the heart of tennis

As I sit on this 7 train back towards Manhattan along with esteemed subscribers Akshay Pawar and Matt Jewison, all I can think about is the absolute barn burner of a match we had just watched. Rei Sakamoto and Tyler Zink, 3 sets culminating in a 10-8 tiebreaker match.

There were a lot of unforced errors. Balls hit the net and went wide more often than not during the 2hr 50min ordeal. But what we saw was not as much the art of tennis, but the heart. There were times when I for sure thought Zink had aced it, but Sakamoto and his lanky frame would just eke out a return. Over time the court became pock marked with faint neon green imprints of the ball as it ricocheted off the ground — careening toward either a racket or thin air.

In more practical terms, seeing the US Open qualifiers was pretty simple. Had to sign up for a free pass and then we were in! The 7 train makes getting to Billie Jean King easy, and all you have to do is wade through the hordes of other tennis enjoyers.