No more playing in the dirt!

Lawn tennis is back on the lawns, with two weeks of grass court tournaments leading up to the Big W.

Roddick likes it. Henman likes it. Just about everyone in the Anglosphere likes it. Ha-HAH! mes amis!

As for yesterday, I thought this an interesting take on it at TennisBalls.

Being older, I suppose the personalities of the players don't influence my opinion so much, because as we grow older we tend to idolize stars less. Certain things about both of them do turn me off, but I pretty much blow that off because I love their tennis.

I think we have an extreme personality clash between Federer and Nadal. I bet Sam is right and that they they don't like each other personally. Like fire and water. Like Hamlet and Laertes (except there you had a definite good guy and a definite bad guy). I think that in each other's presence, their antagonistic personal qualities stand out more, as though each tries to compensate for the other so that they serve as foils for each other. You know what I mean: like when in the presence of a jabberbox, you get quieter than is normal even for quiet you.

You can just about tell what Nadal doesn't like about Federer and what Federer doesn't like about Nadal. But here's to both of them for being professional enough to keep their mouths shut about it.

Now, for a totally different angle on yesterday's match, see Five Things You Can Learn from Federer and Nadal at TennisThoughts.com.

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