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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Tennis again!
After almost three months of break, I am feeling I have started playing the game again! Yes, ever since, I shifted to Vidyaranyapura from the erstwhile Kaggadasapura area, I had been in search of that magic box to wield my racquet again! But, unfortunately, I could not find one near-by. Two days back, I met my new teammate, Kiran, who lives in Sahakar Nagar and has been playing in the magic box for the past three months! :-) So got hold of the box and its beauty again!
One major difference I noticed between Murugan's courts and Hari (the coach for the Sahakar Nagar courts)'s courts is that not many regulars frequent the game. The courts are three in number and the baseline area is spacious to accommodate a good set of strokes. There is a good-colored wall for the practice too!
One more significant difference that I have found is that Murugan was people-friendly, while Hari is court-friendly! For Hari, court means business. Period. Of course, Murugan too does business with his academy et al, but he customizes his interactions with the people. It has been only two days now with Hari now, so perhaps, more time with him might bring some more details in future!
I am happy finally that I am back in the box again after a long long time! (Yes, three months living out-of-the-box means a long separation from the first love!) :-)
PS: I will try to post a few snaps of the courts in the next post.
One major difference I noticed between Murugan's courts and Hari (the coach for the Sahakar Nagar courts)'s courts is that not many regulars frequent the game. The courts are three in number and the baseline area is spacious to accommodate a good set of strokes. There is a good-colored wall for the practice too!
One more significant difference that I have found is that Murugan was people-friendly, while Hari is court-friendly! For Hari, court means business. Period. Of course, Murugan too does business with his academy et al, but he customizes his interactions with the people. It has been only two days now with Hari now, so perhaps, more time with him might bring some more details in future!
I am happy finally that I am back in the box again after a long long time! (Yes, three months living out-of-the-box means a long separation from the first love!) :-)
PS: I will try to post a few snaps of the courts in the next post.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
The Ultimate Tennis Machine!
I have been waiting to watch the final battle on the green, plush grass of the Wimbledon! After all, it would be the match between equals! And then the Tennis Machine stood Victor! The Clay Ray stood Vanquished!
Federer was not his usual self in the first four sets of the match though he had won two of them. Up 4-2 in the final set, the ultimate Tennis Machine rolled out such a set of fantastic products that the Vanquished had no choice except to be anguished!
Of course, the match also saw some tense moments of interest with occasional outbursts from Federer who had always against the creeping of technology into the game. Couple of times, he complained to the Chair Umpire about the Hawk Eye technology with such innocuous questions as "Can the technology be switched off?"! :-)
But, ultimately Federer deserves a hard party tonight after beating his best nemesis in the Finale de Fantastic! Amazing Federer. Hats off to you!
Federer was not his usual self in the first four sets of the match though he had won two of them. Up 4-2 in the final set, the ultimate Tennis Machine rolled out such a set of fantastic products that the Vanquished had no choice except to be anguished!
Of course, the match also saw some tense moments of interest with occasional outbursts from Federer who had always against the creeping of technology into the game. Couple of times, he complained to the Chair Umpire about the Hawk Eye technology with such innocuous questions as "Can the technology be switched off?"! :-)
But, ultimately Federer deserves a hard party tonight after beating his best nemesis in the Finale de Fantastic! Amazing Federer. Hats off to you!
Monday, June 25, 2007
Doubles' Finals - Feast to the senses!
There are good men, and there are too good men! And,when they meet on court to battle out with four rackets and a shining yellow-felted ball, there will be only one thing common among all of them - goodness! For Heaven's sake, let it be there, coexisting with the kindness of the game! Oh! What a feast was that! When Prem/Praveen (PP) and Nitin/Jeffrey (NJ) met for the first time in the tournament for the Balle de Battle 2007, it SHOULD be a match! And it was!
The power of tennis was manifested in the powerful serves of Prem, good partnering support from Praveen with his slow but deep shots, long rallies from Nitin and fantastic smashes at the net from Jeffrey! The winner was the Game of Tennis! Prem shouted when the match score was evened out 2-6,6-3. And the airs listened to that ruffling the leaves in the distant trees! Finally, the devastating smashes won over the demolishing serves. NJ went away with the crown and ranked with the top honors with the match swaying in their way, 6-2,3-6,6-4.
The awards were presented after the match by Srinivas, Ramesh and Narendran. Emcee Sanjay was at his best compeering the program in his own style. Apart from the second runners-up, first runners-up and winners awards, an award for most promising player was presented to Harveen and two tokens of appreciation were presented to me and Kavitha for helping Murugan organizing the event. I was peeved at receiving this trophy primarily because I did all the help for Murugan just to help and did not expect any thing in return. I really did not expect this trophy or something else. The prime motivation for helping him was to induce an element of professional sense of thinking to the entire process. If it had succeeded then it was the most wonderful award for me!
