Softball practice poll

Federer is the greatest ever

Someone once said that a true champion is one who can conquer his weakness and turn his life around.

Take 1: As an upcoming tennis player, Federer was prone to choking on the big stage, one who would do a la-Marat Safin when confronted with frustrating situations. The manner in which he overcame that fallibility to go on and break every record in tennis speaks for itself.

Take 2: Clay, the slowest possible surface to play the great game on tennis on. Red dirt totally removes the skill aspect from the game. No matter how graceful you are, it boils down to physical strength, raw power and tenacity. No so long ago, clay used to be Federer's weakest surface. These days, Federer is the second best player on the surface and not too far from the best. One semi-final and two runner up finishes in the last 3 yrs at Rolland Garros is a terrific performance, especially considering that clay is his weakest surface. Moreover, he wins the other three slams in the year quite easily, almost sleep walks them.

I'm sure Federer will conquer clay one day. It is just a matter of time. Roll on Rolland Garros 2008.

The battle of surfaces

One is the undisputed king in his trade, possibly the greatest to have ever stepped onto a court with a tennis racket; some say he is an incarnation of God. The other is a pretender, the king of clay but without too much to shout about on other surfaces. They are the number 1 and 2 players in the world, and daylight separates them from the rest.

In one of the most innovative moves ever, a hybrid half-clay half-grass tennis court was developed for a speculated cost of 8,00,000 pounds in Mallorca. An exhibition match was planned between Federer, who is riding a 42 match winning streak on grass and 4 consecutive Wimbledon titles, and that boy Nadal who hasn't lost on clay for 72 matches and is the winner of the last 2 French Opens. Despite this being an unofficial match, there was room for a number of potential statements to be made during this game, as these 2 players could possibly play the finals of the French Open in a month's time. Federer's defeat to Nadal just a week back in Monte Carlo finals had brought back nightmares of last year. Knowing how dear a rolland garros title is for Federer, few expected him to take this game lightly.


However, as luck would have it, Nadal edged Federer in a nail-biting 3 set thriller, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (12-10). Nadal broke Federer twice - once on clay and grass, while Federer broke Nadal once, on grass. It was only appropriate that a game of this nature went down to the wire. Nadal somehow continues to have the upper hand over Roger. I feel Roger has a problem with his backhand against Nadal's topspin. He seems to make too many unforced errors; the slowness of clay doesn't help either. All said and done, there is still not much to suggest that Federer will not win the French this year and create history.

It was a pity that no sports channel aired this 'freak' encounter. I followed it on www.thebattleofsurfaces.com but unfortunately couldn't find any websites that had live commentary or audio/video feed. If anyone comes across highlights of this match on youtube or anywhere else, please share it.

'Big Daddies' complete a hat-trick

Australia won an unprecedented third successive World Cup in Barbados on April 28th to reconfirm their status as one of the best teams ever to play ODI's. The way they have won this WC without ever being challenged and not once threatened has been quite unbelievable. All talks about this being the 'most open' WC ever turned out to be a farce. It is now 29 games since they lost a ODI in a WC. Once again on the big stage, an aussie player raised his hand to be counted. Here is a toast to them.

Steve Waugh, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath...all true legends who bowed out in style, on a high. There are legends who win 3 WC medals in their cricketing careers, and then there are media-created legends who get paid for the amount of time spent at the crease, enjoy super-stardom, walk the ramp between games and bask in the public and media hype. Still wonder why some of the sub-continent mortals don't get a respected farewell?

Cricket is a game of uncertainties. But not when the opposition is Australia. Anyone betting on the kangaroos pouching a 5th successive WC in 2015?

The most bedaubed Indian wedding ever

The media ingeniously coined it 'Abhiwarya'. The speculation and build-up to the 'W' day seemed to go on for ever and ever. Who would be invited? Would Salman Khan or Vivek Oberoi be present at the wedding? Will Aishwarya Rai now be called Aishwarya Bachchan? Will she quit acting after marriage like her mom-in-law Jaya?

Honestly, does anyone care how many kgs of jewelery will adorn that frail frame of Aishwarya? Or whether Amar Singh will be one of the hosts of the marriage? Or whether Aishwarya married for the Bachchan name and the Rs. 7000 cr fortune?

Seriously, what's the deal about 2 ordinary people doing the 'saat-pheras'? Why do websites have to run specials like this on them?

This when atrocities continue in parts of our country and the burning issue of quota system continues to stymie our progress.