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!
Sunday, July 8, 2007
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
Friday, June 22, 2007
Up'set' and interesting matches!
In a match dominated by mental toughness and unexpected skill flaunting, Aravind/Balliga (AB) team routed the Jeffrey/Nitin (JN) team by eight games to four. This was the most surprising upset in the tournament until now, since every one was expecting JN to win the match given their synergistic strengths! But what is a world without any surprises!
In another close encounter, Gopal/Harveen (GH) beat Neel/Suyog (NS) in a tiebreak, 8-7(4). I had never seen Gopal relaxing on the court while his partner was allowed to run through the corners of the court! Something dawns, and Gopal wakes up and the ball listens to him! :-) That just happened when the match score reached 7-7 and there was a loud announcement for a tiebreak from the umpire. That's it! The ball just listened to Gopal and the rest was history! :-)
Now that the battles lines for the quarterfinals are almost drawn, let us look at the players in the group:
Prem/Praveen
Consistent and powerful serves and a fierce forehand combines is the Prem's game! Winner of the 2005 championship, he is undoubtedly one of the finest players in the academy and lends himself to any kind of game, whether partner's or opponent's.
Praveen is one of those few players who act fast in reaching the ball on the court. Though a slow server for himself, his forehand sometimes bangs the opponents and catch them in the corners!
Jeffrey/Nitin
Jeffrey has one the greatest smashes I have ever seen, though he might at times be inconsistent with the forehand shots. Note to his opponents: Never ever lob for him, because whether it is a deep lob or a shallow one, he jumps with his racket talking the rest! :-)
Nitin is one of the best players in the academy and has powerful ground strokes. Watch his first serve which would definitely be a feast to the lovers of the game.
Gopal/Harveen
When I saw Gopal for the first time, I had not expected him to be a wonderful player of the game! It was one of the rarest moments when my subjective mind deceived me! :-) He is perceived as the best player in the academy with his variety of shots and top-spin serves!
Harveen, though started the game late, picked it up so fast to leave the opponents in distress with her sudden attack on the length of the court! Guys, please take note of the sweet spots on her racket which gives her shots a superb aura of beauty.
Aravind/Balliga
The slicing master, Aravind, though a powerful baseline hitter, is often inconsistent with his serves. Don't ever allow him to meet the ball in the correct action for his forehand!
Balliga has a very good movement in the court and has very good serves. Given that serves wins the matches, he is the potent winner!
Abhishek/Satish
Abhishek is one of the good players given his control on the shots and the spinning and powerful serves! He seems to be quite emotional at times during the games, but nothing stops him to turn the game from disaster!
Satish has a unique forehand action and his consistent and continuous returns, wherever the ball is, makes opponents sometimes frustrating, thus forcing them to make unforced errors.
(By providence or incidence, these two good players are now out of the tournament, since they lost matches in the times of mutual inconsistencies! I wish you guys a better luck next time!)
Neel/Suyog
Neel is high on mental toughness and self-motivation. I think, because of his unmatched unforced errors, coupled with slow coverage of the court, he started losing his points. But, given his fighting spirit, I am sure, he will make it to a better result next time!
Suyog reaches the ball in the court irrespective of its pitch in the court. One of the things his opponents need to note and act is his sudden change in the angle of forehand and lobs!
In another close encounter, Gopal/Harveen (GH) beat Neel/Suyog (NS) in a tiebreak, 8-7(4). I had never seen Gopal relaxing on the court while his partner was allowed to run through the corners of the court! Something dawns, and Gopal wakes up and the ball listens to him! :-) That just happened when the match score reached 7-7 and there was a loud announcement for a tiebreak from the umpire. That's it! The ball just listened to Gopal and the rest was history! :-)
Now that the battles lines for the quarterfinals are almost drawn, let us look at the players in the group:
Prem/Praveen
Consistent and powerful serves and a fierce forehand combines is the Prem's game! Winner of the 2005 championship, he is undoubtedly one of the finest players in the academy and lends himself to any kind of game, whether partner's or opponent's.
Praveen is one of those few players who act fast in reaching the ball on the court. Though a slow server for himself, his forehand sometimes bangs the opponents and catch them in the corners!
Jeffrey/Nitin
Jeffrey has one the greatest smashes I have ever seen, though he might at times be inconsistent with the forehand shots. Note to his opponents: Never ever lob for him, because whether it is a deep lob or a shallow one, he jumps with his racket talking the rest! :-)
Nitin is one of the best players in the academy and has powerful ground strokes. Watch his first serve which would definitely be a feast to the lovers of the game.
Gopal/Harveen
When I saw Gopal for the first time, I had not expected him to be a wonderful player of the game! It was one of the rarest moments when my subjective mind deceived me! :-) He is perceived as the best player in the academy with his variety of shots and top-spin serves!
