'Squares' was a way to not only warm up , but a way to bring our games closer together as mine was a long way from Brett's and Pete's as the tour wore on. Now squares is not just a game of half court tennis, it's a game that you cannot hit the ball hard, cannot go outside of your square and cannot talk to the opposition in a derogatory manner during play, a gentleman's game.
The ball must be kept in the service box , served under arm , hit with manners and the point must always be started from the service line.
"What the f... was that you pri.."? "What you on about"? "How f.... hard did you hit that"? "You are delusional you weak bast..., nothing wrong with that". You see squares always had something riding on it. It was my way of gaining a win as I was struggling against the Frenchmen with big topspin forehands.
Us Aussies sometimes attracted a crowd on a practice court before a tournament and we had' big bucks' riding on a game of squares. We had rallies that the French Open didn't have, it was Roland Garros in a match box and it was all about self pride, minus the dollars.
Pardon, we always had a can of coke or 'oranjina' riding on it, maybe a couple of French 'franc's' or simply honour , now that was huge.
Brett had such an outrageous amount of control that he could hit a topspin lob over my head from his back hand side which he could hit with two hands and drop it inside the service box. Going to the net against Brett in squares was always hazardous.
To travel through Europe in a car the size of a mantle piece vintage replica with minimal fresh air to breath through due to the stench of Brett's dirty socks was hard work. Having to listen to Peter sing Daryl Braithwaite's 'The Horses' for the thirty third time was painful. However to do it as the reigning 'Square's Champion' of Stade Bordeaux Central' was something that made the trip so much easier. It gave light to that dark tunnel of misery after another bad loss to a European clay court genius.
Whenever I teach the game of tennis now days I always start with squares, the theory is simple. If you can't control a ball in the service box then there's no point going back to the baseline. I don't know how many games of squares we played in Europe in '91, I won a heap , I lost many , I won Oranjina and coke and I lost some Franc's, but boy I had fun doing it.
Many go through life with an abbreviated view on the game of tennis, Brett, Peter and myself can look back on our playing days as having achieved not greatness but we invested in an 'education' at the greatest University the game could deliver. It gave us perspective, in tennis ,you can't beat that......
The ball must be kept in the service box , served under arm , hit with manners and the point must always be started from the service line.
"What the f... was that you pri.."? "What you on about"? "How f.... hard did you hit that"? "You are delusional you weak bast..., nothing wrong with that". You see squares always had something riding on it. It was my way of gaining a win as I was struggling against the Frenchmen with big topspin forehands.
Us Aussies sometimes attracted a crowd on a practice court before a tournament and we had' big bucks' riding on a game of squares. We had rallies that the French Open didn't have, it was Roland Garros in a match box and it was all about self pride, minus the dollars.
Pardon, we always had a can of coke or 'oranjina' riding on it, maybe a couple of French 'franc's' or simply honour , now that was huge.
Brett had such an outrageous amount of control that he could hit a topspin lob over my head from his back hand side which he could hit with two hands and drop it inside the service box. Going to the net against Brett in squares was always hazardous.
To travel through Europe in a car the size of a mantle piece vintage replica with minimal fresh air to breath through due to the stench of Brett's dirty socks was hard work. Having to listen to Peter sing Daryl Braithwaite's 'The Horses' for the thirty third time was painful. However to do it as the reigning 'Square's Champion' of Stade Bordeaux Central' was something that made the trip so much easier. It gave light to that dark tunnel of misery after another bad loss to a European clay court genius.
Whenever I teach the game of tennis now days I always start with squares, the theory is simple. If you can't control a ball in the service box then there's no point going back to the baseline. I don't know how many games of squares we played in Europe in '91, I won a heap , I lost many , I won Oranjina and coke and I lost some Franc's, but boy I had fun doing it.
Many go through life with an abbreviated view on the game of tennis, Brett, Peter and myself can look back on our playing days as having achieved not greatness but we invested in an 'education' at the greatest University the game could deliver. It gave us perspective, in tennis ,you can't beat that......
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