Soft tennis-Gentler form winning fans in Doha

DOHA, Dec 6 (Reuters) Turn a deaf ear to the competitive shrieks and a blind eye to the thigh-revealing skirts. Ignore the trilling mobile phones and you are almost there.

If you can also block out the electronic scoreboard and the metallic hiss of drinks cans being prized open, then, like Proust setting eyes on a much-loved madeleine, you are back there, deep in a bygone age.

It is an age where people play tennis for fun. The sport is not a route to riches, nor is it a life-or-death battle where no deed is too low-down if it secures victory.

This golden age of smiling tennis players, thrilled by a delicate shot rather than an advertising deal, still exists among a breed of players who are spreading their message at the Asian Games in a tennis centre set in the Qatari desert.

These men and women pick up their own tennis balls after missing a shot. They fetch their own towels and pour their own drinks.

They can not be found on the ATP Tour or at Wimbledon or in the Davis Cup, though, for their brand of tennis is a gentler form -- soft tennis.

''Enjoy,'' Hidenori Shinohara smiled, when asked for his sporting philosophy.

The 23-year-old school teacher, from the Japanese prefecture of Gumma, is one of the best players in the world but remains down to earth.

He is not envious of the vast riches on offer to the exponents of his sport's big brother, lawn tennis.

''I have played soft tennis since I was eight,'' he told Reuters after winning through to the men's singles final of the Asian Games.

''And no, I do not play regular tennis, it seems to me to be very aggressive.

''Our tennis is gentler -- more soft, like the name,'' he grinned.

While in Europe the term evokes a children's game, played with plastic rackets and a sponge ball, in Asia it is a sport played by more than 40 nations and with a history almost as old as its parent.

POWDER-PUFF SERVES Invented in Japan after tennis had been introduced to the country at the end of the 19th century, more than five million now play the game which features lighter rackets and a much softer ball.

With its powder-puff serves and gently underspun backhands, the exponents of the sport can barely have changed their strategies since the originators dreamt up the discipline.

It remains competitive and charming in equal measure.

Players race around the court with single-minded focus, yet no line calls are disputed. No rackets are thrown nor umpires berated.

There are no ball-boys scurrying after fuzzy yellow balls.

While it is less aggressive than lawn tennis, it is no less tactically sophisticated.

''You have to think and read your opponent's mind,'' said Mami Inoue, a soft tennis teacher from Tokyo.

''For me playing soft tennis is more difficult than tennis.

In tennis the ball flies very easily, but soft tennis balls fly by driving and spinning.

''You have to guess where an opponent will shoot the ball and really out-manoeuvre her. That is why it is so much fun. It is fast-moving yet precise.'' Reuters PDS RS1840