I started playing tennis when I was in fifth grade. Unfortunately, my wise old grandmother didn't like me staying after school to practice. She thought I needed to be at home doing my homework, so I didn't get to play tennis very long under the aegis of a coach at school. Instead, I had to be your weekend hacker, and my wise old grandmother would sit in the car at the school tennis courts to keep an eye on me. I guess the fact that when she adopted me I did have a lot of juvenile baggage and skeletons in my closet that caused her to take a greater interest in me than might otherwise have been done with a straight A student who wanted to play tennis.

Of course, the greatest tennis tournament in the world typically ends on Fourth of July weekend, which always caused havoc for me when friends wanted to go boating, or skiing, or flying on the weekend that Wimbledon was having its men's and women's championships. I missed out on many a good time, I think, but I also saw many a great tennis match -- Borg vs. McEnroe, 1980; Nadal vs. Federer, 2008. And those were, indeed, great, but the greatest in my book that I've personally watched is Federer vs. Roddick, 2009. And that goes for all the other Grand Slam tournaments, too -- Australian Open, French Open, and U.S. Open.

The one thing that has always bothered me about how tennis is scored, though, was perfectly illustrated in Federer vs. Roddick, 2009. In tennis, it's not necessarily who wins the most points, or who wins the most games. It's really a case of who wins the right points at the right time in the right games. Both Federer and Roddick were awesome, and the play throughout the match was of the highest quality. Roddick lost his serve only once, and Federer lost his twice. Unfortunately, Roddick's lost serve was the very last game of the match, and that was the one that ultimately meant the most.

Nonetheless, Roddick proved that he is, indeed, back, courtesy of his new coach, Larry Stefanki, and his beautiful new wife, a model named Brooklyn Decker. After last year's early Wimbledon exit, Brooklyn, then his girlfriend, convinced Roddick that he was too young to quit and that with a lot of hard work, dedication, and a good coach, he could get back to being in tennis championship finals. That's exactly what has happened.

I've been a fan of Andy Roddick since his junior years. Congratulations, Andy, for winning the match even though you didn't win it at the right time. I hope to see you many more times in these championship finals. I know you'll get your wins.

*****

This week's blog posts

1. SST (Speechless Sunday with Text): Let her roar! - 7/5/09
2. "Dogs 101" on Animal Planet - 7/5/09
3. WWW (Wordless Wednesday with Words): Are you watching me? - 7/1/09
4. See a little, see a lot - 6/30/09
5. My first sales as a photographer - just like getting an ActiveRain Featured post! - 6/30/09
6. Who put the bop in marketing? - 6/29/09
7. Why are you using something in your business that's 6,000 years old? - 6/29/09