July 19, 2022 by Andrea Askowitz · Fitness

When You Were Once Extraordinary, What Happens When You’re Just Ordinary?

Andrea Askowitz was a young phenom at tennis. Now at 54, there's more at stake than winning.

Twice a week, I play in an advanced-level clinic at Neighborhood Tennis in Coral Gables. Recently, I partnered with a guy who didn’t seem to trust our coach’s scorekeeping and shouted the score after every point. He didn’t trust the coach’s line-calls either and argued over every ball that landed near the line. This guy cared way too much about winning.

Why did I care so much?

Winners stayed on court one. Losers dropped down to court two, then three. After I hit several easy forehands into the net and missed two volleys I should have put away, my partner and I dropped to court three. When I miss-hit a backhand that sailed out, I flung my racket into the back fence.

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