Roger Federer: A champion like no other July 6, 2009

We humans tend to oversimplify every question we don’t seem to have answers to. The need to know a definitive answer to every question is what makes us rather desperate at times and even though the answer may not be provided, we form our own quickly.

The answer to such a question was ready to be provided in the Wimbledon final on Sunday between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer. Federer returned to the final once again to heal the scars of 2008 final where Rafael Nadal, had beaten him in that epic final to take away the crown he had guarded for 5 years.

Yesterday, Nadal wasn’t there to defend his crown for a knee injury. And Federer was there to take another piece of history with him.

Six months ago, the so called tennis enthusiasts of the world with their pompous and rather sophomoric opinion had written off Roger Federer, and declared that a new direction had dawned upon Men’s tennis which was now headed by Rafael Nadal. The losses in French and in Wimbledon in 2008, and another loss in a grand slam final to Rafael Nadal in 2009 had made them instinctively jump upon the foregone conclusion that Roger Federer’s days were possibly numbered.

That all changed in the French open, this time when Federer lifted the trophy by beating Robin Soderling, a man responsible for ousting his nemesis, Rafael Nadal from the tournament.

The question of who is the greatest of all time in tennis history has driven us to the greatest depths. When Sampras retired from the game, we all probably thought that we had seen the best and there would be none who could have dominated the sport as he did. Now, as Roger Federer wins the 15^th Grand slam in his career, at an age of 27 years which importantly includes grand slams in all surfaces, we have all formed a new opinion.

The Wimbledon final yesterday was written to be one-sided by all the newspapers in England, terming Andy Roddick to be “a career whipping boy” of Federer by one of them. They couldn’t be more wrong. Federer started out struggling with Roddick’s service games, unable to get any openings and himself struggling with many uncharacteristic errors. The gulf became visible when Andy Roddick took the first set on the event of another Federer error. And things seemed almost bleak for him when Roddick led with a 6-2 on the tiebreak in the second set. Some would call it a stroke of luck and some would call it destiny when Andy chose to return a ball which was obviously going out to commit an error which would cost him the set and eventually the match.

Federer, a 5 time Wimbledon Champion, unable to break the Roddick serve took the 3^rd set on a tiebreak. Roddick would level the match at two sets a piece in the 4^th, breaking the Federer serve. And thus began 95 minutes of pulsating tennis.

30 games were played in the final set, where Federer had regained a certain composure and had realized the inevitable that he just had to break the Roddick serve, which he had not done in 4 sets. Even though, the final seemed tense and unnerving, it never seemed that Federer might lose this final to someone whom he had beaten 18 times in 20 meetings. As Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras looked on, Federer stayed with Roddick, and kept on holding serve and hoping for an opening. It finally came when the court had uneven sunshine and shadow, which caused some sort of distraction to Roddick and Federer took it with it came a  piece of his immortality.

Andy Roddick seemed like a rejuvenated man. He has obviously worked hard on training and improving his skills in the net and has worked on the variety of shots. Most importantly he has understood how to use his service as a weapon. I believe that Roddick seemed a better player yesterday and it is definitely a match of what-could-have-beens for him. Even he knew it too, when he couldn’t hide his disappointment at being the runners up.

While watching this final in what seemed to be a match Federer could have easily lost in straight sets, I thought that the answer whether Federer is the greatest tennis player or not can never be answered. The tournaments will continue to exist, and we would expect him to win each tournament. The world would expect him to beat Rafael Nadal in the French, win a Grand slam. The list is endless. And we would still be having a debate whether he is the greatest or not. Such a pursuit doesn’t bring any satisfaction. Even if he is not the greatest, it has been astonishing to watch a player like Roger Federer adorning the sport with his magical play. And even if some kid would beat his records one day, he would still be Roger Federer, a champion like no other.

The King, the Knights and the People April 24, 2008

It is essential for me to begin by saying that I do not detest Shah Rukh Khan. We have had those coffee table conversations about him and his tendency to over-do things, be it in acting or in publicity and television shows. But my point of the argument (which is also a keen observation) is that when any personality attains a high enough position of unparalleled success, some people appreciate him, and some other sections of people become curious about such success. And such curiousity at the end of the day leads to pure loathing.

In spite of this, the news about Shah Rukh taking over a part of ownership of the Kolkata team in the cash rich cricket league seemed quite strange to me. He was more likely to take Mumbai – a place which is his own arena or the next likely Delhi. Why Kolkata?

