This month do :: or :: diso hits the tennis courts and looks at the sport of the French and English Royalty. Court tennis has its origins in France during the Middle Ages and became a favorite of British royalty, including King Henry VIII. That tradition continues today at Wimbledon, the grande tournament of strawberries and cream and Royals patronage.
Today’s tennis “belongs to the individualistic past – a hero, or at most a pair of friends or lovers – against the world.” Jacques Barzun. Some athletes relish and thrive in the loneliness of individualism: “I enjoyed the position I was in as a tennis player. I was to blame when I lost. I was to blame when I won. And I really like that, because I played soccer a lot too, and I couldn’t stand it when I had to blame it on the goalkeeper.” Roger Federer. The notion of the intensity of the hero against the world led Jimmy Connors to observe: “People don’t seem to understand that it’s a damn war out there.”