Tennis Time

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Long live Cincinnati's tennis tradition!

This week was the Women's tennis event. This is tier III event so not many big names turn up. On the flip side, good seats are cheap.

This was the first year we bought tickets for women's series. Last year we were all set to buy the semifinals ticket and Sania lost in the quarters. This year since Serena was playing too, we bought tickets well in advance for courtside seats. Sania lost the quarters agains on Friday but she was to play in the doubles semi on Saturday and Serena was playing the singles semi too. So we were excited to be there.

One thing about watching these matches... It is extremely hot out there. They keep announcing the symptoms of heat stroke and advise people to keep drinking water ($3 per bottle). I smuggle 2 small gatorade bottles in my shorts pockets and then buy ice cups for 25 cents each to get me through first two sets without spending much.

Anyway, first match on Saturday was Sania's doubles semi. This was the first time we saw Sania and our first reaction was she seems to have lost a lot of weight. She looks and is very young (will turn 20 sometime this year) and we were sorry to think that such a talented young girl has to face fanatic clerics and just cannot be herself. I hope people do not give her too much trouble else US would be happy to make her play under stars and stripes in 3-4 years.

Highlights:

* Her Polish partner Marta and she were having fun on the court.
* They were smiling after almost every point and both hit some pretty impressive shots, especially forehands.
* Sania's weakness seems to be her serve and her speed but she had her UE under control. I heard that she had many UE the previous night but she does play a high risk game. It looked like since her partner's fate also depended on her, she was restraining herself.
* They won 6-0 6-1






Second match was the first singles semi between last year's champion Patty Schnyder (World # 8, Swiss) and Katarina Srebotnik (World # 24, Slovenian). Katarina is 5'11" and seemed to have a more pleasant personality than grumpy Patty.

* Patty won the first set and Katarina fought to win the second.
* Third set saw lots of action with Patty visually upset with a couple of calls going against her (never mind the fact that a couple of close calls went against Katarina.)
* Then she was audibly upset and also hit a ball away that ended up going out through a gate that people come in from.
* Third set went into Tiebreak and Patty had a match point.
* Katarina saved the match point with a nicely executed serve and volley.
* Patty double faulted to give Katarina game, set and match.
* As is the tradition with US tournaments, winner hits autographed balls in the crowd. I caught one of the balls that Katarina hit. Years of Tennis ball cricket paid off.







During the Patty-Katarina match, they announced that Sania and Marta would be signing autographs in the "air-conditioned retail tent". All desis including us formed a line and got her autograph and photograph.
















Third match of the day was Serena Williams and Vera Zvoraneva (current world # 50). Vera was ranked as high as #8 in the past. This is Serena's first tournament after six months of injury break but she had demolished her opponents with ease to reach the quarters.

* Serena looked all set to waltz to the finals. At least the crowd thought so. Most of them were there only to watch Serena's match.
* Vera had other ideas. Before anyone figured out what was happening, Vera was 5-0 up in the first set.
* Serena made tons of UEs and Vera made very very few. She has a very good balance while hitting shots on the run and some of her shots made me believe that this girl is going be in top 20 very soon.
* The crowd and Serena started getting increasingly frustrated and there were sounds of "Go Baby" "You can do it Baby" all around. One woman was overdoing the "baby" cheer so much that many people must have thought that she was Serena's real biological mother.
* Serena never recovered and Vera kept playing great tennis. Serena lost in straight sets.







Then we spent the night at our friends' place and were ready for the finals next day.
Next day was little relaxed as we had a fair idea what was going to happen in singles finals. Vera won in straight sets. Sania unfortunately lost. My camera battery went dead a few minutes in the singles final so I have very few pictures from Sunday. Luckily I could squeeze little juice to click 2-3 pictures at the end of the match.

Highlights:

* Katarina was very gracious in her speech and made a light remark that she was happy to get the most games from Vera in a set in this tournament.

* After Vera hit four balls in the crowd, they announced that she is
going to hit a couple more bonus balls. Vera autographed a ball, walked
over to a side and handed it to her fan with a big Russian flag.
Appalause all around, a Kodak moment (my Canon was out of juice at that
time).

* Vera played some excellent shots and hardly gave any breathing space to her opponents.

* Katarina played well too but Vera's form was too good for her today.

* Doubles was good but Mirza and Marta lost the plot in the third set.
Maria Camerin (their opponent) was pretty relaxed with mimicing a loud linesman call once in the third set that made everyone laugh and forget about the heat for a few seconds.

Hand-Eye Coordination

So who do you think is the winner?

Piano Guy


DDR guy


PS: Might not be viewable from India unless it works from Inida now or you know how to access Google video from there.

Kahan Gaye Woh Log?

Do you remember that serial? It was about freedom fighters and great leaders of India.

Today, after reading about the n-th attack on India and then reading about the statements I remembered that song.

If you saw Shivraj Patil reading his statement, you can find out what is wrong with the Indian government. It lacked anger and felt like he was trying to read just another statement. Are we so used to this violence that we have stopped caring? Can you imagine PM Manmohan Singh taking a tough stand against terrorists? We can forward his resume and his high school grades as much as we want, that is not going to change any policy. Where is POTA? Where is toughness? Will we just let people come into the country, plant explosives and leave by Samjhouta express? Is there any promising leader on the horizon who really cares about the state of the country? Or are our Lalloos and Jayalalithas going to sell the country for few extra pairs of sandals?

