The First One
After lil bit of contemplation and lots of deliberation i have finally gotten over my laziness and VOILA here i have my own blog...!!
Factors which contributed towards embarking such an ardous sojourn are below..
1. A friend of mine in Beijing - (still got to post on his blog)
2. An unusually free last couple of weeks
3. Summer in Cincinnati
4. My buddy Dips - Not that you had any say but still doesnt hurt giving a lil credit
Now the easier part is done...moving on to the tougher part ... What do i write?
Fortunately there are quite a few things i have been doing and thinking over the weekends. Let me start with the recently concluded WTA Masters tour. The weather was just perfect for tennis and the prospect of seeing 18 teen something Russian women was as good an alibi to leave the office a wee earlier than usual. Ofcourse our own Sania Mirza who reached as far as Quarters in Singles and ended up runners-up in Doubles was the icing on the cake.
Looking at the crowd i could figure many desis who would not have watched a tennis match were there to witness the girl from Hyderabad hit those hard flat forehand down the line. Unfortunately she seemed to hit a tough opponent in Patty Schynder the world no. 11 and defending champion. It was the first time i was seeing Sania play in flesh and blood and honestly didn't expect her to win more than a couple of games. However i was totally taken aback by the show that Sania put up.
For one i must admit she has got a very powerful ground stroke perhaps equalled only by the more muscular (or is it masculine?) Williams' and Mauresmo's of the world. She has a equally balanced backhand and a nice temperment. To think of the fact that patty tried to change her game and get as much spin and bounce on the ball showed clearly that she wanted Sania to hit less of those almost unreacheable forehand punches. Sania lost in 3 sets however i was happy for the fact that Patty dint win it on her merits ... if Sania lost the quarters it was due to her own inconsistency than Patty's brilliance.
Things Sania might want to work on ... Serve, Steam, Consistency
The doubles was not as good as the singles except that i got to see Gisela Dulko (Arg) & Elena Camerin (Italy)....awesome pair they make, i rate them as the best looking doubles pair on the tour. Not all the matches made an interesting sight, don't know if it was due to lack of top 20 players or overall quality of womens tennis ?
With lots of women stars voicing their claim for an equal stake at the prize money, specially Maria Sharapova at wimbledon (as if its not enough that i bear her grunts), i am skeptical whether womens tennis can generate and sustain same level of interest as that of mens.
Most of the matches were one sided including the final where Vera Zvonareva had a 6-2 6-3 walk over Srebotnik. From what i have seen the gap between a top 20 player and player ranked 50 was like Rohan Bopanna playing Andre Agassi... (now lets not talk about Roger Fedrerer, mens tennis is competitive if we remove this man) The question is do womens deserve the same kind of prize money as men's ? Can they hold the audience interest in their game with existing level of competition ?
Final thoughts, failed to understand why desis were screaming "Come On Sania" or "Wah Sania" while the game was on.....are we so deprieved of sportsmen of repute that we should be so vociferous? or do we try to bring the same atmosphere as in a cricket ground no matter where an india sportsmen play ?
Factors which contributed towards embarking such an ardous sojourn are below..
1. A friend of mine in Beijing - (still got to post on his blog)
2. An unusually free last couple of weeks
3. Summer in Cincinnati
4. My buddy Dips - Not that you had any say but still doesnt hurt giving a lil credit
Now the easier part is done...moving on to the tougher part ... What do i write?
Fortunately there are quite a few things i have been doing and thinking over the weekends. Let me start with the recently concluded WTA Masters tour. The weather was just perfect for tennis and the prospect of seeing 18 teen something Russian women was as good an alibi to leave the office a wee earlier than usual. Ofcourse our own Sania Mirza who reached as far as Quarters in Singles and ended up runners-up in Doubles was the icing on the cake.
Looking at the crowd i could figure many desis who would not have watched a tennis match were there to witness the girl from Hyderabad hit those hard flat forehand down the line. Unfortunately she seemed to hit a tough opponent in Patty Schynder the world no. 11 and defending champion. It was the first time i was seeing Sania play in flesh and blood and honestly didn't expect her to win more than a couple of games. However i was totally taken aback by the show that Sania put up.
For one i must admit she has got a very powerful ground stroke perhaps equalled only by the more muscular (or is it masculine?) Williams' and Mauresmo's of the world. She has a equally balanced backhand and a nice temperment. To think of the fact that patty tried to change her game and get as much spin and bounce on the ball showed clearly that she wanted Sania to hit less of those almost unreacheable forehand punches. Sania lost in 3 sets however i was happy for the fact that Patty dint win it on her merits ... if Sania lost the quarters it was due to her own inconsistency than Patty's brilliance.
Things Sania might want to work on ... Serve, Steam, Consistency
The doubles was not as good as the singles except that i got to see Gisela Dulko (Arg) & Elena Camerin (Italy)....awesome pair they make, i rate them as the best looking doubles pair on the tour. Not all the matches made an interesting sight, don't know if it was due to lack of top 20 players or overall quality of womens tennis ?
With lots of women stars voicing their claim for an equal stake at the prize money, specially Maria Sharapova at wimbledon (as if its not enough that i bear her grunts), i am skeptical whether womens tennis can generate and sustain same level of interest as that of mens.
Most of the matches were one sided including the final where Vera Zvonareva had a 6-2 6-3 walk over Srebotnik. From what i have seen the gap between a top 20 player and player ranked 50 was like Rohan Bopanna playing Andre Agassi... (now lets not talk about Roger Fedrerer, mens tennis is competitive if we remove this man) The question is do womens deserve the same kind of prize money as men's ? Can they hold the audience interest in their game with existing level of competition ?
Final thoughts, failed to understand why desis were screaming "Come On Sania" or "Wah Sania" while the game was on.....are we so deprieved of sportsmen of repute that we should be so vociferous? or do we try to bring the same atmosphere as in a cricket ground no matter where an india sportsmen play ?
posted by Sunil B at 10:10 PM
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