Author's note: Wimbledon's on right now, so I thought I'd throw out a story on tennis. Unfortunately, the women in tennis right now aren't really hot, so I went back to the hottest tennis player. I'm sure you all agree, if you clicked on the story then you must, why else would you attempt to read this story? Anyway, I hope you all enjoy and leave feedback. If you don't enjoy it, then still leave feedback, telling me what's wrong with it. But for serious tennis fans, this is not to be taken seriously.
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I had just moved in to the area and didn't know anyone. I left my friends and family behind and moved out here to L.A because of work, a pay increase of about ten grand a year to be exact. Once I had enough time under my belt here I could move back home and use my experience from my time here to get a high paying job like this one.
I had gone to bars to pick up girls and maybe make some friends I could hang out with out of work. Not that the guys at work didn't want to hang out with me, just that I didn't want to hang out with them. They were the kind of people that you knew got picked on in high school and you knew that you'd probably have bullied them too.
I noticed that there was a park nearby. I was feeling lazy, so I drove there. I don't know if I'd actually call it a park though. It had a basketball court, tennis court. People were playing baseball on the grass. The place probably wasn't designed as a sports place, but probably turned into one. I tried to play basketball, but I felt like the new kid at elementary school, where no one wants you joining their game.
I decided to forget about basketball and decided to go to the tennis courts. There was a wired fence all the way around the tennis court, separating it from the rest of the place. It helped to keep the tennis balls in and other loose balls from the other sports being played out.
I couldn't find anyone to play with. Everyone came with their own partner and obviously, you can't have three people in a tennis game. So again, I was left alone. I decided seeing as though I'm here, I might as well play a little tennis and keep in shape. I went up to the court with the machine. I don't know what it was called, all I knew was that it shot balls out at you and you had to hit them back.
I turned the machine on and walked around to the other side of the court. It had already shot a couple of balls out. I moved out of the way for the one it just shot out and got in position as I waited for the next one to be shot out.
I had seen many times on TV when someone goes to practice on one of these and it goes too fast and ends up hitting them and they run away. I wasn't a novice, so I set it to a higher pace. I was hitting the balls back quite easily. Half the balls were out, but I didn't care. All I was aiming to do was hit them back.
Soon, I was getting a little out of breath and it was getting to be too fast. At times, I found myself holding the racket in front of my face to stop the ball from hitting me. I was trying my best to hit the balls back but I was only getting one out of four each time.
Soon I was running out of energy and I wasn't able to hit the balls back. I found myself getting out of breath. I knew I was a little out of shape, but this was ridiculous. I was starting to turn into one of those idiots who gets assaulted by these machines. I gave up trying to hit the balls back and just lifted my leg to cover my nuts and held the racket in front of my face, waiting for the machine to run out of balls.
The balls stopped, I wasn't sure if it was out of balls or if it was breaking down. Another ball came and hit me. It seemed like someone turned the speed down.
"You know. You should set it at a pace that you're actually likely to hit back at." I heard a woman's voice say. I looked up and my jaw nearly dropped to the floor. I was pretty sure she was Anna Kournikova, but I couldn't be too sure. She might just look like her.
"I... erm..." I thought for a second. "...Was meant to do that." She loaded a bunch of balls into the machine.
"Have the balls hit you at a fast speed?" She asked, sniggering as she walked around to the side of the court I was.
"Yeah. I was letting the balls hit me to toughen me up. I've decided to try and get into boxing and figured this would be a good way to get my body use to taking hard shots." I said casually, my voice not changing, doing my best to stay cool and try and make it sound like I was telling the truth.
"Really?" She asked hitting the ball back.
"No. I'm just kidding." I laughed. She laughed as well.
"The way you said it, I almost believed you."
"Almost?" I asked.
"OK! So I'm a little gullible." She said hitting the next ball back.
"That's pretty slow." I said.
"Seeing how well you were doing before I came, I figured you deserved a break." She smiled at me as she mocked me. I watched her hit the balls back a couple of times. I checked her out. She was wearing the typical tennis dress with white shorts underneath. Her hair was in a pony tail, platted.
"You wanna take over now?" She asked.
"Sure." I said stepping forward as she stepped back. I hit the first ball back.
"There you go! Now you're actually making contact with the ball." She mocked me again.