Remember, and if you have been a follower of cricket you definitely will, that Kolkata has a huge history of crowd trouble. We are expert at throwing bottles when the game isn’t going to well. We have attained master’s degree in booing our very own team if Saurav Ganguly isn’t playing and the charge is actually led by our Chief Minister who is an ardent fan of Mr Ganguly, so much so that he supported South Africa when Saurav was dropped by the national selectors.

Anyway, past is past. While wondering about it for a while, I have realized that the reason why SRK has chosen Kolkata can be nothing except for the letter “K”. And he added one extra with “Knight” and that makes 1+1=2 Ks which should be enough to win the inaugural IPL. More on that later.

While most purists treat the IPL as “circus” the local media has been driven into frenzy. Sample the following excerpt after Sunday’s Match in Eden.

“The game itself never rose to expectations, but it had its little moments. What a sight it made, Adam Gilchrist in full throated appeal against Ricky Ponting, aghast at being given out leg before. Remember Christiano Ronaldo getting Michael Rooney thrown out of the world cup match on dubious foul claim? And then they went on to play happily for Manchester United“

This is the effect of SRK, his hysterics on the railings of the hospitality boxes, his continued acrobatic skills in full display and his marketing strategies which has made the media lose its mind. In fact the other day again in a local news channel when discussing about establishing loyalties, a certain celebrity remarked, “Its like the EPL. Why should there be a question of choosing? In the city of Manchester, there are two clubs, Manchester United and Manchester City, and a person may very well support both the teams at the same time!”

Thank you for that wonderful lesson of the day on EPL. Moving ahead, the team costume which is such a heated topic in every discussion board – be it in an Indian forum or the BBC- which has been designed by Manish Malhotra. Mr. Malhotra, who watched a live cricket match for the first time last Sunday has got out all the bling that there could be keeping the brand-SRK in mind. Though you and many of us think it is “hideous” and “right out of the yesteryears Indian mythological serials” it is very much fashionable (especially in the smouldering 42 degree heat in Calcutta) and also is in tune with Bengali sentiments, along with the classic adage “The Knights in Shining Armour”. See, black is taken right out of “Maa Kali” and gold signifies “pride”. To establish loyalties Saurav Ganguly has also been picked. I last saw him secretly being filmed by a news-less news channel haggling with a vegetable seller on the prices of cauliflowers. Anyway, his being the captain is a welcome change.

Lastly I would like to mention that SRK’s company Red chillies entertainment has been having a few disagreements with the CAB over proportion of profits of ticket prices which has linked to hints of sabotage on Eden horror pitch and light blackout. In my opinion, the move of inviting Rahul and Priyanka but not our honourable chief minister is a bad move on SRK’s part. He should understand to what extent the chief minister loves watching Saurav. And nothing should be taken away form the fact that a prominent part was played by the Bengal Government in changing the name of the city from Calcutta to Kolkata, a move without which SRK would never have bought this team. Also, when Hrithik Roshan performed in Salt Lake Stadium, he gave front row seats to Jyoti Basu and his entire family. There are more reasons why Buddha has been left sulking.

Looking ahead, Ricky Ponting and Brendan Mccullum are all going away for National duty. Shah Rukh Khan is going away for some International duty in Paris. So, I suppose we’ll have less of the dancing and more of the struggling.

The hyped and the overly-hyped March 11, 2007

These days, you may not find the inadequacy of methods at your disposal to waste your time and money.  I wouldn’t say that I did it unwillingly or unknowingly. It is more of knowing that you are wasting your time and money and then going ahead and doing it and then hoping that this might serve as a lesson for the future which unfortunately never does happen. 

This is no movie review of the blatantly hyped up film ‘Nishabd‘. I just want to keep a written record of my experience so that I do not go for another one of these extremely distressing cinema atleast for the next five years. 

Quite obviously, Mr Amitabh Bachchan can do nothing wrong. He is ‘emotionally involved’ with a girl who is 18 years old, he himself being 60. Notice, the girl isn’t 17, 16 or 15. She is 18. And that is stressed upon the promos time and time again. Amitabh Bachchan cannot be involved with a minor girl under no circumstances, so that’s pretty much dealt with. A 60 year old man’s wife is always the dullest human being living on this planet earth. The director can depict this because he has met all human beings living on this planet earth and such depiction does not in anyway signify that the 60 year old man might be attracted to an 18 year old or 26 or 72 or any woman who is an iota more interesting than his present wife. 

