{"id":4357,"date":"2010-09-01T12:28:20","date_gmt":"2010-09-01T16:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=4357"},"modified":"2018-12-06T16:25:14","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T21:25:14","slug":"let-it-be-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/01\/let-it-be-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Let It Be Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a T-shirt favored by a certain kind of tennis player that says, \u201cLove means nothing to a tennis player.\u201d It\u2019s a pun that no one, it seems, can resist.\u00a0The 2010 U.S. Open\u2019s slogan is \u201cIt must be love.\u201d Please<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But watching Rafael Nadal beat Teymurez Gabashvili last night, I couldn\u2019t help but think about tennis-love. It\u2019s has been on my mind since I read Andre Agassi\u2019s excellent memoir, Open<\/a><\/em>. Every five pages, Agassi declares that he hates tennis. Predictably, he comes to embrace the sport.\u00a0(Open<\/em> is a bestselling memoir, after all.)\u00a0 More interestingly, that it\u2019s clear that, on a deep (and sometimes inaccessible) level, Agassi has always loved tennis. He calls the court a prison.\u00a0 But he also talks about the game the way one might talk about love.\u00a0 It is a long rally between loneliness and intense intimacy. And if nothing else, in Agassi\u2019s book tennis has the subtext of sex, or something like it. He wins the French Open going commando.\u00a0He falls for Steffi Graf not only for her perfect legs but for her backhand slice.<\/p>\n

Tennis players are professional athletes: they play to win. But the U.S. Open is a tournament, and a tournament is courtship as well as war.\u00a0Take the inescapable rivalry:\u00a0 Federer v. Nadal. Roger Federer: \u00a0intelligent, elegant, and powerful. He moves like liquid, anticipates the angle, monograms his clothes, and has great hands. The blogs went bonkers over his between-the-legs winner<\/a> against a shrugging Brian Dabul in the first round, but I\u2019d trade all the trick shots in the world for the sight of one forehand.\u00a0It is grace made real. At his best, Federer plays just beyond the possible. He captures something out of reach.<\/p>\n

Rafael Nadal is the warrior to Federer\u2019s priest.\u00a0He\u2019s quick, plays low, swings his racket like a lash, grunts like a moron, explodes into shots, wears neon, and hits blistering winners off his back foot. His ground strokes plummet toward the baseline, weighted with spin.\u00a0His style is physical, his manner humble, his serve en fuego<\/em> and oh, those arms! Last night, Gabashvili played the tennis of his dreams, of anyone\u2019s<\/em> dreams (except\u2014poor Gabashvili!\u2014Nadal\u2019s)\u2014and still, it didn\u2019t matter. Nadal is another kind of player, another beast. Every time his racket whips skyward, creating that incredible topspin, my heart leaps. There is strength and joy in every shot, and desire.<\/p>\n

Some people will tell you that you have to choose, that it\u2019s one or the other, Federer or Nadal. Do not listen to these people.\u00a0Others will favor Andy Murray or, say, Mardy Fish.\u00a0These people are contrarian, or Scottish, or confused.\u00a0Who doesn’t want Federer and Nadal play for as long as possible? Pull for the underdog if you must, but choose wisely. Let it be love!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a T-shirt favored by a certain kind of tennis player that says, \u201cLove means nothing to a tennis player.\u201d It\u2019s a pun that no one, it seems, can resist.\u00a0The 2010 U.S. Open\u2019s slogan is \u201cIt must be love.\u201d Please. But watching Rafael Nadal beat Teymurez Gabashvili last night, I couldn\u2019t help but think about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[931],"tags":[729],"class_list":["post-4357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-sports","tag-u-s-open"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLet It Be Love by Louisa Thomas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"September 1, 2010 \u2013 There\u2019s a T-shirt favored by a certain kind of tennis player that says, \u201cLove means nothing to a tennis player.\u201d It\u2019s a pun that no one, it seems, can\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/01\/let-it-be-love\/\" \/>\n<meta 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