Lunch was good after a grueling day of hard tennis. (Of course, I did not have any matches for myself, but was feeling double hungry just serving as line umpire in the warm sun! :-)) The beers were thrown and Satish, Gopal, Ben, Hari and Vigyan seemed to enjoy the drinks more than any one else! Gopal was at dancing on the court after his initial taste of beers! I saw Satish feeling shy walking across court; the innocuous smile reminiscent of a mischievous child doing the undoable! :-) With the background of Ilayaraja's classic old hits booming from Murugan's music system, the entire aura seemed to be filled with the incredible tennis machines! The soul of tennis was too conspicuous to be missed out among the many souls that were parched in the warm afternoon! Great was the day. And, great was the feeling. Great was the zest. I left the courts for home with a satisfied sense of doing something and having something that meant so much to me than anything to anyone in this anybody's world of everyone!
The power of tennis was manifested in the powerful serves of Prem, good partnering support from Praveen with his slow but deep shots, long rallies from Nitin and fantastic smashes at the net from Jeffrey! The winner was the Game of Tennis! Prem shouted when the match score was evened out 2-6,6-3. And the airs listened to that ruffling the leaves in the distant trees! Finally, the devastating smashes won over the demolishing serves. NJ went away with the crown and ranked with the top honors with the match swaying in their way, 6-2,3-6,6-4.
The awards were presented after the match by Srinivas, Ramesh and Narendran. Emcee Sanjay was at his best compeering the program in his own style. Apart from the second runners-up, first runners-up and winners awards, an award for most promising player was presented to Harveen and two tokens of appreciation were presented to me and Kavitha for helping Murugan organizing the event. I was peeved at receiving this trophy primarily because I did all the help for Murugan just to help and did not expect any thing in return. I really did not expect this trophy or something else. The prime motivation for helping him was to induce an element of professional sense of thinking to the entire process. If it had succeeded then it was the most wonderful award for me!
Lunch was good after a grueling day of hard tennis. (Of course, I did not have any matches for myself, but was feeling double hungry just serving as line umpire in the warm sun! :-)) The beers were thrown and Satish, Gopal, Ben, Hari and Vigyan seemed to enjoy the drinks more than any one else! Gopal was at dancing on the court after his initial taste of beers! I saw Satish feeling shy walking across court; the innocuous smile reminiscent of a mischievous child doing the undoable! :-) With the background of Ilayaraja's classic old hits booming from Murugan's music system, the entire aura seemed to be filled with the incredible tennis machines! The soul of tennis was too conspicuous to be missed out among the many souls that were parched in the warm afternoon! Great was the day. And, great was the feeling. Great was the zest. I left the courts for home with a satisfied sense of doing something and having something that meant so much to me than anything to anyone in this anybody's world of everyone!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Matches are made on court!
All the quarterfinal matches were played today amid soaring doubts on the possibility of the play with the incessant drizzling. But, the zeal of the players won over the hearts of the rain-gods and the court was made available to the players in time, thanks to Murugan and the ball-boys.
We had our tough opponent, Prem and Praveen. Mahesh could only hold one serve and I lost my first two serves. When we trailed the match 1-6, we lost all the hopes in the Heaven! :-) I had lots of fun struggling to put the new balls in play with the enormous bounce they had on the wet surface. The speed and the spin of the returns from Prem was difficult to deal with though occasionally my parter was able to attack the superb forehand of Prem. But, I think Prem/Praveen are beatable if the shots are controlled and percentage play is in play. :-)
Two of the other quarterfinal matches were pretty close and gave a nail-biting thrill to the spectators :) One, Gopal/Harveen against Mitra/Vigyan and two, Aravind/Balliga against Sagar/Srinivas. The former had to be decided with the tiebreak and the latter was a win for skills and consistency. Mitra/Vigyan seemed initially lost their fervor with Gopal fighting alone mostly for each point! Finally, he succumbed to the aggressive games of the former. Result: Mitra/Vigyan won 10-9! Aravind/Balliga too showed that they were the potential candidates for the finals with Balliga's powerful smashes at the net and Aravind's serves and slices!
Finally, on-court histrionics made the matches! :D
We had our tough opponent, Prem and Praveen. Mahesh could only hold one serve and I lost my first two serves. When we trailed the match 1-6, we lost all the hopes in the Heaven! :-) I had lots of fun struggling to put the new balls in play with the enormous bounce they had on the wet surface. The speed and the spin of the returns from Prem was difficult to deal with though occasionally my parter was able to attack the superb forehand of Prem. But, I think Prem/Praveen are beatable if the shots are controlled and percentage play is in play. :-)
Two of the other quarterfinal matches were pretty close and gave a nail-biting thrill to the spectators :) One, Gopal/Harveen against Mitra/Vigyan and two, Aravind/Balliga against Sagar/Srinivas. The former had to be decided with the tiebreak and the latter was a win for skills and consistency. Mitra/Vigyan seemed initially lost their fervor with Gopal fighting alone mostly for each point! Finally, he succumbed to the aggressive games of the former. Result: Mitra/Vigyan won 10-9! Aravind/Balliga too showed that they were the potential candidates for the finals with Balliga's powerful smashes at the net and Aravind's serves and slices!
Finally, on-court histrionics made the matches! :D
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