Abnormality in tennis has got to end. Now

Their bulging bags contain two, three, rackets wrapped neatly in plastic, plus other stuff. Usually, they carry two bags, slung, quite heavily I must say, on both their shoulders.

Every athlete has his weapon he holds so dear he’d protect it with his life. The basketball player has his basket ball, the golfer clubs and the boxer gloves.

Oh, yes, the tennis player has his tennis rackets.

I guess I’ve mentioned this already here but, please, allow me to do it again.

And I ask yet again: Why do tennis players carry their rackets stuffed into a carry-all bag as they make their way into their battlefield?

In contrast, golfers have their caddies to tend to their golf bags containing their clubs.

The basketball players have ball boys to bring the basket balls into the hard court arena.

And boxers let their handlers bring their gloves into the lockers in advance.

But, alas, not in the case of tennis players.

We see them lugging their heavy bags on their shoulders on their way to the tennis courts.

Their bulging bags contain two, three, rackets wrapped neatly in plastic, plus other stuff.

Usually, they carry two bags, slung, quite heavily I must say, on both their shoulders.

Are they instant added weight to them, if not to the pressure building as their battles come closer by the minute?

I say, why can’t our tennis players come and arrive relaxed at the battleground?

By walking hands-free from the lockers to their arena of battle, aren’t they freed of heavy poundage by their bags, and at least of the mind baggage, too?

I can’t really help but wonder why this aberration hasn’t ended yet in tennis.

Tennis players, including superstars like Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, Sharapova and many others, are billionaires, too, like many golf greats like Spieth, Johnson, Day and McIlrory.

Easily, such tennis demigods, like golfers, can hire bag boys and pay them fees that are mere peanuts to them.

This abnormality has got to end. Now.

FAREWELL. I lost three friends of mine to the “thief of the night” last week—Mitch Roa, Joel Palacios and Mario Hernando. Mitch (my fellow Planters Products director) and Mario (my fellow MTRCB board member) succumbed to heart attack but not Joel (my fellow journalist). Actually, Joel was a victim of the “thief of the knife” as he was one of the six stabbed dead by that amok in Pasay. Rest in peace, fellers.