18 year old girls from Australia are essentially insolent, have accent which is in no way Australian, have uncontrollable urges to dance with hose pipes in front of the house while the friend’s dad turned peeping tom who is supposed to be a gifted photographer happily clicks away pictures, also have a love for lollipops [which again in no way transmits any underlying sexual advances to the friend's dad] and have the very healthy habit of poking tree branches in the friend’s dad’s ears while he is driving.   Also, when you do find out that your father is having an affair with your friend [who incidentally hasn't brought trousers from Australia] you can always go to America. You just need your father’s signatures on the papers which have been lying on your table since eternity.

 And to you who have sacrificed the love of your life for your wife and children — the hose pipes, the lollipops, the horrific accent, the poetry and the grammatical mistakes in speech is enough to keep you alive.

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That done, I reflect upon the next big hyped up event which is set to hit you on your head like a sledge-hammer even before you can say Hallelujah. It is the Cricket World Cup 2007, if you haven’t guessed it already.
India already has the best squad, the best batsmen, the best bowlers, the best physio, the best host, the best tarot card readers, the best advertisements, the best official cricket song, the best coverage and the best opinion leaders. And if you are not upbeat about our team’s chances at this world cup, then you deserve to be stranded in an island without food and water, or be cursed to live in the greater depths of hell and  certain other likewise terrible things will  happen to you. Funnily enough, Sachin Tendulkar advises people to remain calm and support the team in difficult times, which I think he foresees too clearly these days. Greg Chappell says we will make it to the semis and may be that is a realistic possibility. You can almost feel the inevitability creeping in even before the tournament starts.  

Most importantly, the timings are great this time. People would not feel that depressed and disgruntled. They would just feel sleepy. Not only because of the matches being telecasted in deeper hours of the night but also because of our performances.  And once we do get thrown out of the competition, we would have to pick someone amongst the remaining teams to support, since we Indians love cricket more than our Indian Cricket team. This is the Indian way of completely disregarding or rather hiding the fact, that India is only remotely competitive in no sport other than cricket and that is why we are forced to take interest in this sport. If there are people in this country who would really admit that they don’t like watching and talking about cricket and aren’t excited about the team’s chances  the fact is, that the end is always pleasant. You can always wear your ‘I-told-you-so’ look after everything is finished. 

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These days ongoing Board examinations also get as much as hype as the ‘how-stupid-can-you-get’ Union Budget on the news channels and newspapers. Recently, I read this article about the increase sales of books during such examinations. Like, a student who had found that ‘Together with Biology’ had got her lot of common questions in ICSE exams, sent her mother that day itself to buy ‘Together with Chemistry’ and ‘Together with Physics’. Her mother, like every other parent driven by the obsession of seeing her daughter do extensively well in examinations, bought them at once, without even questioning the relevance of such a purchase. 

Moreover, the sales of coffee, and Horlicks has increased to greater heights along with stationary and other items. Parents don’t question such purchases, they take greater care and concerned about their children, providing them with necessary or unnecessary amenities. They accompany them to examination centres, wait outside while the exams go on, and then scrutinize the question papers, discuss them with fellow students and classmates and satisfied they return home. While looking back at my tryst with the board examinations, I can never find my parents even remotely interested about providing any amenity or even showing greater concern. Surprisingly, if I needed coffee, that would be my job to make it, if I needed stationary that would be again me, and silly purchases on every pretext wasn’t acceptable.  The point is, I never liked my parents taking interest in my studies, once I entered adulthood. And I guess, it wasn’t the norm at my house as well. Once in a while, they would just remind me how important it was to concentrate on studies and how these exams built your base and that was about it.   

 It is when you enter college and graduate, you understand that the board examinations weren’t the be all and end all of your life, as your teachers or your acquaintances made it out to be. Yes, what is more important is to be motivated at every point in your life and once you lose it, failure is inevitable. Parents rarely make their children understand that.  The motivation to earn a fair result is entirely of a student and it can never be or rather it should never be shared by the parent.

Liverpool lose against Manchester United, again… October 23, 2006

As usual, Liverpool’s league form hasn’t been going quite so well, this season. Though, I haven’t been following the season fairly closely, but their mid-table position would indicate that their title aspirations are taking a beating.

Its been a problem over the years with Liverpool. They don’t seem  motivated enough when it comes to the league. They just seem absolutely uninspired, be it against any team.

