Delaney Ricciardo is fierce and her determined to win at any cost has not made her well liked. But by the time she retires from tennis she is a twenty four grand slam winner and regarded as the greatest tennis player the world has ever seen.
But si...
After breakfast every morning I work out. Then in the afternoon, I do drills. And then every evening, a little after 5 pm, Liam shows up, the lights kick in and we play in the cool evening air.
At first I win almost every time. But he improves quickly and soon I am only winning when we play two out of three. Liam starts winning when we play three out of five. An annoying reminder that I need to work on my stamina.
But today, Liam is playing better than he ever has. His serve is sharper, his focus is there. He's breaking my serve.
"This!" My uncle shouts across the court "this is what I wanted to see Black!"
Liam nods and then serves the ball. We play until eight, just as he squeezes out a win. I started messing up in the last round.
My uncle meets my eyes but he doesn't need to say what he's thinking, I'm thinking the same thing. If I play this way in the open I'm done for.
Liam starts to pack up his kit.
"So, tomorrow?" He asks.
"Tomorrow it is?" I nodded
"I'd be open to just hitting back and forth, instead of matches" Liam says "we both could use some work on our serves. I'm breaking your serve more, but my own serve....it needs work"
"You need to work on your first serve for a solid week" my uncle interjects "your form right now is horrendous compared to what you're capable of"
"Marco" I started
"No, it's fine" Liam interjects
"Of course it's fine!" Marco exclaims "cause you know I'm right. You shouldn't be using a pinpoint stance. You don't need power. You need precision"
"I've used a pinpoint stance my whole life. That's why I can smoke em past assholes like Montez"
"Montez retired seven years ago and you aren't smoking anything past anyone"
"Your point?" Liam says
"My point is, practice your platform stance. You'll have the power but you'll have more accuracy. Get the first serve past the net faster and you'll win more"
Liam looks at my uncle before looking over at me for help
"He right" I say
"Yeah" he said, grabbing his things and walking towards his car "I know he's right, I'll see you both tomorrow"
As Liam drives away I look up at my uncle
"Why did you have to do that?" I ask "you're not his coach, you don't even like him"
"He doesn't have a coach, if I don't tell him no one will."
The next morning when Liam shows up, he exchanges pleasantries with my uncle but nothing more
But on his first serve, he's using a platform stance
My uncle clocks it and I can see him holding back a laugh.
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