In 2001 I heard a quote from an all time legend of the game that made a heap of sense. Andre Agassi told Yevgeny Kafelnikov to take his prize money and go buy some perspective. The Russian believed he was not being paid enough as a tennis professional, Agassi disagreed and even stated that tennis players were overpaid. I believe that they agreed to disagree on that one.
Ten years earlier however myself and two other West Australian tennis 'junkies' had a different way of buying perspective. We all had a desire to test ourselves not only as tennis players but as individuals over the other side of the World in a series of tennis tournaments.
Why is still unclear but personally I suppose I was after a self assessment with my tennis. I doubt that my touring partners were in it for any less than just that. We all wanted to put ourselves in the harshest possible climate to see whether our games' owned substance.
It's all very well to be a good tennis player in your town or City however some go through their days on court with a 'Walt Disney' version of the game. None of us were interested in hanging up our rackets without a fair dinkum look at just how tough the sport was. We had all played junior State Championships in Perth, Western Australia, we had all had some success. None of us though really had received a tennis education of sorts and it's what we all desired. Let me introduce us.
My name is Glenn Thompson and I was born in Albany, WA. I am now 47 years of age. Brett Patten was born in Geraldton, WA and is now 44 years of age. Peter Gerrans was born in Perth, WA and is also 44 years of age.
Every tournament entry was buying me perspective, perhaps 80 French francs from memory. Twenty dollars is a pretty cheap way to do a self assessment on your own ability as a tennis player. Some will refuse to accept the finer details of a defeat because it is perhaps a sign of personal weakness, maybe technical, perhaps mental. Many excuses are given for some losses, 'I got ripped off , I had a bad hamstring, My racket was strung too tight, I had an off day'.
My perception of a loss is simple, my opponent was better on the day, end of argument. I have often heard the term 'I got cheated' but that to me is a cop out because if you are hitting that many balls on the lines and your opponent keeps calling them out then the equation is simple. Your tactics are all wrong, who taught you to try to hit a line on a tennis court ? Surely that's not smart tennis. If you are playing someone who has trouble calling the lines then keep the ball well in play, how will you get cheated then ?
In Europe I learned that there were so many tennis players who weren't perhaps even 'tennis players' but guys who had real jobs and just used the sport as an outlet. After all if all of those 'tennis players' who we saw relied on the sport for a living then the majority would be lined up at the unemployment office in between tournaments asking for hand outs.
Brett however was a rarity, he won more money on our tour than he in fact took with him, that was totally outrageous but that's who Brett was, a player who defied the odds on that circuit. He was probably only one of a handful of players who could say that they funded their trip completely by winning more than losing.
We saw players on that tour who were ranked just outside of the European top 30 players, guys who had rankings of -30, -15, -4/6 ( Brett's ranking) then 0, 1/6, 2/6, 4/6, 15, 15/1, 15/2 etc. It was fascinating to watch all standards play at those tournaments and in particular on the clay courts as they were like watching poetry in motion. I don't believe it's possible to describe and do it justice but the ability of some of those players who were never going to be good enough to break through to the top level was intimidating to watch.
I often hear of juniors who apparently have 'what it takes' to become a tennis professional but I take those predictions with a pinch of salt. Watching guys play who were ranked even as 'low' as 2/6 or 4/6 could hit a savage ball, they just lacked that polish to take themselves to the minus figures with their rankings.
So what do all the numbers read ? They give you a place in a tournament, a place to start, not unlike a seeding and it gives the tournament committee a place in the draw to put you. That's what was silly about the St Maxime tournament where my ranking of 0 was the highest of any other player ! There was no way in the tennis World that I deserved that ranking after what I witnessed in that first few weeks in Europe but at least it gave me a start . After St Maxime my ranking was corrected and rightly so.
It's one thing to be more than competitive in drills and practice points against someone of Brett's ranking and ability but it's another to take the game up to them in a match. The European Money Tournament will give a player all the perspective they need for around twenty bucks per competition.
Now that's a cheap way of finding out who you really are as a player.....
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