Ichizo Yamamoto Blog

グランドスラムのほかの大会では、予選で負けたとしても、パスを持っていれば期間中いつでも観戦できる。なのに、ウィンブルドンだけはそれができない。80いくつもある世界の大会のなかでも、こういう例はひとつもないんです。
しかも本戦は、予選のコートとは遠く離れた別世界のようなコートでやるんです。（予選は）華やかな雰囲気も全然ない。

予選で負けたあとは、本戦に残った選手にチケットを譲ってもらえないかと頼むんです。数枚のチケットが配られる本戦出場の選手に、門の近くで「チケットない？」と。でもそれはすごく悔しいことで、もうこんな思いはしたくない、やっぱりどうしても本戦に出たい！と思うわけです。

Looking out across this audience filled with warm friends and great champions, I am overwhelmed with the history and the tradition of this moment.

As I attempt to find words worthy to introduce the person that has changed my life, I realized that the words have yet to be invented that are large enough, colorful enough, or true enough to express the heart and soul of this woman I love.

Stefanie…I wonder what can I possibly say to do justice to the way you’ve lived your life, and to the lives you have changed.

I began several years ago on the small chalkboard sitting in our kitchen, a tradition that I’ve carried on every night… At the end of each day I have picked up the chalk and tried to express the many things you mean to me. Sometimes just a brief line, sometimes a short story, but always just the overflow from a grateful heart, and yet after these months and years of writing to you each night, I have never been at a shortage of ways to reflect the light you’ve brought into my life… And now, how ironic that in these few short moments I need to capture in words these things I so deeply appreciate in you… Maybe I can say it to you this simple way.

Not long ago we were on the road and I looked out our notel room window from the upper floor or a very high rise… I could see the rooftop of an old and beautiful cathedral… it was stunning with its carved stone and marble, all done so perfectly… I could not believe the work of art I was seeing, and I wondered how many years did they take to create this, and what drove them to be this committed… then I began to appreciate something greater… I realized, that when this rooftop was built, it was by far the tallest building… In an age long before airplanes or skyscrapers, these artists believed each day as they went about their work that no human being, or one set of eyes, would ever see thier creation… How could they not have cut one corner… How could they consider no task routine… I can only think it came from a place deep inside – the need to be true to themselves WAS their reason, and their reward.

All of this has helped me to understand you just a little better, never needing applause to be your best, only needing to give the best your soul could give, to feel complete.

From the roar of voices inside the lines of centre court, to the quietness of a child’s bedroom, that generous soul, that unbending strength, that soft spoken integrity has not one time been shaken… The arena of tennis simply gave you a platform and an opportunity to refine those inner qualities even more.

You have always been about action, not about words.

You have never defined yourself by what you have achieved, rather, you have achieved by how you defined yourself. And even now, it has taken my breath away to see how you’ve quietly laid down your racket to pursue love and motherhood, with the same zeal and high standards you have always demanded of yourself.

No, no-one has ever known you to be infatuated by your own accomplishments… In fact, as I have often said, anyone who speaks with you, will most likely forget the great things you have done within the first thirty seconds, but, they will feel cared for, their feelings engaged, and you never let go of their heart until they know that they are completely understood.

The history books will record for posterity, your ability to embrace and rise above adversity, to play through injury, and to win again, and again, and again.

Far in the future people will analyze and discuss your place as the greatest of your time… And as those future generations hear of your strength and dominance, they may be tempted to think that they know you, or the real heart of a giant that beats inside of you… But for those blessed enough to actually see first hand your quiet humility, to watch you represent your sport with unmistakable dignity, and for those of us who are even more blessed to be lifted out of ourselves by your laughter, to be on the receiving end of your always generous heart – we will have etched forever in us, something a statistic could never contain.

We have been touched deeply by your life, you have made us better, and we will never be the same.

Stefanie… you have spent many years of your life competing, but right here where we stand, in the ears of your children, and right now in my heart, you have no rival.

Ladies and gentlemen… I introduce to you the greatest person I’ve ever known…”