Cheerleading Angels!

From: Anabelle Espinosa (anabellespinosa@hotmail.com)
Story type: Angel
Location: San Jose, Costa Rica
Source: Form Submission

I was born and raised in Panama City, Panama. My dad and ucle owned a tennis club in Panama so I've been a tennis player for almost my entire life and I've been competing all over the world ever since. When I was sixteen years old, I became curious about guardian angels and started reading books about them. I learned that they were always with me and they loved to be talked to, but I was a very skeptical teen so I never truly believed that they would ever help me. I was the number one player for the Panamanian Team that went to San Jose, Costa Rica to play Federation Cup (a tournament where the best female players from every nation play against each other). Two days before leaving, I had stepped on a tennis ball and strained my ankle. I decided to go regardless what the doctor said because I felt that my teammates and my country needed me.

We were scheduled to play Trinidad and Tobago, I was playing against an older very good tennis player that had beat me badly 2 years before in the same tournament. I forgot about my hurting ankle and I was playing some good tennis and won the first set (In tennis, you need to win two out of three sets). she came back strongly and won the second set real easy. We were playing the decisive set. Most teams where already done playing and we were there, both still fighting. In tennis, you usually play until 6 games to win a set but you have to win with a difference of two games. That year, they added a new rule in which in case we were tied at 6-6, we couldn't play a tie break but we had to play until whenever we had a 2 game lead. After 4 hours, and everybody was done with their matches she kept winning her game when she served, and I did the same with mine. At 9-9, I was tired, with blisters on my hand and feet and my injured ankle killing me.

That's when I started thinking, out of nowhere, about my guardian angels. Right then and there, I could here beyond my teammates cheering, something inside me (that was not me) kept saying: "It's almost over, you can do this". I could feel their soothing presence all over the court. I didn't feel nervous or tired or pressured anymore, I felt calm (unlike a very stressed opponent). There were many balls that I hit that could've easily gone out but they would still go in. I won 2 games in a row to beat her 11-9 and set a record for longest match played in a Fed Cup Tournament that year. I could've easily lost because I felt beat, but I had angels cheering me on and helping me through every point. It never happened again.