Thursday, September 10, 2009

Matches Enjoyed at USOpen 2009

Roger Federer Vs Robin Soderling in the Men's Quaterfinal.

Roger won 6-0,6-2,6-7,7-6
It was such an entertaining match.I am glad Soderling did not give up inspite of going down 2 sets. I am glad he broke his racquet, he seemed a much better player after that.Yet again Roger wowed the crowd and proved why he is at the so very top.
His amazing serve seems to pull him through any number of breakpoints life throws at him. His attitude no matter if he has lost a set or just been broken is so inspiring: Focus on the next point! thats what he seems to tell himself
and ofcourse his hunger to win always makes one smile.

Rafael Nadal Vs Gael Monfils
Rafael Nadal won 6-7,6-3,6-1,6-3

For the first 1 and 1/2 sets Nadal and Monfils were well matched, well they were killing each other and then ofcourse Monfils runs out of gas. He had to, it was not humanly possible to do what they were doing for long. Can you imagine they had 4 27 rally points! in that much time.
Nadal's indomitable spirit carried him over. But ofcourse I wish Nadal would learn to flatten out some of his shots and thus shorten the points. It is sometimes painful to see him physically grinding out there for every match.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Let kids be kids

..the BallsKids at US Open that is.


Photo Courtesy:http://straightsets.blogs.nytimes.com

Most of ballkid volunteers at the US Open seem to be adults or really big guys. In my opinion ballskids should really be kids, not more than say 16 or 17 years of age. Perhaps just the captain of the team should be a big kid.

I know the reason why they need such adult looking people. You see there are 6 ballkids in all:4 kids behind the baseline(called backs) and 2 on either side of the net(called nets). After every other game the tennis balls have to be transferred from one side of the court to the other in addition to the interim ball exchanges that have to happen because of serving faults or player errors. Usually the ball is rolled from one end to the nets and then the nets in turn roll it to the backs at the other end. US Open is the only tournament that boasts of "throwing" balls from one end of the court to the other side, One "back" to the other "back" in between games. I guess you need strong hands to do that and good catchers on the otherside and "kids" wouldn't usually be able to do that with as much accuracy hence the adult ballkids :(

I wish someone at the US Open would see the real reason for having ball "kids"
one, because it is a way of encouraging kids to play tennis and letting them be close to the game and two, adults really crowd the tennis court. Imagine 2 players plus 6 to 8 lines men,of course a chair umpire and add to that 6 adult ballkids. 6 "kids" would really slink away in the court but adults are much more visible!