It must be love ...

If someone asked me which sporting event I would choose to attend (as a spectator, naturally – organised sport and I have never been on good terms) my first choice would be the Veterans’ tennis tournament held at the Albert Hall. Tennis was one of the few sports I always quite enjoyed playing, despite having to walk through the streets of Southsea to the courts on the Common, wearing ridiculous tennis dresses and flashing our white knickers at all and sundry, and I don’t have too many ghastly memories associated with it. Some odd memories, certainly. I never did quite understand why, when it was too wet for us to actually play during double games on Wednesday afternoon, we still had to get changed into our kit to go and watch Wimbledon on a TV which seemed to be reserved solely for that purpose. We never were allowed to watch TV during school hours at any other time.

But that is all by the by. Because I had a few of the skills needed to play the game reasonably well, I could really appreciate the abilities of those who were masters of the game. This was in the days of Jimmy Connors, Ilie Nastase, Billie-Jean King, Yvonne Goolagong et al, and the game differed in quite a few ways then to its modern counterpart. For one thing, there were rallies, even in the men’s game. There were very few aces served, and the ball travelled appreciably slower from the old smaller wooden racquets. And the women were silent. There was none of this horrible grunting each time the ball is hit that is so off-putting. The double-handed backhand was frowned upon, and is now apparently compulsory. And although the players all took it seriously, there seemed to be more time for lightheartedness, even on court.

Which is why I so enjoy watching the Seniors’ tournament. They often play with their old racquets, and again, although they want to win, they also want to have fun at the same time. The men’s doubles partnership of Henri Leconte (phwooar!) and Mansour Bahrami is outstanding, and Bahrami’s skills are astounding. (His first racquet was broken when he was thrashed with it for wanting to play, so his determination to succeed is humbling.) I saw a televised doubles match where he ended up taking on, not only the opposing pair, but also his partner, who had run round to the other side of the net to play against him. When they bored of that, he ended up playing on his own, lobbing the ball high, jumping the net, lobbing it high in return, jumping back over the net again, returning it … he carried that on for at least ten shots. Absolutely magnificent. I’d love to see it for real.