Which player first got you interested in the game?

[Ferrari1190]

Sampras, when i was little i used to watch wimbledon and he was just awesome

 

[PBODY99]

Rod Laver, summer of 1966.

 

[Skycat]

For me, it's Stefan Edberg.

 

[No Drop Shots]

Boris Becker with his first Wimbledon title, then with the onset of adolescence, Gabriela Sabatini!!

 

[lilxjohnyy]

Andy Roddick

 

[chuckmckool]

Rafael Nadal, i was at my friends house, and he was watching tennis, i decided i liked to watch rafa before i knew anything about him

 

[MT99]

As a kid I loved watching Bjorn Borg.

 

[Benjamin007]

Start in love with tennis by Thomas Muster.
Start in love watching WTA by Maria Sharapova. Love the Siberian princess.

 

[TheMurph]

Pete Sampras

 

[CanadianChic]

Carlos Moya.

 

[tennisg]

Rafa Nadal

 

[dgrson]

I got into tennis during the the Borg, Eddie Dibbs, Harold Solomon, Ilie Nastase time period. We would watch them on tv and then go to the local high school courts and mimmick the way they hit the ball. There were six of us and we would spend our entire summers playing all day. Looking back now, it's pretty funny thinking of us running around in Fila checkerboard shorts, adidas or Sergio Tachinni tennis clothes. We turned our high school into our own little country club! I even had two Donnay wood rackets with extended leather grips just like Borg. Boy we had a lot of fun!!!

 

[BounceHitBounceHit]

Stan Smith and Arthur Ashe. Copied their strokes then and it has worked out pretty well even today. CC

 

[gerikoh]

andy roddick's serve gave a me a craving for tennis.

 

[dunlopfan]

For me, my grandfather loved Serena. I would always watch her with him. Now that he's passed away, I kind of feel like he and Serena are the reason why I play.

 

[diggler]

Borg. I used to study the 1980 Wimbledon final endlessly.

 

[Leublu tennis]

First tennis match I saw was Lew Hoad vs. Pancho Gonzales at the Boston Garden. Later, a friend forced me to start playing tennis when we were stationed at Camp St. Barbara in Korea. He was the only one in camp who could play and needed an opponent. I remember there were two manicured clay courts there and no players!

I bought a Japanese wood racket, size small and light. For those who never played with wood, "small" is the size of the grip and "light" is the relative weight of the racket. This one was also "short", a measurement appropriate for racket from the Orient. I only learned this when I returned to the states and bought a Tony Trabert autographed Wilson racket, medium size; medium weight, and standard length.

How many of you tennis gurus know the relationship of the wood racket to the height of the net??

 

[backhander]

ATP it was Stefan Edberg
WTA it was Monica Seles

 

[MariaS]

Probably Billy Jean King...

 

[calvinchang]

Echizen Ryoma, TO-WI-SU-TO SAA-BU!

 

[superman1]

It was Chang in the beginning. As a boy who liked to run it was only natural to admire him, because he was smaller than everyone else and he was also faster than everyone else. I distinctly remember him running to the net for a drop shot and being amazed by how fast he got up there.

Once I started getting more into watching tennis in my teens, it was all about Agassi. He was already out of his prime, and that just made me like him more because there was an extra obstacle that he was fighting that no one else had to deal with. There was so much drama in his matches and he hit the ball so hard but his shots were high percentage so he rarely made unforced errors, and he always had something articulate and charismatic to say after the match unlike pretty much every other player, so I loved watching him.

 

[hyogen]

For me it was Roddick. I started watching at the time Pete was going away, and personally, I never liked Agassi's game with all that rallying. So when I saw A-Rod at the 03 Open, that serve-forehand combo really entertained me.

long rallies don't entertain you? quick points that don't win Roddick matches entertain you?

for me it was of course it was Andre Agassi---way back in the day like 16 years ago or more. I loved his flashy style/clothing/commercials, etc. His fluorescent green colored clothing was cool too--along with fluorescent green L.A. Gear shoes....

haha.......I was born in '82 btw. It's just been wonderful watching him play and progress and grow over the years. So very sad that he's gone, but I hope for his return...whether it be in seniors, doubles, mixed doubles, etc...

As for women's side: Martina Hingis--wow what a smart player she was...Steffi graf back then was boring to me cuz she was so hard to beat It's unfortunate that HUGE MANLY WOMEN like the Williams sisters and Davenport have changed womens finesse and smart playing with muscle and donkey kong playing...

 

[Fred The Red]

Jim Courier during the french open 1993.

Never left watching pro tennis since

 

[NLBwell]

I remember reading about Chuck McKinley and Dennis Ralston going for the Davis Cup. Also, Torben Ulrich was the first guy I ever saw with long hair (on a fuzzy black and white TV).

 

[FedSampras]

Men :: Borg and Sampras

Women:: Evert-Navratilova and Seles

But what keeps my interest in Tennis is Federer and hopefully a comebacking Seles........

 

[austro]

Noone. Why does it have to be someone? Can't you just be interested in something because of its own merits?