Anne Keothavong's Blog by Anne_Keothavong

This week, I’m going to give all of you a chance to have a giggle at my expense. Every time I go through immigration or passport security at airports I get a funny look. I’ve been questioned on more than a few occasions about whether the person in the picture is really me and I’ve had people just laugh in my face. I am the owner of one of the worst passport pictures ever but I don’t care! I was in such a rush at the time when I was renewing my passport and didn’t really think about the fact that the picture would be with me for the next ten years! And frankly I just wanted to get it done as soon as possible. I kept my scarf on and was feeling pretty rough, so it didn’t cross my mind I would look like I had no neck!

My passport has been all over the world with me and it’s given plenty of people a chance to laugh, so that must be a good thing, right?! The photo on my driver’s license isn’t much better either. It’s a pretty good mug shot in fact. I renewed it just before Christmas and again I was in a bit of a rush. When I handed my photo over to the guy at the DVLA desk, he laughed and looked at me and asked if I was sure I didn’t want to take another picture! What a way to make a girl feel good about herself! Anyway, laughs aside let me tell you what I’ve been up to. Apart from the competing which is all year round for us tennis pros, I was asked to open the newly resurfaced park courts at Hackney Downs. I grew up around the corner from these tennis courts and spent hours playing there with my brother and sister when we were kids.

I fell over God knows how many times on those courts as there used to be so much moss on them and my knees are covered with scars from all the tumbles. Mind you, my coach did recently tell me that I have the ability to look really uncoordinated at times on the tennis court, so maybe it was just my clumsiness and not the courts! Two more courts were added to the three already there, all are painted green and blue and two of the courts have floodlights - they look so much better than the grey courts I remember. It brought back so many memories and I even felt a little emotional about it as I hadn’t been to the area for years. The thing I was most happy to hear about, was that the courts are always busy and that there were more organised squads for kids to take part in.

Tennis has given me so many opportunities and I really hope it can for other kids in the area too. On another note, I sometimes feel selfish and guilty for the life I have and I’ve been looking in to things to do to help others who don’t have quite the same chances in life as I do. Once a week there is a group of Down’s Syndrome kids who come to the National Tennis Centre to play tennis in the evenings and I now help out whenever I’m around and play tennis with them. They are all so inspiring to me and it’s great fun as well as incredibly heart-warming and rewarding. I think we can always do more than we think we can to help others, don’t you agree?