The Game Behind Tennis

Every time I watch a grand slam I think to myself how I’d really like to be a professional tennis player.

I mean how fun would it be touring the world, playing a sport I love, perhaps representing my country and meeting other tennis players along the way? Of course, I am not so naïve to think that a sporting life doesn’t involve serious personal sacrifice, dedication and training but do any of us really know what is actually involved? Well, why not ask up and coming young British tennis player – Jocelyn Rae (www.jocelynrae.co.uk).

Rae has a career-high singles ranking of 450 and a doubles high of 209. So far, she has won one International Tennis Federation (ITF) title in singles and six in doubles. More recently, she won the Gold Medal in mixed doubles with Colin Fleming at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi for Scotland and partnered Heather Watson in the 2010 Wimbledon women’s doubles, defeating Casey Dellacqua and Alicia Molik. Rae also played women's Federation Cup for Great Britain. All this and she’s still only 20.

So what’s the real story behind the game of tennis for Rae? She says she’s always loved tennis and had her first taste at age 7 after asking for a private lesson when routinely accompanying her parents to their local tennis club in Nottingham her hometown. At the tender age of 13 she left Nottingham to join a tennis academy in Chiswick London and moved permanently to London after completing her GCSEs to play full-time. Rae’s typical week involves three to four hours of tennis each day, divided into a morning session and an afternoon session with her coach, former professional player and fellow Scot Karen Paterson. Then there’s two fitness sessions each week, one with a personal trainer and one without. Sunday is her day of rest and if she’s had a particularly hard week, Wednesday afternoons. Even Agassi said in his recent autobiography ‘how beautiful to dream but dreams are so damn tiring’.

Despite the opportunity to travel the world at a young age, all the interesting places and people one meets and the life experiences gained from all that, travel to tournaments has not always been fun or easy for Rae as she fears flying – which she has managed to overcome. She says the locations can sometimes be quite random and experiences not always glam – Slovakia at 14 in a very basic hotel room where the shower didn’t work and the creeping loneliness and monotony of being on tour admittedly doesn’t fill me with envy. Then there are the tough life choices one has to make – leaving school at 16 wouldn’t have been easy, source of income always an issue – as getting to the right tournaments doesn’t come cheap and finding sponsors not that easy, and sure one does make a lot of friends along the way, but how to maintain those friendships? I guess, just like the rest of us with busy lives and lifestyles, you just have to find the time. Then there are moments when your resolve is tested, injury plagues you and your game, leaving you torn, your mind tells you to soldier on whilst your body needs to rest and recover. A fine balance.

Rae comes across as a genuinely lovely girl who is grounded and congenial. She still carries around her tatty childhood teddy Pinky on tour with her (bless her), has an earnest drive and loves the game. Rae lives and breathes tennis – as she puts it ‘it is my life’ and ‘doing what you love for a living is awesome’. She is pursuing her dream and how many of us can truly say that for our lives, or even part of them? She’s living every day like her last - her tattooed mantra, but I never quite got to the bottom as to why it was in Spanish. Like us mortals who merely stroll the grounds, she can taste that dream, having already played at Wimbledon a couple of times. Now that I live in London I want to back a Brit and I’m going to put my money on Rae. I think, with her evident commitment and passion, she’s one to watch.

40 not so single is a local blog written by a high flying corporate lawyer who finds herself married with 3 kids, 40 and a stay at home mum. Whatever happened to her Gucci handbag and Prada high heels...

Visit the blog