John > John's Quotes

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  • #1
    “Love', the word, is at the centre of tennis. It is embedded in the unique and eccentric scoring system. Love meaning nothing - zero. Playing for love. That it was, uniquely, a sport in which woman and men played together made it a 'love game' in a social and romantic sense.”
    Elizabeth Wilson, Love Game: A History of Tennis, from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon

  • #2
    “To approach tennis with 'love' may be dangerous if, as Oscar Wilde wrote, 'each man kills the thing he loves' - whether because that love is too obsessive or too critical. Many critics believed that 'love' in tennis was dangerous - that the very fact of this word being used in the scoring system rendered it unmanly. But love is also a hopeful word of celebration; and in the end, the point of writing about tennis is to celebrate the beauty, the glamour and the joy of this unique game.”
    Elizabeth Wilson, Love Game: A History of Tennis, from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon



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