Tennis star Jack Sock charms and offers tips

We were on the court. Our hearts were beating faster than a shooting bullet. We were running, jumping and swinging. In other words, we were having a stupendous time playing tennis.

On Feb. 6, Kidsday reporters met Olympian and professional tennis player Jack Sock at the Manhattan Plaza Racquet Club. When we interviewed Jack, we learned that tennis is serious, time-consuming and difficult. Jack told us he stretches and warms up before a game, and his favorite place to play is in New York and on a clay court.

Jack’s favorite sports off the court are golf and basketball. He only gets to see his family for a couple of weeks throughout the year. He started playing tennis for fun at the age of 8. His inspiration to play the sport was his tennis-playing mother, and he practiced against his garage walls.

Jack didn’t only tell us about his personal life, he also told us about tennis. He was saying how the Canadian Open is his favorite match to play, how he loved playing tennis with some of his favorite doubles partners, and how his favorite tennis racket is the brand Babolat. This surprised some of us since we have never heard of that brand.

Jack told us that tennis is awesome for your body. It improves hand-eye coordination, physical health and much more. Jack Sock taught us that in order to be extraordinary in tennis (like him), you have to put in lots of hard work.

Before we got to interview him about his life and ask some tennis questions, we played a couple of games with him. Jack was being extremely kind about teaching and giving us positive feedback on our strokes and footwork. Some of us had never played before but we felt positive and excited about playing.

He served the ball to us and whoosh! The ball went so fast and no matter how hard we tried we either couldn’t get to it or hit it over the net. Playing with Jack was an amazing experience for all of us.

Jack Sock taught us to never give up on our goals and dreams. Jack Sock is an amazing guy.

You can see Jack play when he visits Madison Square Garden March 6 to play in the BNP Paribas Showdown. Others playing include Venus Williams, Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt. For more information visit: thegarden.com/calendar