This has already been posted on a billion times, I know, I'm just too lazy to find the right post to comment on.

On 677 Ms. Steeply (the reporter) and DeLint and watching the match between Hal and Stice and DeLint talks about the pressures of winning- "Winning two and three upset matches, feeling suddenly so loved,so many talking to you as if there is love. But always the same, then. For then you awaken to the fact that you are loved for winning only. The two and three wins created you, for people. It is not that the wins made them recognize something that existed unrecognized before these upset wins. The from-noplace winning created you. You must keep winning to keep the existence of love and endorsements and the shiny magazines wanting your profile."

This struck me as exactly parallel to drug-use. You start, and at first it's just fun, and then you realize you have to keep doing it in order to be that "loved" or high. As long as the boys win their matches, they're liked. Delint also talks about how much pressure this puts on the boys- how this turns them to "the suiceides. the burn-out. the drugs, the self-indulging" etc.

Question: I played tennis for a large portion of my life: do these matches confuse those of you who haven't ever played?

Also: a few months ago my swim coach told us that we were "disadvantaged as atheletes" because we were smart and could connect the pain to the swimming. On 682, Delint talks about how Hal remembers the points, and is suspectible to discouragement when the tide changes, while Stice isn't really, and he just plays in the moment. I thought it was funny.