WRITING PROMPT RESPONSE

How Traveling Made Me a Tennis Fan and Tennis Made Me a Traveler

Not a recommended way to fall in love with tennis

Growing up in India, the only sports I was crazy about was none other than Cricket. As far as tennis was concerned, I always felt it was a rich man’s game — to play as well as to watch. I knew some famous tennis names from the news but that was where my whole tennis knowledge ended.

In 2012, I was on a work assignment in Belfast, Northern Ireland — from where I had booked a Europe tour with a travel company. That was going to be my first solo trip and to be a little safe, I had preferred a planned tour bus (bad decision but that’s another story).

An overenthusiastic (but good-at-heart) friend — who seemed to be on some mission to make me a tennis fan — was trying to convince me to watch the French Open live as my trip dates were around the tournament dates. That friend would have made it big in a sales career had he opted for it. I gave in, eventually and decided to buy the ticket. My IT job was paying me well at the time so I saw it as once in a lifetime opportunity.

I could be in Paris to watch a quarter-final and if everything went well, Nadal would be the one playing in that QF. How lucky I would be to watch Nadal on clay — my friend envied me. I felt good about it. He downloaded some past matches to give me a quick tutorial on tennis rules.

We thought it might be difficult to get tickets from the official website so he sent me some links to buy the ticket. Without even checking anything on the official Roland Garros website, I bought the ticket worth 384 euros from the first of those links: onlineticketexpress.com. I got the confirmation email but they sent no tickets. They asked for a physical address where they would be sending my paper tickets. I didn’t doubt anything and gave a friend’s address in Milan, Italy.

I realized later that the match wasn’t fitting into my itinerary. I was going to start the trip in London traveling to Brussels, the Black Forest, some places in Switzerland, Paris and then back to London from there. And that’s where I had planned to leave the bus tour and visit Italy for some days on my own — to get the real taste of solo traveling — before returning to Belfast.

But now with these French Open tickets already bought, things became tricky. I had to shorten my Italy trip. I decided, instead of going to Florence and Giza, I would fly back from Rome to Paris — just for this match. I was hoping the experience would be worth it.

Finally, the day came and my trip began. The bus tour part of the trip was a bore and I was eagerly waiting to be on my own. As I expected, Italy turned out to be the best part of my trip. I wanted to spend some more time there but had to return to Paris for this unnecessary change of plans I had made. I tried to feel cheerful about it by thinking and reading more about tennis.

But there was a small problem.

I was supposed to receive my tickets at a friend’s house in Milan. But they didn’t receive any tickets. I got a little worried. I emailed online ticket express and tried their number as well to no avail. Thankfully, my friend was able to reach their customer care and got the assurance I would get tickets at the venue. I had a flight for Paris the next day with nothing else planned so this phone assurance was enough for me to not panic and board the flight.

I reached Paris early morning and called my friend again to know the further details of who to look for at the venue. His enthusiastic voice was frail that day. He mustered some courage and told me that they weren’t picking his phone anymore. He read some reviews on the internet which weren’t great and there was a chance I was scammed.

I was scammed — I repeated it in my mind.

At that time, I couldn’t help but laugh at myself. I wasn’t even a tennis fan and here I was on a special trip to Paris for this QF match — with no tickets after paying more than the full price listed on the official website. Oh, the places I could’ve traveled with those euros!

Were online Scams that common in 2012? I didn’t know. And I didn’t want to think about it. I had no energy left to feel bad or curse myself for not checking the validity of that website. I tried to keep my cool and roamed the streets of Paris to kill time before leaving for London.

I came back to India shortly after that trip ended. Nadal played and won that QF and of course the championship as well. And I was feeling so bad to miss that opportunity. I started following tennis news and every tennis tournament. And there came a time when I was so crazily in love with tennis that I was waking up at 3 am to watch US Open matches. I could call myself a tennis fan, finally.

In 2015, I was planning to quit my job soon so before that, a solo trip to somewhere abroad was in my mind. I had become a Djokovic fan and he was a sort of Australian Open king. Without any second thoughts, blinded by my newfound tennis love, I bought the Australian Open 2015 finals tickets.

And that decided I was going to Australia. The whole trip (with NZ added) was planned later.

Djokovic won the 2015 Australia Open and I still can’t forget the vibes of Rod Laver Arena that day. When I left Melbourne, I had a goal in mind — I wanted to watch all the four grand slams live, at least one match per grand slam. That I would travel to New York, London, and once again Paris to complete this goal — with Melbourne already done.

I got the opportunity to watch 2018 US Open semifinals that brought me a step closer to my goal.

Life and motherhood brought a pause to my travels and Covid has extended that pause. Moreover, I am currently unemployed. Both Wimbledon and French Open tickets are a little on the expensive side so I don’t see myself going there anytime soon. But I look forward to another trip to Paris to complete this story that started 9 years ago. This time I know from where to buy the tickets :)

I am not thankful for that scam in any way, but it made tennis an important part of my life and paved a path for me to visit different parts of the world.

#unplannedadventures

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