French Open 2009- My Take

Photo Courtesy: www.rolandgarros.com
I know it is too late and already Wimbledon 2009 has started in full swing but I wanted to reminisce about the French Open before the highpoints in Wimbledon take over.

~ Of course Federer finally won French Open completed his career grand slam,

But this French will also be remembered for the Nadal Upset by Robin Soderling.

~ I am glad Soderling made is to the finals, he did really upset the No.1 seed and it was not a fluke

~ The Soderling-Gonzalez match was thriller, with huge momentum swings and what a comeback Soderling made in the 5th set when he was trailing 4-1.

~ On the Women's side it was really inspiring to see Sharapova make such a gutsy run to the Quarterfinals after a 10 month layoff. truly her love for the game is inspiring!

~ I was so Happy that Kuznetsova won her match against Serena Williams quelling her lingering demons and finally winning the Title itself.

~ Although I felt bad for Safina for having lost again, I do feel she needs to put in a little more in the finals.I mean she may be a good player but on the court there during the finals she looked more stressed than enjoying being there. Good luck to her!

so there it is, the French Open in a Nutshell, now I can say ...Welcome Wimbledon.

PS: It is heartbreaking not to see Nadal in the Wimbledon draw :(

The towel issue

photo courtesy:www.usatoday.com

Talking of tennis and the problems that it brings along
This issue really intrigues me :)

-- where does a player or rather where does the ball kid keep the towel handed to him during match play--

For instance currently at the French Open the towel is placed on the line's person's chair --poor linesman-- but I know that is not a permanent solution; elsewhere is placed on the "serve speed display box". Infact in many courts especially on outside courts the ball kids are asked to place the towel on the court itself

We have comeup with technology to make line calls, 

solution to correctly indicate when the ball hits the net chord,

come up with technology to measure not just the serve speed but also the speed of every shot that is hit,

but it surprising no one has come up with a solution to the towel problem!

Ooh La La

Picture Perfect

Another Parallel to life?

When playing a tennis match the word momentum is thrown around quite often.

To begin with I knew what momentum is but to understand how it really affects... well that took a long time!

It is quite hard to explain, when going strong and confident in a match and the opponent serving; the server calls out the score 30-15; my mind is asking is it really 30-15?(30 being their score), didnt we win the first point,shouldnt it be 15-30? and in that haze and scrambling to create the sequence of events from the beginning of this current game, we lose this point too and the score is quickly announced as 40-15.. aww jeez thats when I start to protest verbally and voice my doubts
but it is too late! coz a point has already been played after the questionable score
and it was with everyone's agreement. duh we lose the game.The frustration only mounts.
I make an effort to quieten my mind and bring myself back to a positive frame of mind
but you know something had just happened, something akin to going downhill, may be lose of concentration? the opponents only felt stronger, we lose points, games and right before my eyes the winning match was snatched away from me.. ouch that hurt
(Later I learnt there is term of this situation!"bleeding" they say "you have to first stop the bleeding")

picture this - another match; this was mixed doubles match, we are coasting along, ready to switch to cruise mode and lo I make another confused call, curse myself, embolden the opponent and lose another 5 games, but this time the opponent makes a mistake when leading at 5-2 and we still havent given up and perhaps thats how the momemtum swung back in our favor and lead us to victory.

Both these situations confused me to no end. Later I realised life is also pretty much the same, during the course of a day say you make one incorrect decision and you get bummed about it, that leads to another mistake;you sometimes carry that negative energy through most of the day.

All it takes sometimes for things to go from positive to negative or sad to happy is probably just one small moment, one small incident....

Some Reminiscing

I started playing tennis about 3 years ago with no knowledge of the rules/techniques whatsoever.
first came evening tennis with V~, then because singles was too taxing and also because I was making a fool of myself I said why not invite a few others :). It became a routine to play doubles; sometimes we would end up just three and keep furtively hunting for a 4th partner(thats another post :)

Anyways from there we graduated to taking beginners classes, started tennis clinics(which is bunch of drills run by a tennis pro for a few same levelled players). When that became a norm and with the discovery of USTA(United states tennis association) leagues; we plunged into the competitive arena and then there was no looking back.

Mixed doubles, women's(men's doubles for V~) , combo leagues etc.

USTA matches are usually timed matches, ie they end by the clock no matter where you are in the game! (except for playoffs and championship matches)

Amidst all this frenzy I realised something very unique about tennis matches!

You see the ritual goes something like this.

You reach for a match, warm up for 10-15 minutes ; play your match, finish win or lose, shake hands go home.
Now here is my point...
When you warmup for a match be it recreational like the ones I play or the professional ones-- you warmup with your opponent
Which I think is pretty unique to tennis.An opponent who you are supposed to pound,crush and defeat actually helps you warm up and that is pretty fascinating!

thank you kind opponent!

I really dig Comebacks

yesterday was one of the days when I was really thankful that I play tennis.
V~ and I usually play on court 1; the toughtest spot of all the 3 courts when a USTA league match is played. Playing on court 1 is very tricky, many a times it forces you to be at your best from start to finish

Yesterday was one such match, we started out well and we were thinking "well this team looks pretty straightforward, tough but beatable" we were at a pretty well balanced 2-2 in the first.
but somehow a tough line call that I made rendered me shaky and the opposition ran away with a 5-2 lead. but at that moment a positive outlook, ready to taken on anything attitude helped us stay composed, we not only won 5 straight games to win the first set 7-5 but riding on that high won the 2nd set an easy 6-2. Game set match

A moment of pure joy; pure happiness.... When V~ and I hugged congratulating each other on the terrific comeback :)

Australian Open, tennis, roof,heat wave

I feel the extreme heat policy at the Australian Open benefited just the American players and not all the players involved......
Why did it come into play after Serena lost the 1st set...just to break Kuznetsova's rhythm? it was really unfair for the latter...however you see it.
and
Where was the policy when Djokovic was wilting?
feels very weird....