Eye on the Ball 

Photos: Naftoli Goldgrab
THWACK!
THWACK!

Mishpacha’s photographer and I are watching a tennis practice in the Sportime pavilion on Randall’s Island, a narrow strip of land between Manhattan and Queens devoted largely to sports facilities and the New York Fire Department training academy. The huge, vinyl-draped shell is lit with fluorescent lights strung high, although a few shafts of sunlight sneak in through windows near the ceiling. Under this dome are three tennis courts, all of them occupied by players whacking balls back and forth.

Francesco, the assistant director of Sportime and part-time tennis coach, is on the court with 35-year-old Yosef Yitzchak Gershon. Tzitzis swing beneath Yosef’s teal-green T-shirt as he hits the ball back and forth. Tall and lanky, Yosef seems to size up the ball as it approaches, makes a judicious decision, then strikes it with practiced ease over the net into his opponent’s side of the court. He moves in a leisurely dance, sailing right and left to volley each ball. It’s only when the photographer asks for a jumping pose that the professional player obliges by springing into the air to hit the ball, smashing it back with an extra burst of power.

After 20 minutes, they take a break, and I ask Yosef what he’s working on in this practice.

“My technique — the serving, the returns,” he explains. “I try to get into the rhythm — the ‘zone’ — so that I’m feeling in control of the ball.”