My Tennis Game

By Don Gillmor The Walrus
Published on January 1, 2006

My tennis game was raised by wolves. Abandoned as an infant, it
sat in a dark part of the forest for three days crying helplessly.
Finally it was discovered by wolves who took it in and nursed it.
For 12 years it heard no human sound; it knew only the way of the
wolf. By the time I discovered it, shivering, filthy, and naked,
snapping wildly on court four of the Glendale Racquet Club, it had
killed a thousand times. It was feral and godless and knew no
master.

For months I worked with it, patiently describing strategies and
pointing to the marked parameters of the court. I lectured it on
etiquette and we practiced until my fingers bled. After dinner we
studied tapes of Borg vs. McEnroe. I told it about Pete Sampras’
mighty serve and Agassi’s uncanny returns, about Ashe, Connors, and
Becker. It had a thrilling primitive power. In time, I came to love
my tennis game, and there were days when I believed that it loved
me.

The backhand was a problem, but we worked together, hours every
day. I dressed my game in Nike Air Zoom Vapor Speed court shoes and
bought it a Head Liquidmetal Radical MidPlus racquet. With a bottle
of Evian and headband slightly askew, it almost passed for a
domesticated game. Occasionally people would say, ‘You know, you’ve
got a terrific little game there.’

But I grew impatient with its backhand. When the second
consecutive return sailed over the three-meter mesh fence at a
public court, I admit with some shame that, consumed by rage, I hit
it. I think my tantrum shocked us both. But my game shaped up. For
a while, I was naive enough to believe that I had earned a new
respect, that corporal punishment was the answer. In a singles
tournament (B Division) at the Glendale, it moved quickly through
the ranks, hunting opponents like a predator. It punished them with
groundstrokes and fed on their livers.

In the finals, I was matched with Grayson-Twempt, a smoothie who
feasted on the wounded. An early hint of trouble came when my
game’s first serve hit the line judge in the head, killing him. My
game glared at me, a familiar glint in its yellow eyes, that
ancient hunger. Its second serve took out a woman named Pruitt who
was drinking gimlets in the visitors’ lounge. An hour later, it was
down 6-0, 5-0, and there were four dead, including Grayson-Twempt,
and six wounded.

That was seven years ago. It was the last time I saw my tennis
game. I realized that I had been a fool, believing that I could
domesticate it; my game would always run with the wolves. It would
always be a threat to me and to those around me. It didn’t matter
how many expensive racquets I put in its hand, how many polo shirts
I wrestled over its matted head, how many private lessons I paid
for. My game was a black-hearted beast.

The authorities tried to capture and destroy it, of course. But
I drove it to the forest in my Passat wagon. I owed it that much. I
opened the passenger door and it loped into the woods without
looking back. There are nights when I drive by the forest, the
window open to let in the soft summer air, and I hear my tennis
game, howling alone in the forest, looking for something to
kill.

Don Gillmor is a Toronto-based writer. Reprinted from
The Walrus (July/Aug. 2005). Subscriptions: $39.75 Canadian/yr.
(10 issues) from Box 26405 STN B, Toronto, ON M7Y 4R1;
www.walrusmagazine.com.

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