They were both winners that day!

My sons both play competition tennis in the same team on Saturday mornings. They are 9 and 11 years old and love being able to play together.

Recently, Saturday morning tennis was transformed when my eldest son came up against a boy just as strong as him in his singles match. They both played an amazing match which they were clearly enjoying, and in the end, it came down to a tie break. As parents we’d really been enjoying the closeness of the match, but now we were huddled together on the edge of our seats holding our breath with each point. It was so exciting and they were both playing the most awesome tennis. We oo’d and aa’d a lot as each point became longer and longer creating the most thrilling match. At the end, as the parents could breathe again, the exhausted boys both ran to the net and gave each other a great big hug. They came off the court with big smiles on both of their little red faces. It was a scene of pure joy which brought tears to my eyes as I was so proud of both of them.

I chatted with the other boy later and he told me it was “the best match of his life”. He also said he hadn’t been enjoying his tennis so much recently as some of his opponents were so competitive and sometime became nasty which didn’t make it fun anymore. “You have an awesome team and this is what makes me want to get out of bed early on Saturday” he said. My son wouldn’t have cared if he’d won or lost this match, he’d had a great time and was proud of himself and his new friend. My heart was almost bursting with pride for both of these beautiful boys as they managed to fill the feel good “buckets” of everyone watching that day. – Lis 🙂