Aamir Khan on winning, losing and being 1

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Posted: 19 years ago

Aamir Khan on winning, losing and being 15
By: Lata Khubchandani
January 29, 2006

Aamir Khan always had something to engage his attention as a child. After he outgrew collecting marbles, he started playing tennis. He'd play at the Khar Gymkhana near his house.

He played with his usual meticulousness and beat everyone in his age group. And was chosen to play at the National level. In fact, Khar gymmers were delighted when they saw him play a mixed doubles there again recently although slightly disastrously, as he sprained his ankle during the game.

Says Aamir, in hindsight, "I played tennis as a kid but I don't play it any longer – I play squash now. I played a lot of tennis when I was 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 years old... I played the circuit in the tennis tournaments. I was pretty good. I played at the National levels too, just once though. It was an experience I still remember.

"I had a disastrous time at the Nationals. This tournament was in Chandigarh. I lost in the first round. At the time, I was the top player in Maharashtra in my age group. When I went to the Nationals, some things happened which seemed strange to me. This would only interest tennis players; non-tennis players wouldn't understand.

"Normally in a tennis match you have the best of three sets. When I went to the Nationals, they had the best of nine games. Now, one set is made up of six games, which is why you have 6-3; 6-2 etc. And the person who wins 6 games wins the set.

So you might have won six games the other person might have won four games — so you would have played a total of 10 games. Those 10 games make up one set. And you have best of three sets — so the person who wins two sets out of three wins the match.

"In the Nationals, we were told it's the best of nine games — no sets, nothing. So the person who won five games won the match — this was a bizarre concept for me.

This is the first time I was playing a tournament in which you had to win five games to win an entire match. It's like saying that instead of 50 overs in cricket the person who scores the highest in the first five overs wins the match! So I was like 'What is this?'

"Another thing that bothered me was that the base line of the court was very close to the back of the court — there was no place to run etc. In the Nationals, one would have expected more space. Anyway, I played there and before I knew it, the match was over because my opponent had won five games and I'd won three. I was sure I'd beat him but that was the end of the match and I was out in the first round. So playing at the Nationals was a disastrous experience for me.

"I played tennis till I was about 14 or 15 years of age. Now I play squash but not competitively. I love playing chess — I'm a good amateur at chess. I've played with Shammi Kapoor once.

And it was really a good experience. I won but I can safely say that he's a very good player, excellent in fact. The way it happened was that some magazine wanted to take a photograph of him and me together — something like stars of yesterday and today and they were looking for common interests.

We were to be photographed with a chessboard as we both like chess, so we decided that instead of just faking a photo, we'd actually play a board. I don't know how I won. He was absolutely in control of the game. In the first 15, 20 moves, I realised he's a superior player to me.

For the first two hours of the game he was controlling the game (we played for three-and-a-half hours). Only in the end, I managed to hold on for dear life — I don't know how, it was just because I persevered I think. If I played him again, I'm sure he'd beat me.

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Aamir Khan

Aamir Khan on winning, losing and being 1

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