Tennis and Me

Where I come from…

I grew up in China. When I was young, I did not know anything about Tennis, and the first time I saw tennis was in a Japanese movie. At that time I did not know I would like to play tennis so much. I was kind of born liking play sports though I was not good at any. Before ten years old, I had learned to swim and joined the school swimming team. In my teenage years, I played Ping-pong games a lot which was the most popular game in China. I was not very good at it but just like to play for fun and exercise. After college, I moved to Guangzhou in the 1980s and started to play badminton because it was a new fashion sport among young people. I traveled around the city to play amateur matches, losing more than winning.

In 1990, I came to the United States for further education. Living on campus, I found out that most people in America knew little about badminton, and almost no one played that game. I started to change and find an individual sport that I could play in my spare time. At that time, I frequently watched tennis games on TV and saw many tennis courts at the school sports center and public parks. I bought my first tennis racket from a local yard sale and asked the people who I met at the school cafeteria to play with me. In the beginning, I thought I could play better than average Americans because I have experience playing Ping-pong and badminton. Tennis was just a combination of these two sports. Once I stepped into the court and tried to hit my first shoot, I suddenly felt they were different games. Tennis is much heavier than Ping-pong ball and badminton shuttle. It is quite difficult to control the direction and distance.

Start Playing Tennis

After the first trial, I did not like it very much because it was hard to control. I spent more time picking up the tennis ball than playing with it. I could not find any beginner or similar-level people to play with me. I gradually realized that to play tennis you need to have a foundation, mastering some basic skills. I stopped to go to the tennis courts and go to the park instead. In the park, there is a practice wall where you can hit against the wall by yourself. I went there to hit tennis a few times a week. After a month, I got the feeling and controlled the direction and distance when I hit the tennis ball. My confidence in tennis started to increase and asked the people to play with me again. This time I could return the ball to the court and enjoyed running back and forth sweating in the play. Tennis became my fun game which was not only good exercise, but also a confidence development path. I went to play whenever I got a chance. At the same time, I made a few tennis buddies who were similar level to me at the school tennis courts.

Once I came to Houston, my tennis journey continued. In the beginning, I almost knew nobody here and only had a few Chinese friends sharing the apartment rents. Tennis was a way of my social networking. I went to the nearby tennis court and asked people there to play with me. After playing tennis we chatted and become friends. Gradually my tennis skills were developed and had more tennis friends in Houston. One day, one of my tennis friends asked me to play in a tournament. I did not know if I was good enough to play in the beginning. Because it did not cost much, I decided to try to play in the tournament. It was at Lee LeClear Tennis Park where I played my first tennis tournament. I was very exciting and won three matches in a row. I entered the men’s final at the tournament but lost in the final. The experience made me more fascinated by tennis.

Being Passionate About Tennis

Houston is such a good place for tennis. We have favorable weather so we can play almost a year around. Tennis courts are most very where and most of them are free to use. We settle down in Sugar Land and have several tennis groups to play regular tennis, in addition, to participate in some tennis tournaments, a particular Chinese bank sponsored AFNB annual tournament. Looking back on these years, tennis has become part of my life, where I spent more time than any other sport. Three years ago, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the AFNB tennis tournament stopped to continue. One day, my tennis buddy called me and told me this news. I felt very sad to see such a good event discontinued. He had the same feeling and suggested I organize the tournament since nobody wanted to do it. As a tennis player and receiving so much from playing tennis, I decided to take the challenge from a tennis player to be a tennis event organizer. It was a tough transition. Luckily, with support from the bank and local tennis players, the event was very successful. Last year, we made a big step to increase the AFNB tennis tournament. We rented Clements High School tennis courts and extended the tournament to two days and doubled the participants. Although we ran into tennis court resurfacing and bad weather, we finally managed the tournament and had a huge success. Tennis changes me and makes me a better person. I always feel good if I can do something for the community. Tennis let me do so. Thanks, Tennis.