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Any good at tennis?

Posted By: Stick
Date: Tuesday, 12 July 2011, at 7:32 a.m.

In Response To: Any good at tennis? (Henrik Bukkjaer)

I knew Gus was a junior tennis champion if google is to be believed but that's really it. I had searched before and not come up with any results, text or video, regarding how good he actually was. (using any name) Falafel told me that Gus thought he could beat the #100 ranked woman player and that if he seriously got back into it he could play competitively/beat the top 15 in their field. I didn't hear any of this from Gus myself so take it for what it's worth. I don't like quoting people when it's through someone else, even Falafelfish who wouldn't lie about something like that but may have had a different interpretation of what was said or something to that effect. When I heard that recently I offered to let Gus play the #172 ranked woman and I'd back her. That would be Serena Williams of course...

Thanks to the link to the Antonius/Adams match. Wish they would have showed more of the actual tennis that was played. I poked around on youtube but there really isn't more than you see at the link you provided. I knew David had played pro and was cut off due to injuries but again I can't find any video clips of him playing nor locate how high up the ladder he actually climbed. There is one link that I thought was kind of funny that had this listed:

Unofficial and Incomplete Poker Player Tennis Rankings

Here is a brief overview, in order of approximate skill, of poker players who also play tennis:

1) The Asian dude at your WSOP starting table who states he is willing to play any poker player in tennis for money.

2) Gus Hansen

3) Patrik Antonius

4) David Benyamine

5) Jesse Martin

6) Greg "FBT" Mueller

7) Steve Giufre

8) Shane Schleger

9) Brandon Adams

10) Kenny Tran

Players whose current rankings are not known include: Bill Gazes, Matt Lefkowitz and Erik Seidel.

Have you played professionally?

I wish and no, not even close. I didn't start playing tennis until I was ~14 years old. Even then I had no real training (high school tennis barely counts) and it was just an obsession that I loved to do and would spend as many waking hours at the courts as I could. We had lights at our courts in a public park which was nice and at least on one occasion I can remember, possibly more, the cops came over to see what was going on so late when the park is supposed to be closed. They never bothered us though. I'm sure they realized "All they're doing is playing tennis? Best place for kids to be at midnight!" If I could turn back time and change some details of my childhood it would be to figure out that I wanted to play tennis much earlier among other things.

That being said I still don't get it when I hear things that I have commonly heard and read these past couple of weeks. The statement paraphrased by people about themselves or a player in general is "You could play all the tennis you wanted you're never going to be able to beat player X." I can't even begin to understand this. The only reason someone is better than me at something is because they've spent more time doing it or the time they have spent doing it has been used more efficiently.

Anyway, before I start ranting I'll close this. Maybe I'll post some videos of me practicing/playing sometime this summer.

Stick

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