Wars People Fight!

It is disheartening to see that the otherwise well-mannered and educated seeing each other's eyes on the courts for some reasons which cannot more aptly described as trivial and preposterous! Sports have always been associated with the emotional outbursts and it can be agreed if the losers blame the rules and the winners poke the losers after the game! But, it cannot be a good fun to see people involve themselves in petty quarrels effecting in a considerable break in their personal relationships!

Recently, I was the direct witness of such an awkward situation. A (name withheld for obvious reasons!) and B teamed up together to play against me and C. After three games in the first set of doubles, when the set was 3-3, A suddenly tossed the balls out of the court and walked away citing B's on-court behavior as the reason! I and C inquired on the sidelines on what had transpired. A had complained that B most of the times passes on the comments on A's game and A could not tolerate that!

On-court chemistry is a vital ingredient in the doubles game of any sport, more so in tennis, given its need for more skills in the game. Passing on some comments on selecting and hitting the shots, placement of the shots, positions of the partner, is not an uncommon phenomenon in the doubles game. Nevertheless, the conversations and the feedback process should not carry a facade of high-handedness in the game, lest the off-court chemistry too should become history soon!

I had found no fault with either A or B. B had no intentions to hurt A's feelings at all, and he readily apologized after this mild altercation. But, A, who has been a gentle and soft-spoken person could not tolerate the on-court comments on the spot by his partner. Probably, A should have taken B's sensitiveness and told him off-court about the game. And, of course, if Murugan were there, the situation would have been different than it had been. How different it was, I keep you guessing there! :-)