Fame, Tennis, and the Deeper Reasons for Playing
Today, I was thinking about fame and how it affects people. In particular, I was pondering on why people are encouraged to pursue celebrityhood without thinking about the downsides of it.
I think if fame is the only reason you're playing tennis, you are probably bound to be disappointed. Many tennis players don't become super famous or earn tons of money, due to problems in how the sport is organized. At the present moment, it's much easier to become a top tennis player if you have certain opportunities to begin with, such as wealth and connections to prestigious tennis clubs and coaches. Many players with lower rankings struggle on the tennis tour, and they don't get the same support as the higher-ranked players do.
Fortunately, people in the tennis world have been trying to solve this problem. Novak Djokovic has been leading the PTPA (Professional Tennis Players Association) in an effort to give all the players a voice and more say in how they manage their careers. For many players, just having a little extra support and money could make a difference in how long they continue to play and build their careers.
One of the many reasons I took a break from tennis was because I wasn't really making a living from it, and that was discouraging. I was also kind of exhausted from years of playing and training hard, beyond what my body could handle at that time. Now I'm a little older and stronger now, and I can return to the sport with more energy and renewed focus. In a way, I'm glad I took a break, because it allowed my body and mind to recover from years of work. I feel a lot stronger now than I did when I was younger.
But I've decided that while I want to try to be the best player that I can be, I won't focus on achieving fame and fortune. If that is my only goal, I won't have the intrinsic motivation to continue to compete in a sport I love.
Fame also comes with challenges that people don't always consider, such as losing your privacy and dealing with the extreme obsession that can come from fans. In America at least, fame and celebrity culture can be really extreme, and it can lead to celebrities feeling isolated. At the same time, they feel as if they were living under a microscope, with the media following their every move.
Although I know the likelihood of me becoming a famous tennis player is kind of low, it's something I've pondered about. I do want to inspire people through tennis, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but I don't want the pursuit of fame to be the main reason I play. The deeper reason is that I love the sport and want to give it my all before I put up the racket.
So, the life lesson I learned, as I reflected about fame in tennis, is that I don't want fame to be my main motivation for playing the sport. I feel that if you try to put your whole energy into becoming famous, it won't ultimately fulfill you in the end. Instead, I want to enjoy the journey of playing and improving as a player, and I hope to inspire others through the effort I give towards tennis. I don't have to become a famous star to do that. If it happens, I will learn how to adjust to it and try to take the positives from it, but it will never be my only reason for playing tennis.