It is 12:15 am and I do not even feel like sleeping. I don't think I have been so frustrated ever about the state of affairs. How much can you tolerate? How long can you be patient?

POTC, Tennis and Soccer

What a difference one week makes! This weekend was unlike the last one as far as the sporting events and movies are concerned.

POTC
--------

We started the weekend by watching POTC:Dead Man's Chest on the Friday night. That being the first evening of the movie, even finding a parking spot was difficult. I have never seen that lot so full. In spite of the movie being screened every half hour, the hall we were in was full (no surprises there). Last time we saw a movie with such a crowd was "Spiderman". Anyway, I would not be surprised if everyone was disappointed with the movie. Not that I had unreasonable expectations but the movie felt like a cheap attempt to cash in on the success of the first. The curse of the sequels! The bad guys are a bit gross, keira knightley cannot act, neither can Orlando Bloom and three way sword fights with POTC theme are not enough to make a great movie. But if you liked the first helping, you do not have a choice. You will watch this one no matter what I or anybody else says. But *if* you have a choice, if you go to the multiplex and are not able to decide between POTC and Superman, go for the Superhero. Save POTC for DVD. DVD will be out in 6 months and the next movie next summer by next summer if not this holiday season.

(Possible spoiler in next paragraph, nothing related to story though)
When I used to buy comics in primary/middle school (ok part of high school too) I used to take a quick look at the end frame to see that "The End". Anything that had "to be continued.." was not worth it. For movies, it is only worth it if the name of the movie is "Lord of the Rings" or "Kill Bill". You can wait for dessert if you have a nice fulfilling dinner. In fact, the wait is recommended, appreciated and necessary. You cannot serve some tomato soup to a hungry person and ask him to wait much longer for the dinner. That is cruel. Hopefully the dinner will make up for this disappointment.


Tennis and Soccer
--------------------

But then last week, tennis results were not so good. And this week could not be any better.

Mauresmo won her first Wimbledon. I did not care really before the match, but it was a good comeback and Amelie's " I don't want anyone to talk about my nerves anymore" made me realize more that it was a very well fought match. Justine was not at her best and if she keeps on making excuses for her defeat, it will be tough to support her in future. This time it was "I was feeling tired" (Then DON'T play the smaller tournaments.)

Then Germany-Portugal was good too. Scolari is another excuses expert. He needs to realize that at this level there are other great players playing too. German goals were great and so was Figo's pass. It was excellent football from an inconsequential match. Except for Ronaldo's pathetic attempt at diving, the match was one of the better ones that I have seen.


That brings us to Sunday morning's "Breakfast with Wimbledon". Nadal had breakfast with us also. I had an omlette, he had a bagel. Ok ok, I am being mean to him, the kid is learning fast and even smiled at the end of the match. I will have second thoughts in not supporting him in future (when he is not playing Roger that is.) Overall a great match. Just loved the quality of tennis. Will we get to watch Fed-Nadal at Cincy this year? I get too excited just thinking about it.

And then the World Cup Final. I wanted Italy to win and had picked them as the winner just before the QF started. Frankly, I liked the way France played today. They looked like the better team in the second half and in extra time. They had more energy than the Italians. In their semi, I liked Portugal's game over France but I guess Italy was destined to win today(mathematically :) ). After their PK losses in 1990, 94 and 98 and snatching a loss from the jaws of victory against France in Euro 2000, it was nice that they won. Their defense has been stellar.

Just one question will remain though, Why ZZ, WHY? No matter what he said, we wanted you to be there. We wanted to see you after the match. We wanted to say goodbye. Well, you have your memories of France 98 and Euro 2000 I guess. But a header in the dying moments today would have shot you up above all the sportspersons I respect. Still within the first 10 is not so bad :). Have a great time in whatever you choose to do. Join MLS maybe to have some fun ;)

Woke up on the wrong side...

When I went to bed on Friday night, I was looking forward to Saturday. In fact, I did not indulge in any TV watching, xbox playing just to start the Saturday as soon as possible.

Then Saturday started.

1. ESPN could not show Agassi-Nadal live because of NBC contract. NBC showed it on tape delay overlapping with England-Portugal. I followed the match at wimbledon.com and Agassi lost. I knew he would lose but I was hoping that he wins at least one set. I did not want him to say goodbye with a straight set loss.

2. Then England lost to Portugal. I don't think I can discuss this anymore.

3. I had picked Brazil to win against France. Really I did not care who won but since I had picked Brazil in a friendly pool that we are having, France won.

4. So what no results went my way? At least, we had our new mattress delivery scheduled on Saturday. Turned out that the guy came, rang the bell, called us up and left after 15 minutes. I was busy watching England lose the whole time. Delivery now scheduled for next Saturday, hopefully I will not be as busy watching the consolation match.


So after all this, I was sure that "Superman Returns" was going to suck. After all we had booked good seats in advance for the IMAX experience on Saturday evening. We told ourselves to bring down our expectations given how the day was going. I was so sure that no matter when we start we would be late, that we did not bother to give a big buffer.

I think that is when the luck started to change a little bit. The movie started about 5 whole seconds after we settled down in our seats with popcorn and pepsi (not by choice, they don't sell coke there). It turned out to be a nice movie to watch. Frankly, I still say that "Batman Begins" is better but Superman has a different charm and nostalgia attached to it.

At least the day ended on a good note.

And on Sunday India finally won the last test and with that the series after about 35 years.

A soccer team loses, a cricket team wins, Fair trade!
(plagiarism source: Sin City)