21

Host: Swiss TennisTarget not accessible

Marmi wants to play tennis. His role model is Roger Federer. Like Roger, he wants to put in plenty of practice and get a feel for the yellow felt ball.

Tennis is about more than Roger Federer, though. The gentleman of the tennis world has bowed out of the sport at the age of 41. And now Marmi is on the court looking to follow in the legend’s footsteps. It’s none too easy, though. After all, the Basel native has left his mark on tennis like nobody else. There’s even a return stroke named after him.

There are more than 51,000 licensed players in Switzerland, while Swiss tennis clubs have more than 164,000 players in their ranks. According to figures from Tennis Europe, the popularity of tennis in Switzerland is the highest on the continent, with 7.2 percent of the total population playing the sport. If you’re new to the court, you can get the skills you need to win from some 7,000 coaches.

Marmi has never held a racket in his hand before. But he has learned that the first thing he needs is the right equipment. You don’t have to choose a professional racket as there is a huge range to choose from. For beginners, it’s particularly important to have a grip that sits comfortably in your hand. The size of the head determines the control, precision and acceleration of the ball.

For the time being, Marmi can practise the basic strokes alone on the court: serve, forehand, backhand. In a tennis school on YouTube, Marmi finds all the videos that show him what to do. Later, he gets to practise the other strokes with a partner – return, volley, lob, smash and drop shot. A useful piece of advice is not to compete against the strongest players to begin with, as it would only discourage you. The most important thing is the yellow felt ball. Every point is determined by what it does. Everything revolves around the ball, not the opponent.

Marmi now starts training and whacking the ball all over the place with his racket, bouncing it or letting it come back at him from the rock face next to his burrow. If needed, he can also use it to scare off adversaries of a different kind.