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.

Hidenori Shinohara of Japan returns the ball during the men's soft tennis singles final at the 15th Asian Games in Doha December 6, 2006.[Reuters]

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.

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