Quite possibly, the very reason of me being a Liverpool fan, is that Liverpool always seem to put in their best effort, even if that effort might go in vain. Yesterday, that was missing. They needed to win badly, they knew losing the match would destroy their title chances this season, and so there was a motivating factor. But regardless of such consequences, Liverpool were hardly playing as a team yesterday.  They had chances and all they did was squander them. Its not like Manchester United did not play well. They did. Its a question of Liverpool not playing at the level they ought to.

Really, is this the question of the umpteen team changes that Mr Benitez seems to be indulging in? Or the team formation, which I think is going horribly wrong. The football experts might know them better, and I am hardly familiar with the technicalities of the game. But for once, Gerrard seems to unhappy. He has yet to score, which is an absolute surprise, given his prolific form last season.

 There lies another core problem. Liverpool tend to depend on a single player to such extent, that without him they just can’t score goals. It happened when Michael Owen used to play, and now the situation is quite similar with Gerrard. Yes, the media tends to blow it out of proportion, but to some extent this is true. It is a problem, and they need to sort it out.

 Just read somewhere that Liverpool haven’t scored an away goal since August, and they have yet to score an away goal from open play this season. Those are worrying signs, and Liverpool do need to get their act together.

Bidding Adieu September 12, 2006

 

The day finally arrived. The celebrations of victory in Monza mixed with the elation of seeing Fernando Alonso crash out, did not last that long. There was a sting in the end. In the Sunday post-race press conference, Michael Schumacher finally announced his retirement. 

I was amazed when I found A, one person who laughs away at all the cruel things life hurls at him, become a little bit dejected. And somehow, I felt quite sad as well, seeing the inevitable unfold in front of you. Imagine, no Michael Schumacher on the grid next season! The commentator not showering heaps of praises about how perfectly he is driving, and no silly jumps on the podium! 

 I had always thought that it would one of those great, happy days when Michael Schumacher finally ends his career. But it turns out otherwise. I have been never been a fan and Schumacher has never inspired me. I would normally scorn at people who consider Schumacher as God or better still, that the universe revolves around Michael Schumacher etc. But now that he has finally decided to call it a day, his illustrious career will always marvel people, whether or not they have been his admirers. Sure, his attitude of “winning at all costs” and his complete disregard for other drivers has brought about a lot of resentment. But then, F1 is a different sport altogether. It is extremely hard to break into the circle, and to be Number 1 and to continue for such a long time, takes some character. Michael knew how to win. And there is fine line between having the capacity to win and knowing how to win. To win in F1, you have to stop caring about a flawless image, because as someone told me, “winning is not everything, it is the only thing”. 

Schumacher looked overwhelmed with emotions in the press conference. The jubilations just before that were a sign of what was coming. The FIAT president was being rather stupid, and Michael was avoiding him – I noticed that. Probably the relationship has turned sour, when Luca wasn’t present in the Monaco Grand Prix this year.  

 I heard the words in press conference and felt sad. To see the ambassador retire from the sport, to see one of the greatest sporting icon in this world announce his retirement, always makes you a bit downhearted  Michael probably revolutionized the art of winning. Whether or not his actions were justified, how does he himself perceive his actions etc are matters of debate and they will continue. But to think that this man has been in Formula 1 for so long, and even though he is 37 years old and still is the protagonist of the title chase is some thing of a phenomenon. No matter how much people debate his actions on the track, the realization strikes me that we should be grateful that we belong to the Michael Schumacher era. He has set the standards regarding racing. Even those, who do not watch the sport, have heard his name and know how big he is. So does this thought now come to my mind “Well we saw Michael drive on a race track”? Yes it does.  

  I would find it extremely romantic to see Michael win his eighth title. Never thought, I would say this. But certainly, it would be a fitting end, the perfect goodbye present. Michael was 25 points adrift of Alonso at one point of time, and everyone reported that barring Alonso suffering any accident, Michael would never win this year’s title. Well, things quickly change and now he finds himself 2 points less than the leader. Of course, it is easier for me to say, that I would want him to win, since I am a neutral and do not support Alonso. But I think every sports enthusiast wants Michael to win this one. The contribution of Michael Schumacher to the sport is too big to be narrated in words. I think he was just “special”. Hope A, you cheer up a bit!

Dope and Sport – What is cheating really? August 23, 2006

 

See the picture above?

Yes, thats why I live for sport. I don’t remember how many times I jumped onto the sofa when Shevchenko missed that penalty. No, I don’t remember my decibel count at 2 AM in the morning…I just remember the moment.

