PARIS -- Tennis. The "gentlemen's" game: played in white polo shirts at exclusive country clubs in the Hamptons. Its participants are investment bankers and lawyers who get together on the weekend to reminisce about their days at Yale and Hahvahd. Their names are Bitsy and Spalding and they sip wine spritzers during changeovers. That about sums it up, right?
Wrong! Listen, I know I went overboard with the stereotypes in the preceding paragraph. However, I do believe that many people still perceive tennis as an elitist sport that fails to attract the world's best athletes.
I beg to differ.
The modern game of tennis is played by elite athletes -- pure and simple. Professional tennis players display as much raw athleticism as the stars in any other sport. Should Nike decide to re-create one of the best ad campaigns of all time, there are a myriad of professional tennis players who would fill in admirably for Bo Jackon in the "Bo Knows" spots.
During an off-day at the 2004 U.S. Open, Olympic silver medalist Mardy Fish took the third pitch he saw in batting practice out of Shea Stadium. After hearing about this for over a year from his best friend, James Blake took the eighth pitch he saw out of Minute Maid Park in Houston. Odds are if Roger Federer was not the No. 1 seed at this week's French Open, he would be leading the Swiss World Cup soccer team in Germany in a few weeks. (For the record, the United States Foosball Association was devastated when they learned I was giving up the parlor game to focus my athletic talents on tennis).
In the late 1990s, Venus and Serena Williams unleashed a physical and athletic style of play on women's tennis that simply had never been seen before. As a result, they dominated the sport from 1999-2003, winning 10 out of a possible 17 Grand Slam titles between them. While their reign appears to have been short-lived, they are recognized as two of the most transcendent female athletes of all time.
Their greatest impact, however, cannot be measured by the trophies in their Florida home, but by the number of rackets put into children's hands for the first time as a result of their success. Venus and Serena went a long way towards shattering the notion that tennis was an elitist sport. They learned the game on a public court in Compton, Calif., while gang members patrolled their surroundings. Much like Tiger Woods did for golf, they announced loudly and clearly that tennis was accessible to everyone.
Due to advances in equipment, technology and sport science, players today are capable of hitting the ball with more force and rotation than ever before. You cannot be successful if you don't have the SPEED to cover the entire court, the STRENGTH to meet the approaching ball and send it back with equal or greater force, and the STAMINA to repeat this time and again over the course of two to four hours. Speed, strength and stamina are three of the most important attributes that define any athlete in any sport.
As the game has evolved and become more demanding athletically, the exceptional athletes in the game are having commensurate success. Gael Monfils is a 19-year-old Frenchman currently ranked No. 28 in the world. After a successful junior career, he burst onto the professional scene in 2005, finishing his rookie campaign as the 31st-ranked player on the planet.
He is a long (6-foot-4) and athletic Jevon Kearse-like freak who can jump out of the gym and run like a gazelle. Monfils is able to cover more ground with two loping strides than I can cover with 10 of my little road-runner steps. When I watch him play, I can't help but wonder if this is what Dwyane Wade would look like if he had put a tennis racket in his hand at the age of 8 and played the game consistently.
The French faithful are looking to crown their first home-grown champion since 1984. That year, a freakish athlete in his own right, Yannick Noah (who's son, Joakim, displayed some fair athleticism himself in leading the Florida Gators to the 2006 NCAA basketball championship), had French citizens parading down the Champs-Elysees celebrating his triumph. Monfils may just represent France's best chance at repeating that parade. The draw gods have not been kind to him, however, as he faces fellow 19-year-old Andy Murray of Great Britain. Murray won his first title of the year in February taking out Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt on successive days and comes into Paris ranked No. 45 in the world. This first-round encounter is one of the tournaments most compelling as two future (and perhaps present) champions collide.
Please don't misunderstand me, tennis is, and always will be, the sport of a lifetime. One of the things I love about this game is that anyone can play and enjoy it, without having to be a naturally gifted athlete or extreme physical specimen. That said, the players competing today at the highest level possess the physical traits required to succeed in any sport and they are, in the broadest sense of the word, athletes.
But don't just take my word for it, the need for strength, speed and stamina is perhaps nowhere more apparent than on the heavy red clay at Roland Garros. I invite you to tune in and watch these athletes go about their business.
