Racquet’s See You In Court is a regular column in which I, Melissa Kenny, a famously mediocre lifelong player, heed reader questions about tennis, be they desperate (Help! I’ve won a few matches moonballing and now I can’t stop!), desperate in a different way (Where are the hot young tennis players in my area?) or life-threatening (Is it just me or are all tennis shoes fugly?). What I’m trying to say is, AMA! Look out for prompts on Racquet’s Instagram, or make yourself known in my DMs.
Q: I regularly hit with a very tedious person who always has an excuse for how they play. (They play fine, for the record, and I enjoy hitting with them.) Naturally, their stream of excuses is irritating. Sometimes it’s their grip. Other times they’re not feeling well. Once it was because they ATE A BANANA when they usually don’t eat a banana before playing! How do I encourage this person to just… hit without annotating their performance all the time?
Dear Sound Bored,