I hit my first tennis ball when I was six. We lived two doors from a playground in Cincinnati and we had no money, my dad had gone through the Depression. I guess I threw a racket over the fence or something when I was seven. You know how you can feel eyes on you? I looked around and he was at the other end of the court with his fingers in the chain-link fence and he sort of motioned me to come toward him. That was probably the longest walk I've ever made in my life. He said (this is 1937), 'If I ever see you do that again, I'll drop you like a hot potato.' I never threw a racket again. Show less «