"I was making contact with the ball before!" I protested. "The ball hit the racket when I was trying to get the ball from hitting me on the face." I said lowering my voice. She laughed out loud at what I just said.
"So were you on your way out or were you just coming in when you saw that thug over there assaulting me?" I asked her pointing at the machine with my racket. She laughed at that joke.
"I was suppose to meet my old trainer here for a game but he cancelled on me." She replied.
"Your old trainer?"
"Back when I use to be a pro." That made me believe that she was Anna Kournikova.
"You win anything back when you were a pro." I said hitting the next ball back.
"No. I won a couple of doubles but never any singles."
"So what do you do now? I mean for a living." I asked.
"Nothing." She replied. "I made a lot of money from advertising, magazines and photo shoots."
"Not from tennis?" I hit the next ball back.
"I know you know who I am." She said. "So you must definitely know that I wasn't the world's greatest tennis player."
"Just so I know that you are who I think you are and who you think I know that you are, who are you?" Anna looked at me a little confused, trying to follow what I just said.
"I'm Anna Kournikova." I walked up to her.
"I'm Kash." I said swapping the racket from my right hand to my left hand and extended my right hand. She swapped hands as well, as she had the racket in her right hand and she shook my hand.
"You want a game?" She asked, smiling.
"You saw how bad I was. I'm not gonna be much of a challenge."
"Then that will just make me feel better about my failed tennis career." She smiled as she started to walk to the next court which was empty. I followed her. I had to admit, she didn't seem to bothered about her failed tennis career. I know she got a lot of criticism through out her career but it didn't seem to have phased her and from the way she was talking, it seemed like she believed it was true.
"I'll serve." She said bouncing the ball up and down and hitting it at me before I was ready. I managed to get it back to her, I'll be damned if I was gonna get aced. But through out the game she did ace me, a lot. Tennis wasn't really my game and I definitely would've beaten her in something like basketball. But she was a pro tennis player and there was no way I was gonna win.
She beat me in two straight sets. The games weren't even close. she beat me 6-2, 6-3.
"What happened?" She teased me. "You come out here on the machines like you're a pro. Having every ball hit you on the head..." She laughed, mocking me.
"I let you win." I cut her off, lying. "You know what? You give me a re-match and I'll beat you."
"OK!" Anna said. "Same time, same place, tomorrow?"
"I finish work at lunch time tomorrow, so about one?"
"You got it!" Anna answered. We both walked out and headed off to our cars as we went our separate ways.
It was another long day at work. I was quite looking forward to my re-match against Anna, even though I knew she was gonna kick my ass again. She was a pro and I couldn't play tennis seriously for shit. I was alright when me and my mates would play back at home, just knocking the ball about.
Once work was finished I headed home to change into shorts and a t-shirt. It was way too hot to be playing in sweat pants again. I picked up my racket and headed off to the tennis courts once I had a wardrobe change. I decided to walk there this time, it was only a couple of blocks away and the walk would help me stretch the muscles a little.
As I approached the tennis courts, I saw that Anna was already there practicing on the machine. It was at a much faster pace than when we were on it yesterday, maybe even a little faster than the pace I originally set it at.
"Hey!" I called out to her. She looked at me and smiled as she continued to hit the ball back.
"You're in shorts?" She said looking back at me for a split second.
"Yeah. It's way too hot to be playing in sweat pants. You see, I didn't expect to be playing a retired professional tennis player when I came here yesterday and I lost to you from being over heated and dehydrated."
"Yeah right!" Anna laughed turning around to face me. She was about to say something when a tennis ball hit her on the back of her head. I laughed out loud pointing at her and over exaggerating on purpose. As Anna tried to turn around more balls came out and hit her. She lifted her racket to protect her face and one of her legs to protect her stomach and groin area.
"Look at that! You come out here on the machines like you're a pro. Having every ball hit you on the head." I started to quote her from yesterday when she mocked me after she had won. I walked around to the other side and turned the speed of the machine down.
"You know. You should set it at a pace that you're actually likely to hit back at."
"Ha ha! Very funny!" Anna said sarcastically. "Say everything I said to you yesterday back at me." I loaded the machine with more tennis balls. I looked back to see her sniggering.
"Ah! You see! You do think it's funny!" I said pointing at her as I walked around to the other side of the court where she was.
