Ron Eng's Page

Thanks for the warm welcome, & congrats on designing this website. After reading a lot of the comments of tennis enthusiasts, I felt like an oddball. I don't have the concerns & frustrations expressed here. I have absolutely no problem finding people to play tennis with. My problem is having to say no to a lot of people who want to play with me. I have this park that I go to that has a core group of about 50 players. You never have to set up a game. Just show up & within a half an hour, you're playing a game on a court. One time, I was parking my car by the tennis courts. A guy rushed up & opened my door, grabbed my tennis bag from my back seat & said they're waiting for me on court 4. As I was walking to court 4 with this guy carrying my bag, 2 other courts called out to ask if I would play with them.
Once while I was watching a local recreational tennis tournament & this man came to sit & watch next to me on the park bench. After the match he told me that his girl friend had asked him to ask me if I would like to become their league teams' tennis coach. I told him that I wasn't a coach, just a player. He said they don't care, & would also even pay me. I declined because of the 1 hr drive I would have to do every time I was to go to their club.
Currently, I don't belong to any indoor tennis facilities, but am invited to play in many indoor clubs as a guest. Many times, I'm the 'ugly 8th' girl on the court with 7 other woman.
I'm a self taught player who has very unconventional views on racquets, strings, tensions, & training techniques. However, I completely agree with you that the returning of serves which are clearly out is unwarranted. I think they should also limit pre-serve ball bouncing to 1. Also if your toss is bad, you can't catch the ball to serve again with no penalty.
One other bragging thing I have is once I played in a singles tennis final that had a referee & ball boys & girls. They were using this tournament to give the ball boys & girls practice just before a semi pro tournament the club was hosting.

I don't watch too much TV tennis. They play a completely different game than I. Sometimes, I watch the women's game on TV. My current favorites are Daniella Hantuchova, Maria Kirilenko, & Roger Federer.
Where I disagree with you is that my all time professional dislikes are: Jimmy Conners, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi, & Ille Nastase. I always root for whomever is playing against these people. I don't like them because of their tennis skills, but because of their childish unethical behaviour on court. These are the types of people I just love to beat on the court.

In closing my long winded rant, I hope you enjoy a very successful tennis year, Mark.
Ron