To revive my tennis blog just before the 2014 season kicks off I thought I'd share some of my personal experiences of the friends I've met through tennis.
People who know me would know that I'm a sports nut, I would watch just about any sport there is. I also like to play quite a few different sports as well - just look under my bed and you'll find: two football boots, shin pads, tennis shoes, tennis racquet, tennis balls, basketball, two frisbees, boxing gloves, etc. They'd also know that tennis is my absolutely favourite. It's the time of the year when I am so excited for the New Year so that the new tennis season begins. My work colleagues always ask what I'm doing over the holidays and I tell them that I'll be going to Melbourne for the tennis.
Over the years I've had favourite players come and go but regardless of whether they are here or not I still like to follow tennis and have remained in contact with a lot of people I've met through tennis websites or at tournaments.
Tennis fans are a crazy bunch. We can be so friendly, fanatical, disinterested or cruel (e.g. on tennisforum.com haha). I've also met so many nice people from around the world through it though. They've helped me when I learnt Portuguese and German at uni. Distinctions, yeah! Proofread my awful German writing attempts. Sent postcards from vacations in Europe and even Argentina. When I went to Germany last year I visited four in Germany which was really great. Also, with the assistance of some tweeps, we've created and run Stefi's facebook fan page (and have all the time zones covered)!
For a number of years a few of us become really close on Ana Ivanovic's forum. It was created at the start of 2007 (I believe) and to this day I'm still in touch with some of them. Being a 'moderator' involved so much drama. It was hilarious, we were a huge dysfunctional family. I even mentioned this experience as an example in my last job interview and got the job - which has nothing to do with sport or forums. Other activities included delivering Ana's 'pink envelope' to Sven in Melbourne on my faulty printing and the massive world-wide scaled projects for her birthday surprise.
Going to the Sydney tournament every year I've made a few friends with people that I only see that time of the year. They have been following tennis for years and tell stories about players I had never heard of doing something many moons ago. We also exchange tickets, let each other know who is practicing to save fruitless exercise to the other side of the preccinct and such. In Melbourne, a friend who I had only ever spoken to on Twitter even let me borrow her Rod Laver Arena ticket to watch Justine's match in what would be Justine's last Australian Open.
Every January hearing French tennis players talks makes me motivated to learn French. I picked up a few words from a French guy on Ana's forum over msn, and some text from Alizé's forum. (E.g. mdr = lol, moi aussi = me too). Last year I took the plunge and signed up for a beginners French course. After 20 hours I learnt that French is way too hard for me, especially pronunciation. For the past few years Alizé's friend (who I met through her forum) and I have been giving her a birthday message at the AO but this year she is coming to Australia and I'm really looking forward to finally meeting her.
There are still many tennis friends who I haven't met yet but hopefully one day we will get the chance. In the end we all share the common love of tennis. Only a few more sleeps until tennis appears on the tv and I can work on my tan over the next few weeks.
