Bring Back Precious Memories! - Hana Mandlikova in Her Dunlop Maxply Fort-Days

So sorry… They weren’t taken well, those dumb pictures taken by my toy camera… But you know what? They are the most and the first precious pics I’ve ever had about Hana Mandlikova. I took them directly from TV being in high spirits when I was in Sydney, 1979. That year, 16-year-old Hana made some tremendous achievements in Australia for an overseas visitor. Amazingly, she won three out of the five big women’s tournaments in Australia in Adelaide (Berri Fruit Juices), Sydney (Nabisco NSW), and Melbourne (Toyota Classic). As she said in her autobiography, since this year Hana started her love affair with Aussie.

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Oh, I can remember clearly, when I was in Australia, all the TV programmes broadcasted were just boring. They were just super super super boring for 13-year-old tomboy girl like me. They mainly broadcasted kind of gardening, cooking, wild animals, movies, tennis, and… Yes! Crickets!!! God, I would never forget this. Believe me I have no hard feelings against crickets whatsoever, but it’s dreadfully boring thing for me. I thought crickets was the most passionless sports in the world and it almost killed me. Sorry, crickets freaks, maybe I was too baby-in-arms to understand crickets. But tennis really wasn’t my passion, either. No.

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Then, Hana appeared. From that moment, my everyday just changed. My preferences, activities range, order of preferences, family talk in the evening, they just totally changed. Playing , watching, or talking about tennis / Hana came first, it became the top priority in my everyday. Hana was like a Haley’s comet. I bought Dunlop Maxply Fort that Hana was using, tied bandanna around my head and rushed to tennis court. It became my everyday life.

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When I first saw Hana on TV, I was like a wood being struck by lightning. “Where the hell does she come from?" . "Czechoslovakia?" . "How is it pronounced like?" . "Where is it?” I asked my father sitting beside me so many questions one after another. You could almost call it “a shock.” Because I’d never seen a woman tennis athlete looked so repellent, stern, and lone. She was playing definitely with some distinctive atmosphere that no athlete ever had. Is it because she was from one of communist countries? I don’t know… Maybe it is because what she is. And I don’t see “repellent”, “stern”, “lone” these words to be as bad meaning. On the contrary, I think she is so gifted with these to attract tennis fans enough. And a commentator of a Aussie tennis magazine at that time described Hana as such,

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“Her business-like manner and get-on-with-the-game attitude, together with her classical strokes and attacking shots, her touches of brilliance and boldness, make her a most exciting player to watch. (“TENNIS” 1979)

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Yes, it tells all about typical Hana Mandlikova of 1979. She was like a big typhoon. She was so different from others: the way she walked, the way she served and hit the ball, the way she glared at opponent, the way she swept her hair, and the atmosphere she had. She was so distinctive and hot. The hottest and the coolest tennis player in the world. These impression of Hana has been fadeless and stayed with me since, and I swear to God, I don’t think I can encounter this kind of tennis player after her.

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There is no another Hana Mandlikova.

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Hana Mandlikova in Australian Open 1980

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