In the early July, 2004, I had a visit to the Hacienda club on a nice cool evening around 5 PM. Lot of activity could be seen on the tennis courts with some children playing, some running around the courts (probably some form of punishment from Shotgun Murugan!) and some simply sitting on the side walls and watching others! In the midst of this maze, I could find Murugan on the directions of a club reception's person. He approached me with a slightly tinted walk with the right shoulder drooping in with the every step.

After preliminary introductions he explained the dress code on the court and the academy rules such as the timings etc. He inquired about my brand new Prince racquet (I purchased it from the Rakhra Agencies, Cambridge Layout for around Rs.3800/-; Rakhra Agencies is in the junction marked as the red circle in the picture) and asked me start playing from the next day morning.

The next day, I reached the courts around 6 AM. Murugan asked me whether I had played tennis before for which I told him I had had played the game in college. He wanted to gauge my movements and techniques and fed some balls over the net from one end of the court. He advised me to change the strokes and suggested taking daily feeds of the balls to improve my movements, technique and stamina. It happened that day that I met Anna Basava aka Basavappa, a senior ball-boy on the courts! :-) He was the initial ball-feeder for me. (More about him in my later posts!)

Later on, with each day, I acquired unique experiences of the game both on and off the court - on, through weekly drills and training; off - by watching the experienced players :-)

Now, I could comfortably play my forehand and drops and slices and still working on improving the backhand. :-)

Watch my next post for the details on the players! :-)