“And the winners of Davis cup are…..”. It’s summer break and you think to yourself what is better than waking up at 6 in the morning on a hot, humid Thursday. The alarm is still buzzing reminding me that I have to get ready so I am not late. Every morning I dread having to wake up early but that is soon forgotten. As I get ready to walk out the door, I double check that the most important thing is in my bag. The blue and white thing with the word Babolat written across the sides, the black worn out grip that is in perfect correlation with my hand when held, the small piece of paper that contains the type strings and the tension that make it unique, and lastly the small black and white dampener that keeps the strings from vibrating.  My racket that is, it is special to me in each and every way. Most people do not understand how important a racket is but that thing will be right by you through all of your ups and downs. As a tennis player, the racket is the most important piece, like the icing on the cake.

As you pull up to the entrance of the club after the thirty-minute drive, the parking lot is filled with a ton of nice, clean, expensive cars. Every which way you look, you can spot a new top-notch car brand. The dark navy blue mesh material hanging on the fence that reads “The tennis experience you deserve” in a bright snowy white color always catches my eye. You get out of the car and start to open the door, realizing there is something different. A sign, that appears to be brand new, hangs on the bricks. The sign says “USTA’s 2018 outstanding facility of the year”. You walk through the doors and enter the lobby full of vibrant blue and green colors. After checking in at the desk I head towards the locker room. I begin to open the door and I already hear laughter coming from the other side. Once I walk through the threshold I make my way towards a bench and my mood has already changed for the whole day, in a good way.  In the locker room, I realize that people from all different schools come to this one certain place to enjoy the one thing they love and doing the most. Everyone's racket is different in many forms, it might be the brand or the colors to even the type of grip or dampener. There are two different classes in the morning, the first one which is from 7-9, is for the top 15 people in our area, who are all ranked in the Midwest. This class goes every day of the week, except Thursdays. The second class is from 9 to 12, in which everyone who is apart of the club attends this class. This class runs every single day of the week rain or shine. A wide variety of kids aging from 12 to 18 are in the later class. On a normal day, we get separated by skill into two groups so that it is more even. We then do drills, conditioning, and match play. Thursdays are different, in a good way, Davis Cup that is.  

Davis Cup is the one thing I look forward to every day when I dread waking up. Davis Cup basically works when the four best people are captains and select people on their team one by one. The teams play one another for thirty minutes and then the coaches rally up the set points at the end. Once teams are picked and all figured out and before we get all sweaty and gross we take a group picture. Everyone looks similar like a swarm of bees, especially the girls. Everyone's outfit for the day seemed to be from the same store, Lululemon. But today was a different day, it was Davis Cup and there is always a theme. Today the theme was Hawaiian or beachy. Everyone's outfit did have a special touch to go along with the theme. It ranged from grass skirts and leis to even Hawaiian shirts and swimsuits on top of clothes. Hair was worn in a high ponytail, which was braided. As well as Acics for the shoes and high Nike socks. Everyone has their racket in their hands. Joyful smiles were all around, everyone was laughing and having a good time.  After the picture, all of the teams decide on a team name. My team took at least 10 minutes to figure out our team name, which is “you don't sand a chance” then Davis Cup finally begins.

Matches startup and before I know it we are already in the last game of the day. So far my team is on the top of the leaderboard but only by a slim 4 points. It all comes down to this last match. I am playing in the top spot with my best friend from tennis, Ellie. We are both playing our hearts out trying to conceal the win for our team. The set score of the doubles match is 4-4. The coaches yell out warning us to finish our set, I keep on thinking of where I should place my serve. The game score is at ad-in and we need to win just one more point to win the set 5-4.  I walk up to the baseline, time feels as if it slowed down, and I begin my serving routine. I look at my racket thinking to myself that I can do it while making sure that my grip is in the correct place. Then I bounce the ball three times and I begin to throw the ball up in the air. My left arm follows the airborne ball into the air, my knees bend as my whole body is gaining energy to jump into the air. My racket strikes the fuzzy yellow ball as my two feet are off of the ground. The ball speeds over the net and bounces into the spot I was hoping it would go. I hit it at such an angle our opponents were unable to reach it in time. Ellie quickly runs up to me jumping up and down and gives me a high five. Making the winning shot of the match always feels special, especially when it is on a serve.

After everyone gets done with there matches, we meet on the main court to report our scores.  Everyone waits eagerly to know which team won while the coaches are tallying up all of the points. The coaches began to say that we all did outstanding today and everyone showed a lot of effort. Shortly after the speech, the head coach begins to say that the winners of Davis cup are “You don’t sand a chance”. Everyone on my team is cheering, we all have smiles on your faces, and we all give one another high fives while saying good job. After the short celebration, we get a picture for them to post on social media. Still holding my racket,  I will always remember this day

Playing tennis reminds me of all of the special memories that I have.  Looking down at my racket makes me think about how gracious I am to get the opportunity to do this sport. One of them includes meeting many new and lifelong friends. I have become friends with people from all over the world. Germany, the Bahamas, and Spain are just a few of the countries that I am able to say I have friends from. Playing tennis and being apart of a club gives me that special feeling of feeling at home and knowing that you are always safe.