Tennis

Tennis is not a big sport in China, but our apartment complex has two courts and Nathan loves to play. On our second day here we met Giff Searls, a man who works in career development at UIC, but whose passion is tennis. He is trained as a Peter Burwash tennis coach and has coached many famous people like Bill Gates and Harrison Ford. He invited us to join a group of people who play tennis every Monday, Wednesday, Friday afternoons from 5:00 - 7:00pm.

Giff loves to teach and coach tennis; Nathan loves to learn about tennis, so they have been a perfect match. Nathan's tennis game improved more in 15 minutes with Giff than it did all last summer. Giff has a marvelous positive attitude and friendly demeanor. He also plays a mean game of doubles. Power is not the key to his game - control is. If you play him, be ready to run around the court alot.

The tennis group is an interesting mix of people. Steven Chen pays for and reserves the courts for us. He is a retired business man; originally from Hong Kong, lived most of his life in New York City, and retired to Zhuhai. A few years ago his wife became ill with cancer and he came to China to try an alternative treatment. He knew there were risks and the treatment caused her to have a stroke. Soon after that, she died. When Mr. Chen goes to Macau, he can stay at the largest gambling casino, The Venetian, for free because his son, an investment banker in NYC, helped with the financing of the casino. When Mr. Chen lived in NYC, he and his wife would often fly to Las Vegas to gamble all weekend, taking the red eye flight home on Sunday night. When Atlantic City opened up gambling, they flew down there in a helicopter for the weekends. Mr. Chen plays a good game of tennis, but since he smokes and carries about 20 pounds too many, he has to rely on skill rather than speed.

Mrs. Lui is a tall, athletic Chinese woman in her 30's with buck teeth and a ready smile. She is Mr. Chen's housekeeper. Elan is a petite, Chinese woman in her 20's with a bobbed hair cut and sparkling eyes. She is Mr. Chen's cook. Mr. Chen supplies the women and their families with their own apartments in Horizon Cove. Every M/W/F afternoon the two women play tennis with Mr. Chen. For many years they played badminton every day and now they play tennis like it's a badminton game, popping the ball high in the air. They almost never miss, but the ball never comes fast and strong towards you, only high and looping. They speak almost no English so when Giff tries to organize a round robin game with extra players, they never understand what he is trying to do. They just smile and keep playing their tennis/badminton.

Clare is an American ESL teacher at UIC. Marya is an American business teacher at UIC. Clare can play a decent game of tennis so she is matched with the better players. Marya joins the badminton players. It is all a lot of fun and no one keeps score.