the blindfold supper: the blind kid ranks high because he's blind

The body-as-instrument logic pushed to its limit: a blind nine-year-old is "highly ranked" in his region, and the theory is that he's ranked high not despite blindness but because of it — "the highness of the ranking may be due to the blindness itself." The whole edifice of the sport — eyes tracking the ball — turns out to be dispensable, maybe even a handicap. Strip the eyes and a tennis body can become pure anticipation, floating to the ball's landing spot before it's struck. The instrument is refined by subtracting a sense.