Magical Moments

0:01  
Motivation to me is having that passion. Every morning when I wake up, wanting to go hit a tennis ball. You know, I think that overrides everything else, you know, all the goals we have all the things we want to achieve out of tennis. You know, there's something magical about hitting a tennis ball, moving, the sound that kept me in the game for the last 40 years.

0:27 
I go back to 1985. And I'm at home and I started playing tennis. My goals were literally just, you know, I enjoy tennis, I want to play in my high school team. I'm gonna have fun with it. But it's nothing I really saw as a career. But sitting on that couch and watching Kevin Curran, a South African legend tennis player, play Boris Becker, who was 17, it did something to me that motivated me to the (to the) extent that in that moment when I watched them playing, I said, I want to do this for a living. That just looked amazing that two people can play the sport they love. And they have all these people cheering them on. And there, playing on the center court at Wimbledon, and they diming around. It almost looked like a dance out there. It was magical so that there was a moment in my life that really motivated me to want to work harder and really take tennis seriously.

1:21 
And, I think it's important that we all have that defining moment where we think back and be like, yes, you know, this is the moment that really got me motivated to not just play tennis to but to become the best tennis player can become. And that's important to bind these moments and always go back there. Because you're going to get you know, you're going to have a lot of ups and downs on the way. But it's very important that you realize, Hey, you know, I made a decision a long time ago, and I'm going to ride this out. I want to get to where I can get to and if that's 300 in the world, or if that's 100 in the world, or whatever. If it's me winning my club championships, I want to be the best tennis player can become.

1:58  
Why I'm telling the story is there's (there's) a crazy outcome to the story. It was we go back to '96 and I qualified a Queen's qualifier and I won two matches and I'm playing Boris Becker in the fourth round of Queens. And, it was just so surreal. You know, I'm up there, you know, in the locker room, and I was ready an hour before the match. And I just remember them. Boris hadn't even showered yet. And, they like Boris, are you ready? You know, and I see him still taking his time. And, it was just such a powerful thing because I was just thinking back to that moment of he was the reason I started playing tennis and now I'm actually playing against them. And, walking out there on center court queens and on you, you know, my family in South Africa were watching the match and just warming up and seeing those strokes. It was (it was) a very, it was a magical moment in my tennis career and one I'll never forget. And, it was almost like, you know, my wish came true. You know, as a 14-year-old kid that only started tennis at 12, I wasn't very good at 14, I think I wasn't even in the top hundred in South Africa. Twelve years later, and I'm playing the number one player in the world Boris Becker center court Queens, you know, just shows you that anything's possible.

3:17 
I actually held my own.  I lost 6-4, 6-3 but you know, I was it was competitive and it was just a moment that I will cherish for the rest of my life.