From early school and all the way up to college, I was a big tennis fan. It was my second favourite sport.
Not without reason -Numerous exciting things happened in tennis in that period.
There was also a pragmatic reason to it - Tennis was one of the few sports available on direct telecast in India that time. While a lot many more matches are available for viewing these days, I have been living without a TV for the last 15 years, so have lost touch somehow .
In those school and college days , when I did see tennis, it was amazing. It inspired me to take up the sport and go for coaching with my brand new Slazenger racquet.
Coming back to my tennis watching career, some events still give me the goosebumps.
Here is a list of some-
1. A 17 year old school boy named Boris Becker diving all over Wimbledon centre court to stun Kevin Curran in the finals , thereby becoming a hero to millions of adoring schoolboys and a crush for many girls.
2. Martina Navratilova continuing her dominance of women's tennis like no one had done before. Winning title after title and completely dominating Wimbledon for years on end.
3. Pat Cash, the underdog Aussie, with his cheque hairband he always wore because he was a motor racing fan, breaking tradition and jumping over the Wimbledon stands to hug his family after putting it across Ivan Lendl.
4. Ramesh Krishnan , all grace and class, leading India's charge, ( with support from Vijay Amritraj ) to take his country to an improbable victory against Australia in the Davis Cup Semi finals to put India into the finals against Sweden.
5. Steffi Graf putting an end to Martina Navratilova's dominance through sheer grit, lots of power and stupendous will power. Steffi's subsequent rivalry with the flamboyant Argentine Gabriela Sabatini replacing the Martina vs Chris Evert one. Steffi 's golden slam of 1988, when she won the four grand slams and also the Olympic gold medal at the Seoul Olympics.
6. Leander Paes gritting his way through the Olympic men's singles draw to put India on the medal podium at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
7. Aranxta Sanchez adding Vicario ( her mother's surname ) to her name after winning her first grand slam when she beat Steffi Graf in the French Open finals .
8. Monica Seles, all power and precision, shockingly halted in her tracks by a lunatic spectator who stabbed her during a break in a match.
9. A teenaged Michael Chang, unknown and unheralded , running through the French open draw in his second appearance at the tournament ( after being decimated by John McEnroe in his first )
10. Lindsay Devenport, world number 1 with a great world view, calling her exploits on the tennis court 'just a job like any other'.
11. Jennifer Capriati, in her mid teens when she won her first grand slam and later becoming an unfortunate victim to drugs.
12. Andre Agassi , the rebel, living his fathers dream through tennis . Subsequently, his famed rivalry with the uber cool Pete Sampras. Years later , marrying Steffi Graf to become tennis' first couple .
13. The Leander Paes- Mahesh Bhupathi doubles domination. leander's partnership with Martina Navratilova to win the Mixed doubles at Wimbledon.
All of this was before the era of Fed and Rafa , before the Willams sisters made grand slams family property . Kim Clijsters, the young mother, timing her baby's food and sleep timings , to win a grand slam in between remains my standout tennis moment of the current era.
All the events I mentioned above happened after two of the most talked about matches of all time had been played several years ago - I could not watch them for two simple reasons - the first one happened before I was born, and the second one when I was too young to understand any sport .
In the last 24 hours, though , I saw a movie on each of those matches .
'Borg vs McEnroe' is the name of the first movie, and 'Battle of the Sexes' is the second.
The first one is about the 1980 Wimbledon finals - Bjorn Borg, all of 25 years of age, playing for his fifth consecutive ( yes- consecutive ) title and under tremendous pressure to keep scaling the peaks he had created for himself.
John McEnroe- the young , brash, invective spewing artist with the tennis racquet , a worthy challenger.
The Wimbledon final between the two is often touted as the greatest tennis match of all time - Mac won the first set, Borg the next two, Borg had several match points in the fourth which McEnroe saved and managed to take the game to the decisive fifth after one of the longest tie breakers in a Wimbledon final.
During a break in the fourth set, with the game on the edge, Borg notices McEnroe very tensed up.
He tells McEnroe that he ( Mac) has been doing great and he should keep playing his normal game.
Borg s ice cool temperament and calmness finally prevails in the fifth set to give him his fifth consecutive crown.
Despite the fierce rivalry, Bjorn reaches out to John and they develop great respect for each other . the entire narrative of a media hype around the rivalry melts into a shared respect and display of sportsmanship when they interact one on one. Person to person. ( subsequently, they became great friends and Borg became the best man at McEnroe 's wedding ).
The second movie is about the 'battle of the sexes'; a tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King.
Riggs, once the men's world number 1, all of 55 years old in 1973, challenged the then women's champion , Billie Jean King , to a match saying men were far superior to women in sport. Billie Jean, who had put her career at stake demanding equal prize money for women and men player's, believed she was not just playing for herself and against Riggs, but for equality and against all forms of male chauvinism.
In parallel to the tennis, Billie Jean, married for many years , also discovers her own preferences and sexuality; and that becomes one more societal taboo to fight against .
The tennis match is therefore not just a match - it's about one extraordinary person fighting against societal perceptions of gender and against societal prejudices around the LGBT community.
Billie Jean wins.
With these two movies seen, I am glad that I have seen the stories around two of the most extraordinary tennis matches that preceded my tennis watching career.
And they reinforced the joy of sport , in its purest , most entertaining form.
