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Story Time: The last chance
A tear plunged out of her eye and died into her lap. She held her head between her hands while sitting and stared at the ground.
There was a flash-back of the past in her mind. ‘Is fate to be blamed?’ She wondered with exasperation. Then, after wiping off the beads of sweat that had gathered on her forehead, she gulped some water. ‘God, help me,’ she prayed while walking towards the tennis court. Hapless fate of this sixteen year old was giving her a last chance — a chance to prove herself to the world, to gain fame and to save her dying father.
Sara Philip, eldest among her three siblings, belonged to a poor, lower middle class family. Being intelligent she had made it to a prestigious institution through a scholarship. Tennis was her passion and she played lots of it at school.
One day, she saw a poster of the Under 16 British Open Tennis Competition on the notice board. It said that the winner would become a part of the British Junior Tennis team and would win ten thousand pounds!
This gave Sara a chance to fight poverty and win money for her father’s urgently needed heart surgery.
Countrywide, eager participants began practising. Many players got sponsored by multi-nationals and were getting trained by the best available coaches. Sara began working in the afternoon at a fabric store to earn money to become a member of the Royal Tennis Court — the most expensive court in which top class players practised.
Every morning Sara left in tears, not knowing whether her father would be alive when she would return. After school and work, she went to the court. Observance, mainly was her coach as she could not afford formal coaching. She would see top seed players play and act as their ball girl. In the end, seeing her eagerness, they would often play a few knocks with her. This way she played for a quality fifteen to twenty minutes daily. At night after homework, she would watch previous tennis tournaments on DVD and then make notes on those matches in a notebook.
She worked hard to improve her tennis skills. Often, she was disturbed by thoughts like what if she lost, but her faith in God and her hardwork kept her spirits soaring.
The tournament began. Sara had been invincible throughout. Her tactics and skills had amused the trainers and coaches. Every time she lost concentration, she would remember her late mother’s advice: ‘when life takes an ugly turn, don’t lose faith in God’. And that day it was the final match. Unforunately, she lost the first set and had to win the next one to equal the score.
As she walked towards the court with her teary eyes, she kept muttering her mother’s words to herself. Her heart thumped so hard that she felt the beat in her head. Gaining confidence after recalling the advice, she gave her opponent, Linda, a humiliating defeat. The third and the last set was the last chance for both of them.
“Three: three” was the score. The score had equalled and the crowd was glued to their seats and dead silent. Skillfully Linda grabbed the next three points. Sara was losing hope. She took a time out, thought about her strategy and equalled the score again. The last ball — Sara served, Linda’s ankle got twisted, the ball bounced in her court but she was unable to play it. Sara looked at the sky, then at the ground and burst into tears of joy. She had won! In a flashing second, she was surrounded by sports channel and newspaper reporters taking her pictures and interviews. Sara had become a celebrity — a star!
Magazines and newspapers were full of Sara’s photos. A few days later her father was successfully operated upon.
However, as they say, it never rains but pours, more fame was yet to come for Miss Philip. She turned her tennis notes which she wrote while watching matches on DVD, into a book. It became a best seller and a model for many young tennis enthusiasts.
The last words of her book, explained Sara’s miraculous success in these words: ‘The support of one’s family and faith in God and one’s ability together lead a person towards success. I had the ball in my court; I played it. I got a last chance; I availed it.’
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