What got you to tennis?

Today, I thought I would talk about what drew me into professional men's tennis. I've talked about the players and my opinions on them but I realized that I've never said much about why I enjoy tennis as a sport. I started watching bits and pieces of matches in 2001 but it wasn't until several years later that sat through an entire match. The first one that I followed closely was the Thomas Johansson vs Andy Roddick 2005 Wimbledon semi-finals. At the time I was pulling for Roddick simply because he was from my country. During the match I heard the commentators talking about Roger Federer, beating Roddick at several tournaments in the last few months. I had never seen Federer at this point, so I was really curious to see how good he was. I didn't have to wait long, the next day I tuned into watch the Wimbledon finals. The first two sets were already over but the third was just starting. Roddick's, serve was amazingly fast and he won his first service game easily, because of it. Yet, despite Roddick's great serving Roger, never looked flustered. He blocked back Roddick's serve like it was nothing special to him and he frustrated Roddick even more by hitting winners from the most difficult position on the court. Roger's, performance that day was too good to be true and he dominated Roddick on the important points. By the end of the match Roger Federer, had become my new favorite player. How could you not like the guy? He was polite, he came up with amazing shots, and he was cool, nobody else on the tour was like him. I think Roger Federer's dominating performance and jaw-dropping winners is what kept me interested in pro tennis over the next few years. When Nadal came along and challenged Federer, I became more interested in the pro game. Here was Federer, blowing away all of the competition, except for this one guy who had somehow gotten into his head and basically owned him in every match for over two years. Everyone has a different opinion of what the best rivalry in tennis has been but I strongly feel that their's is the best one. In nearly all of their matches it has brought out top level performances from both players. They've played 20 times, far more than the Borg/McEnroe rivalry and they've played in a grand slam final on all 3 different surfaces. More diverse than, the Agassi/Sampras rivalry. For me it's the ability of the players, that keeps me interested in the pro game. It's hard to imagine tennis without Federer and Nadal but at some point they will both retire. I hope that the guys who replace them will be equally skilled and form rivalries that are at least as good if not better. As long as there are great players, with exciting new styles I will continue to watch pro men's tennis. For me it's just too much fun to stop any time soon.