Congrats Vishy!

As the sports fans in India rejoice the thumping win at the Chinnaswamy Stadium which has sealed the series for Dhoni’s men (What an amazing run of form Dhoni is having as a captain – I am yet to believe it is because of any special captaincy techniques he has brought to the field), I would like to take a moment and congratulate Vishwanathan Anand! It is no ordinary feat – If Tiger Woods is to be credited for turning so many young African American people to a sport, they had ignored till then and if Serena Williama and Venus Williams can be credited for bringing Tennis to the mainstream African American population, then Vishy absolutely gets the credit for making Indian youngsters believe that becoming a Grand Master is well within most of our reach. Look at the number of GMs we have produced since Anand first became a GM.

The kind of reception he was accorded with, at the Chennai airport a few days back was well deserving – but unlike Cricketers, Vishy is not going to have fans wearing “I am the World Champion” T-shirt with his face imprinted on them or “King of 64″ T-shirts to show their adulation and follow him around.

In any case, whatever he has achieved during most of his career is entirely due to his hard work (with nothing in return from the government) – I am glad he was able to afford it..and thankfully, he has had a good record so far to be able to do so.

Congrats Anand!

The Master and (the) Traitor

When the blue USTA courts in Flushing Meadows were being dried Monday morning, I am sure the officials were a little concerned if the breezy morning would end up wet, thus spoiling the crowd from getting into the Arthur Ashe stadium. But the crowd got in alright that evening and was truly mesmerized by one man – The Master of this amazing game called tennis – in the last 30 years or so.

I have been fanatical about my tennis heroes, as long as I have followed the game – the first time I was so passionate about a player, it was for Boris Becker – the white ‘eye-browed’ Aryan from Germany. I may have been infatuated by his unconventional style of sheer athleticism and on-court boyish antics. And when he conquered the strawberry-cream eating British fans’ hearts, he was just 17. There have been many other players that I have followed over the years, liked and wanted to win. Connors, Edberg, Wilander, Sampras, Agassi after the comeback, Pat Cash for the first few years, etc. on the men’s side. But after Becker, I feel the same fanaticism for the Master now. While on the women’s side, Steffi Graf has been my only passionate tennis queen – although Chris Evert, Seles after her comeback, Sanchez, Sharapova, Early Venus Williams, etc. have ignited my dreams of being out there and following the games & championship tournaments.

So, when Andy Murray’s girl friend, Kim Sears (pretty good looking I should say), took seats with his mom and his whole entourage (funnily his favorite TV show is Entourage), they would not have expected the “Roasted” feast that the Master would serve to their man. What a match it was !! Should I say, what an one-sided match it was! I was actually beginning to get a little concerned when the Master started fumbling on his forehand shots a little bit towards the end of the second set and again during the middle of the third set (after getting a 4-0 lead). I was worried because those were moments where flashes of his more humanly game in 2008 kept flickering in front my eyes and those were moments when the aura of invincibility that once haloed the man, looked punctured. But in the end, he won in a very human way – by throwing so many unforced errors, not the same kind of aces that he had in the semis and doing less serve&volleys than he would have liked to. I was relieved that he got his No. 13 and sure he is not going to stop there.

Watched “Traitor” over the weekend. As much as I liked the movie, it gave me a very Dejavu feel – seems like movies in this genre are the “in thing”..Of course, movies are reflection of our times and sure enough middle east setting, Islamic terrorism, Spy, CIA, etc..are all very Dejavu. But overall, full marks to Don and Guy..Amazing job! Don Cheadle has come a long way and he can pull off different shades of characters rather comfortably.

A Gold in 112 years

Congrats Abhinav Bindra!

Certainly a proud moment..and I cannot believe we had to wait 112 years to get there…

Citius, Altius, Fortius – Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni

It’s here – The 29th Olympiad in Beijing. After all the hype and hoopla that clouded the event till now, the event has promised to be interesting – if not for anything, just for the curiosity factor “Can China do it?”. I mean, I don’t propose the world boycott the games because of China’s Human Rights Violation – but I am against IOC for granting China the games to begin with. Which country wouldn’t want to host Olympics, if given a chance..for Achilles’ sake?
In any case, I hope all the anti-pollution laws and artificial rain attempts with silver iodide pellets help the air stay cleaner than how it was earlier.

Looking forward to the next 2 weeks – Other than the track & field events, I am going to root for Phelps.

Disgruntled at the Center Court

I was one of the 5 in the room who was peevish with the grunts that came from the other side of the court. In general, we were finding flaws with anything and everything that Rafa did and didn’t that day. Including his grunts. How annoying they were..To me at least. I can’t imagine being Roger, trying to match Borg’s feat and here is my opponent questioning every sixth or seventh shot of mine – thanks to the hawk-eye replay, now exclusively available at Wimbledon, with the most irksome grunts that were made every time the guy hits a powerful winner across the court, giving me very little chance to chase it down.

I couldn’t have been Roger and none could have been on that day – for it was a miracle he pulled it off in the end. The mental game was lost in Roger’s mind during the first 3 sets. But once he repaired his thoughts, we got to see Federer’s best tennis and Rafa’s was no match once Roger brought his ammunition out.

We celebrated the final foreground smash as much as Roger’s family did in the box, with high-fives and cheers..and the emotions were running high in my sister-in-law’s living room. We had been talking about this for such a long time that we actually were motivated to go play tennis on a Sunday morning at 6:30 AM. When we came back, Roger was up by one set & the rest as they history as we were glued on to the TV set till ‘history’ was made.

Cheers Roger!