagine that it was actually that easy and you could achieve all of that too.

Like I said, reality bites. I have never been a gifted athlete, and your mid twenties isn't exactly the best time for any of that to change.

So after 10 or possibly 12 years of not touching a tennis racket, I decided to try playing the game again. Much thanks to Chekkie for lending me her racket.

Prior to today's scheduled game with LX and friends, I remembered again how easy it was for me to be obsessed with the game all those years back - which was why my cousin and I decided to beg our parents to let us join the tennis club and take up lessons.

I have been much deprived of tennis matches with no TV in my place...but I remember how easy it was to OD on the Wimbledon, on the Australian Open - shouting to myself while watching them play, or most of the time....gaping in awe at Federer and his complacent composure. I remembered as well, how I went overboard buying tennis outfits, mixing and matching the skorts with different tops - I should have sensed my shopaholic tendency back when I was a mere 13 year old teenager - to be decked out in the fanciest tennis gear possible, only to drop the game after less than a year.

So, today, my first dapple at tennis after a decade proved to be....interesting. I had underestimated how different it was to squash in terms of speed and the height of the ball bouncing. Of the importance of body positioning and how difficult the tennis backhand was. And how I could not even hit a single ball straight down the line - which was shocking because this was my specialty in squash.

I had forgotten how much I missed being able to play racket games regularly, whenever I wanted, with people who could actually play the game. It took me this long to realise how much I missed playing at the National Squash Centre with Bikash and Chui Munn and other people who could play. And it took me this long to remember that JH was a tennis player, not a squash player, and that I should have probably started picking up the game when he was still around.

Oh well, it's never too late to start. I have missed being sporty. I have missed being athletic. And even though I am no regular multi-talented athlete at heart, I am willing to give tennis a shot. Who knows.....I might turn out to be a shadow (at most) of my Djoker ;)