The Championships, Wimbledon

My summers at home as a child, before I started going to camps, all blur together. It is not because I don't remember them, but because there were such patterns that it is hard to tell one year from the next.

Summers were for staying home with my dad. Summers were for hitting balloons around and trying to keep them from touching the ground, a game I ended up calling Pompidou. Summers were for sunball, my odd variation on baseball.

They were for going to dance. They were for my dad doing my bun in what he called a "funny bun," because the shape was never quite neat and classical, but they were always sturdy, and no dance class ever succeeded in destructing them. Summer was for black leotards, once I had reached Division 1 at dance instead of being in pre-ballet, and I've always loved my black leotards. Summer was for more hours dancing per week than during the school year, smaller classes, and greater variety in teachers.

After I started learning to skate, summers were for spending an hour or so a couple of times a week at the rink, just going around in a circle. They were for stopping to get snow cones on the way home from the rink. They were for finding out what Tiger's Blood was and then coming up with all kinds of other combinations with banana of various red and orange shades and calling them different types of cat bloods -- to this day, my favorite is Snow Leopard's Blood: watermelon and banana.

Summers were for watching lots of baseball. The college world series, pro baseball all summer, and then Little League in August. Lots of summers we went to Houston to visit my grandparents, and we went to Astros games. The first Astros game I remember was in the Astro Dome. I remember going to see games in Minute Maid when it was still Enron. We almost always sat on the first base side, which meant that summer was for proclaiming Jeff Bagwell as my favorite player. (He's six or seven years retired now and that's still true.)

Summer was for Vacation Bible School. The first VBS I remember is the 1998 Cokesbury VBS, which was Storytelling Tree. My dad was assistant director and one of the people in opening in 2001 for Way to Go, and he was director in 2002 for God's Great Gallery. We always had the CD of VBS music at some point in the spring, so by the time it was actually the week of VBS, I already knew all of the songs by heart.

But finally, summers were for tennis. The summer starts with the French Open, Roland Garros, the images of Paris and the bright orange clay. My dad spent seven-ish years as a kid in Belgium, so we cheered for the Belgian players, Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, and Justine's best tournament was Roland Garros. And then, just a few weeks later, is Wimbledon. Grass, so different from clay, all white, and the tournament that Justine could never win.

Despite watching for all these years, I still don't know a lot of technical things about tennis. But I can talk about it decently, and I love watching it. That love started with those summers with my dad. Baseball was for the afternoons and the evenings. Tennis, because it was in France and London, seven and six hours ahead of CDT respectively, was for the mornings. I remember dancing around the foyer in my leotard and tights, waiting to go to dance class, with Wimbledon on the television.

As I grew up, I was always home for the French. It was so early in the summer that I was never gone that soon. So the French I could see from home.
Wimbledon, though. At least one week of Wimbledon, I was usually gone, starting in 2006.

In 2006 for at least the second week of Wimbledon I was at Duke Young Writers' Camp. We had to walk a ways from the dorm to get to a computer lab, but whenever I went I would check the scores and the bracket, and I emailed my parents about tennis. That year, Amelie Mauresmo won Wimbledon. Justine was the other player who reached the finals, after she had defeated Kim in the semis. I was disappointed that Justine had lost, but Mauresmo was French, and French players were my favorites after Belgians.
Evidently Federer won Wimbledon that year against Nadal. I don't remember that, but at the same time, if you'd made me guess, I would have done so correctly.

In 2007 again I missed at least the second week of Wimbledon. I was at GERI at Purdue, and I remember that sometimes they showed Wimbledon on tiny tv screens in the dining hall. I don't remember anything about Wimbledon that year, though again, I can tell you that Federer won and that he defeated Nadal in the final. And I just looked it up, and Venus won women's singles that year.

2008. Now 2008 I remember. I missed all of the tournament to be at Lac du Bois, a French immersion camp. Most of the news we got from the outside world was in the form of mail from our families. It was the year of a Euro, and that news got through camp decently well because... well, it was a *French* camp, so of course the soccer news traveled. But tennis? Fewer people seemed to care. My father had a habit from my past years at Lac du Bois (2005 and 2006) of sending me newspaper clippings, especially about sports. That was the year that Fresno State won the College World Series over UGA -- I remember because he sent me the article.
But the article I remember better than any other is the one about the several-times-rain-delayed, several hour finals match at Wimbledon between (guess who!) Nadal and Federer.
The match that Nadal won.
I was so excited about getting that particular article that I shared it as my bonne chose at cabin meeting that night. At cabin meetings we all went around said one good thing (bonne chose) and one bad thing (mauvaise chose) about the day, and when I said that my bonne chose was that my dad had sent me an article about Nadal beating Federer, one of the other girls (French name Adelaide, English name Rachel) got really excited, too. So after cabin meeting, Adelaide and I talked excitedly for quite a while. It was one of the few moments that summer when I felt really close to someone in my cabin.
That was also the year that Venus defeated Serena to win ladies' singles, and then they together won ladies' doubles.

In 2009 and 2010 I was at Mathcamp for the second week of Wimbledon, but at Mathcamp I had a laptop, so I was able to check scores regularly. I don't remember a lot from either year, honestly, which probably speaks to the awesomeness of Mathcamp. The second week of Wimbledon was also the *first* week of camp, and the first week of Mathcamp is really important for getting used to the culture and getting a vague idea for what classes one wants to take during the rest of camp.
I know that in 2009, Federer won, Serena beat Venus, and they won doubles again.
2010, what I remember best is actually from the first week, before I left for Mathcamp -- the Isner-Mahut match. Seriously, 70-68 in the last set? It was amazing. I remember posting a status the second day of the Isner-Mahut match about ridiculous tennis, good college baseball, and World Cup soccer. I don't remember anything from the second week. I vaguely knew that Nadal had won that year, but at Mathcamp, I wasn't paying that much attention.

Last year, 2011, I was at a camp at MIT. I had a math research project, which meant that other than meeting with my mentor for an hour or two per day, my time was my own to spend. I worked in the MIT Student Union, the W-20. I liked sitting in the comfy arm chairs on the ground floor of the W-20 -- one chair in particular right by an outlet. I would plug in my laptop, put on my headphones, and get out my notebook and pen/pencil to try to make progress on my math research problem.
What did I listen to -- music? Well, some of the time. But in the mornings and early afternoons, almost never did I listen to music.
Wimbledon Radio.

Someone pointed out at one point that I could actually watch Wimbledon on my computer, but I never really considered it. I couldn't really watch tennis and work at the same time. But I could listen to tennis and work.
And I did. I remember sitting in the W-20 listening to Petra Kvitova win. I remember rooting so hard for Sabine Lisicki once it became apparent that she could do well.

This year is the first time in seven years that I've been home for both weeks of Wimbledon, which started today. This is Kim Clijsters' last Wimbledon, and she won her first round match against Jankovic. Isner lost in five sets in the first round. Venus Williams lost in two sets in the first round. Federer is moving on. Melanie Oudin, who I remember reaching the fourth round in 2009, lost. Sabine Lisicki won her first round match.

There is nothing quite like summer.
Welcome back to The Championships.