Real Tennis Pros on their worst moments in real tennis

The Real Tennis Pros bring up their worst ever moments on a real tennis court in their career

Featuring:
Rob Fahey
Nick Howell
Steve Virgona
Ben Taylor-Matthews
Bryn Sayers
Leon Smart
Robert Shenkman
Lewis Williams
Levi Gale
Josh Smith
Louis Gordon
Zak Eadle
Claire Fahey
Lea van der Zwalmen
Tara Lumley
Saskia Bollerman
Jess Garside

I’ve had plenty of those Ben plenty of those wow so many worst moment genuinely every time I lose that’s a terrible moment terrible moment and uh yeah it hurts just as much now as it did when I was 15 16 I didn’t I wasn’t really that gutted about it at the time but I guess losing to rob in the semi-finals with the British I think I was two love up maybe losing the French doubles last year was tough that was the first loss in probably near 15 years in the ladies game like up in the fourth like relatively comfortably or score line comfortable um and the fifth I think I lost 65 in the fifth but we learn from it and if it’s every 15 years that’s that’s okay I kind of dealt with it fine at the time but I guess looking back that was a that was a bit of a stinker I remember losing to Cam For the First Time The Loss against Kate Leeming a couple cou years ago European open Lords yeah served the second serve double for bubble to go four all uh deep in the match and that that was expensive I walked off court and just thought I’ve got absolutely no idea what I’m doing and that kind of spurred on the motivation uh for me to work with chappie um over the last few years and um since then you know I’ve gotten the results I’ve been wanting to get and um yeah and it sort of motivated me to keep going in this game um two back-to-back matches day wise um in Melbourne uh last year oh losing to Leon 65 65 65 in the US Pro having set points in every set I lost to Freddy Bristo six love six love quite quite easily he was he was unwell and I still still couldn’t get a game um which made my I guess my win against him most recently um memorable for sure that was dark a dark day um look I get over it by laughing about it now giving Leon a bit of chat on CT about it but yeah oh my God I was saying the boys just then if if that’s as bad as it gets fine by me um and Then followed on by losing to Eric Barker 616 love um the next day um wasn’t wasn’t my finest tennis I think getting injured whilst playing tennis is not much fun worst ever moment was probably rolling my ankle um in silver racket I end ended up one time playing Dar long at the orat Tre uh there was a ball was going towards my knee and I sort of jolted out the way and ended up tearing ligament my knee playing Zach in the final um was starting to lost the first set was starting to come back in the second and then completely went over on my ankle and tore liament so yeah that was that was pretty tough to take that one fell to the floor in a lot of pain I think that’s probably the worst moment on court sadly my worst ever moment when when I was working at redley I got I was already quite injured and and I had to play we played the Internationals really nice tournament at Petworth top eight players I broke my right hand in the US Open doubles final last year that wasn’t great I was first seed Tara second seed and I managed to get to the finals but I just collapsed cried couldn’t so I at that stage I decided that I really need to have an operation and stop the game for a couple of years but yeah that’s probably the first one that comes to mind didn’t realize it happened though kep playing but I’m back and I never real I never thought that I would be back on court yeah there’s one US Open so I go to Boston I can’t remember the year now uh I was in not in a great mood or you know physically stayed going into the tournament well on the tennis court it it would have been um the world doubles championships in bordo uh I catch a cold getting there so I stay in bed for my first two days of practice and then I’m up against Tara I believe is like semi-final and literally on the third point I twist my ankle really really bad playing in front of a great crowd Robin I uh against Steve John and teing my hamstring in this in the second second set of a best of nine set match uh so that was end of the tournament you know after 10 minutes of play pretty much uh and I remember it being such a hassle getting back on the plane and it wouldn’t let me on the plane because my ankle was so swollen and there was a risk of you know blast cloth and whatever really sucked and I basically was just had to hide in a corner and let Rob do everything knowing that there’s we had no chance I mean Steve and John incredible players and you need you know especially both your legs working uh and that was such you know having travel halfway across the world to play 10 minutes to tennis getting injured back yeah that was a pretty pretty low Point again unfortunately for bord is is moving to Bordeaux so it’s not it’s technically not on the court but arriving there to start a new club and with a weak we of arriving France went into another sort of Co lockdown where they stopped allowing indorf Sports it’s around I think worst moments I think end of 134 when I just I kind of lost my way lost my love for the game and it progressively got worse from there to within 2 months later that everything shut down and I’d already done a lockdown you know 7 months before back in back in America so yeah that that wasn’t fun just because of the fact I was in such a bad place mentally and like I was playing matches and didn’t matter whether I won or lost I was just like not happy anymore so kind of yeah around that period unfortunately I think it kind of sucks when you struggle to get up for a match I think like for me if you’re up for a match and you feel like you’ve been given it you’re all and you lose you know it’s part part of the game it wouldn’t be one particular moment or match but like any like anyone else and I’m sure members and Pros could appreciate this you know when you’re out there and you’re not enjoying it it’s pretty tough but when you go out there and you feel like your head’s not really in it and you come off court and you’ve just not been able to concentrate I think that’s that kind of sucks um and at times it’s been mentally challenging to kind of enjoy the tennis out there so that feeling that is my that’s kind of my worst real real tennis memory just when I lose my head I uh yeah I got the nickname of of Princess for a reason so yeah I don’t like the princess moments that I have on court playing Robert shankman in the British under 21s or something like that oh um probably the pro singles we can you know people can watch that one back and I remember getting so angry that I um I had braces at the time so like metal train tracks and I just missed a volley and got so frustrated and clenched my jaw and my braces just exploded I lost my uh lost my Coe in the that match I don’t know what year it was it was against Darren in the satellite final um yeah that’s that’s a memorable one for me and they just went ping ping ping all around the court and I had to go and uh pick them up and everyone stood there watching me thinking this is awkward that was pretty bad and then I obviously had to go and get him fixed and it’s yeah embarrassing more than anything