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Long ago, probably when dinosaurs were still extant, I categorized tennis under the same heading as golf. I always feel that sports and games are two discrete areas. They do not overlap. The main thing that separates these two is the former involves vigorous physical activity and a certain level of dexterity; the latter involves chiefly consummate skill and a phlegmatic analysis of the determining factors that decide the outcome of the game.

During the June holidays of yesteryears, when it was especially tempting to be a couch potato, I often sprawled languidly on my sofa and watched hours and hours of TV. I particularly loathed the sports channels for broadcasting tennis and golf. Those two games were like even more soporific than any sleeping pills. I was thinking, 'Who the hell watches this shit?!'However, I realized that cable TV has to be more inclusive and cater to those weirdos out there. Haplessly, I cursed the EPL for ending in May.

Being an avid reader of the sports section in the newspaper, I inadvertently noticed one name that had been appearing with increasing regularity. That name was Roger Federer. It was him again, clinching some US Open or Australia Open that I could not be bothered with. The newspapers branded him as disputably the best the tennis world had ever produced. Even though I dreaded the insuperable task of watching a tennis game, I wanted to see who had the capability to generate such hoohah.

Gruelling it was for a greenhorn like me but I endured. Removing the jaundiced shades I sported, I could not help but marvel at the sheer class the players exuded. I exalted the way they yielded the racquet to produce mellifluous notes of a virtuoso. The music crescendoed to a shattering climax as Federer smashed a winner that just shaved off the sideline. The crowd gasped in fascination; then involuntarily applauded for the witnessing of a legend in the making. I was feeling quite the same way too and to summarize this cathartic experience in three words: I was hooked.

I am sincerely grateful for this happenstance that whichever divine entity blessed me with, if not I would never have known that tennis unequivocally belonged to the sports category.

This June, like any other Junes, is a period of indolence for me, except for one nuance.

I will be watching the Wimbledon.