Harveen, though started the game late, picked it up so fast to leave the opponents in distress with her sudden attack on the length of the court! Guys, please take note of the sweet spots on her racket which gives her shots a superb aura of beauty.
Aravind/Balliga
The slicing master, Aravind, though a powerful baseline hitter, is often inconsistent with his serves. Don't ever allow him to meet the ball in the correct action for his forehand!
Balliga has a very good movement in the court and has very good serves. Given that serves wins the matches, he is the potent winner!
Abhishek/Satish
Abhishek is one of the good players given his control on the shots and the spinning and powerful serves! He seems to be quite emotional at times during the games, but nothing stops him to turn the game from disaster!
Satish has a unique forehand action and his consistent and continuous returns, wherever the ball is, makes opponents sometimes frustrating, thus forcing them to make unforced errors.
(By providence or incidence, these two good players are now out of the tournament, since they lost matches in the times of mutual inconsistencies! I wish you guys a better luck next time!)
Neel/Suyog
Neel is high on mental toughness and self-motivation. I think, because of his unmatched unforced errors, coupled with slow coverage of the court, he started losing his points. But, given his fighting spirit, I am sure, he will make it to a better result next time!
Suyog reaches the ball in the court irrespective of its pitch in the court. One of the things his opponents need to note and act is his sudden change in the angle of forehand and lobs!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Buckle up players!
There were two predictable matches today in Group B: Sagar/Srinivas vs Tilak/Rex and Mahesh/Me vs Tilak/Rex. In each of the matches Tilak/Rex were vanquished with 8-0!
Group B has had the most flux in terms of the partners. Consider this: Virendra/Ben formed a team. After playing a match, Ben walked away! Then Virendra teamed up with Tilak and they played a match too! But, after losing that match, Virendra lost his heart and he too walked away! Tilak had to team up with Rex finally! Though Tilak individually is a good baseline player, I think, teaming up with relatively a beginner is like inviting a disaster! And that proved costly for him! Finally, there are not eliminated from the tournament!
Let us see how the other teams in the Group B stand:
Sagar / Srinivas
Sagar has been of late fantastic with his forceful forehand, and given his height and raw power that he could generate, the opponents should really worry about the shots deep down the baseline! Srinivas is very consistent in his serves and picking up the open courts in the opponents. His percentage game is a real worry to the opponents.
Mitra / Vigyan
Mitra has a good game technical. Add to this his control and selection of shots and consistency in serves. People, beware of this guy! Vigyan is a very consistent player given that he has a variety of shots to choose from. His forehand shots on a low pitched balls is a treat to the eyes!
Jagdeep / Sanjay
Net! And you should remember Jagdeep! Or, he will make you remember for the rest of the day! :-) Watch the powerful volleys and smashes from him at the net! Sanjay's fierce forehand sometimes troubles the opponents! Of course, it is not his mistake! :-D
Mahesh / Mohan
I was amazed by the spin that Mahesh' forehand generates on the ball! Couple it with his amazing first serve which is a flat and fast one! Let me not talk about myself! Outrageous! Blasphemous, it would be to talk about myself here! Opponents have to just wait and see what Mohan can do! He he he! :D
Group B has had the most flux in terms of the partners. Consider this: Virendra/Ben formed a team. After playing a match, Ben walked away! Then Virendra teamed up with Tilak and they played a match too! But, after losing that match, Virendra lost his heart and he too walked away! Tilak had to team up with Rex finally! Though Tilak individually is a good baseline player, I think, teaming up with relatively a beginner is like inviting a disaster! And that proved costly for him! Finally, there are not eliminated from the tournament!
Let us see how the other teams in the Group B stand:
Sagar / Srinivas
Sagar has been of late fantastic with his forceful forehand, and given his height and raw power that he could generate, the opponents should really worry about the shots deep down the baseline! Srinivas is very consistent in his serves and picking up the open courts in the opponents. His percentage game is a real worry to the opponents.
Mitra / Vigyan
Mitra has a good game technical. Add to this his control and selection of shots and consistency in serves. People, beware of this guy! Vigyan is a very consistent player given that he has a variety of shots to choose from. His forehand shots on a low pitched balls is a treat to the eyes!
Jagdeep / Sanjay
Net! And you should remember Jagdeep! Or, he will make you remember for the rest of the day! :-) Watch the powerful volleys and smashes from him at the net! Sanjay's fierce forehand sometimes troubles the opponents! Of course, it is not his mistake! :-D
Mahesh / Mohan
I was amazed by the spin that Mahesh' forehand generates on the ball! Couple it with his amazing first serve which is a flat and fast one! Let me not talk about myself! Outrageous! Blasphemous, it would be to talk about myself here! Opponents have to just wait and see what Mohan can do! He he he! :D
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