micheleandtom.com

[Here's a change...Tom writes a short post!]

The girls started tennis lessons this last week. On our first day at the club, the girls’ instructor was late (as in, had to be called to be reminded about our lesson), so we sat outside and watched a young guy practicing, hitting forehands and backhands. No, not just hitting them. Crushing them. The pace he put on the ball was astounding. And, every shot, shot after shot, was hit with deadly accuracy.

As I watched, my estimation of his game grew and grew. In about 10 minutes, I went from “Hey, he’s pretty good” to “Wow, I don’t know what he’s doing here, but this guy’s good enough to go pro.”

Then, César, the girls’ new coach, shows up, and asks me if I saw the gentleman hitting balls on the front court. César tells me he used to be his coach when the guy was just a young kid.

Obviously, Cesár must have done something right, because it turns out the player in question was David Nalbandian, whose current ATP ranking is #15 in the world.