Reaching a slam

The wild card playoffs for the Australian Open have been underway the past few days. It’s pretty routine stuff really which is why I haven’t been shooting much attention to it lately. But let’s face it. My recent posts have been too heavily laden with gossipy-marriage hooplah. Boo.

So – tennis. Actual tennis.

Alun Jones’ hopes of playing the Australian Open have dwindled to nothingness after being forced to pull out of the wildcard race Sunday due to shoulder injuries.  Jones was ranked No. 1 in the tournament and was beat by world No. 341 Sam Groth.

Now – I don’t have a lot of knowledge about Jones or what he can do as a tennis player. Nor do I need to. That’s not really what I wanted to focus on. Mostly, I just wanted to point out that even though he’s a relatively unknown player (to me anyway – maybe some of you are quite aware of him and if that’s so, by all means, comment away and enlighten all the readers at my level), he was going for the Australian Open. He was battling for a spot to play in a Grand Slam.

I know a lot of people have that dream and that a lot of people try and fail. But it’s one thing to have this group of nameless, faceless people floating around out there who are trying to accomplish playing in a Grand Slam and a totally different one to have a specific person in mind.

Alun Jones. A man trying to fulfill a dream.