Isn’t this what sport is all about? Its not about the big guns winning all the time. Its about sheer determination. Sport is about fairy tales. Fairy tales which are real. Which are true. Just like this picture. So real, you can still feel the emotions if you touch it.

So, when doping and sport come together in another one of those headlines – this time its Floyd Landis, I ask, is doping, cheating? The answer is yes. Its cheating. Its about gaining an unfair advantage over your opponent. Doping is as much cheating, as is betting in the Serie A, as in diving in Football, as in brake-testing in Formula 1.

1. Sport works with rules. And keeping within those rules, the players are supposed to play. If you don’t like rules, well, don’t play.

2. Rules can be changed as in  accordance with that particular moment. Theres probably no need to stick by rules, just because they have been there since eternity.

3. Taking drugs is cheating. Using performance enhancing drugs has been banned. No one should be above the rules.

But again when does an advantage become an unfair advantage? [Its important to note, that an average Indian Sports enthusiast doesn't care about drug abuse in sport. I have got these insights from the BBC forum]

‘Cheating is defined as an act of deception, mockery, fraud, imposture or imposition’

And that is exactly what Mr. Floyd Landis has done. Not only is this act of deception, but he has tarnished Tour-De-France – the premier cycling event in this world, the Vuelta does not come this  close. In a 100 years not once the champion has been stripped off his title. Thanks to Floyd Landis, that is a reality now. So, who won the Tour De France? Some would say , Oscar Parreira. But I say, Tour-De-France has lost. From next year on, everytime you see a rider winning stages 16 and 17, you will say, he cheated. Atleast at the back of your mind.

Until we decide to do away with human cyclists and create robotic figures with the same specifications – ala Formula One racers we are stuck with imperfect human beings who all have different physiolgical and mental abilites.

Agree here as well. Formula 1 today is not about the driver anymore. Since the day, the FIA decided to implement Traction Control, its a race only between perfect machineries. Although you still find the human instinct there to cheat. Getting robot cyclists is fair enough idea. Atleast there would be some even-ness in the whole concept of Tour-De-France.

But after all said and done, did you really think at Stage 17 that Floyd Landis was cheating? I wasn’t. I felt it was incredible to come out from that kind of setback and win one of the toughest stages in the competition. And I wish, I never knew that Floyd Landis cheated. I wish I never read the stories, never saw the news and never visited the internet website.

If I could just ask the A. C. Milan fan, did you think they were cheating when they won the Serie A? What are your emotions, do you think the team let you down, do you feel sad, angry, devastated that the performances where undeserved? Or do you prefer to live in that blissful existence, that it just never happened, or you are willing to forget it?   

Doping has badly hit those sports that do not command wholesome viewership, the money involved is not huge and the players are not backed by any financially sound associations. But do you really think that your sport is free of dope?

Shocking is the confession made by Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, the doctor involved in cycling’s blood-doping scandal, who readily admitted that other sports, such as tennis and football are also involved in doping. Obviously, the International Tennis Federation doesn’t buy this. Although Dr. Fuentes also admits that the soccer and tennis players regularly dope, including players in Real Madrid Football Club.

Apparently, such disclosure had also opened up another news story about Rafael Nadal, when a French newspaper connected him to drug abuse. Eventually the Spanish government denied such allegations completely, saying all such stories were baseless

Dope and Serie A are no strangers to each other. A scandal arose in 1998 about doping in the league, when the Lazio coach said that doping was extensively followed in Serie A. It did bring out some shocking results, most notably Egdar Davids.
At least in cycling or Olympic events, the world governing body catches these sportsmen and women and provides proper punishments for such drug abuse. But I don’t think that in popular sports, where big boys are happily increasing their ticket sales, do anything or care anything about the drug abuse, even though evidence after evidence is piled upon. Isolated incidents in Tennis and Football sometimes crop up about doping incidents, but just because there hasn’t been high profile cases in recent years, it does not guarantee that there is no drug abuse in popular sports.

As such, Sport according to me, cannot be predicted. There is no written script which it follows. And that’s the exact reason why the world is so endearing to us. But when you hear stories such as these, speculations are bound to follow. If such stories start questioning performances in every area of sport, where does that leave us? Are we sure that the heroes we follow, the performances which we marvel at are true and genuine feats by extraordinary beings, and they do not involve cheating?
I guess I am willing to be ignorant and blissful…yeah, whatever it takes to keep the above picture real.