A Heartstopper.....!!!!

July 6th 2008....there were 2 big sporting events on....the Asia Cup final between India and Sri Lanka and the big Wimbledon final between the world's 2 best players, Nadal and Federer(In that order, on current form). And believe me, i enjoyed and had more nerves watching the wimbledon final, despite being an ardent cricket fan.

Its been a week since then...so just a look back on that memorable sporting evening....
India lost to Srilanka, rather to Ajantha Mendis, who will be walloped all over the park very soon, once he comes against the the better batsmen around the world.At the same time, final of "the championships" was hotting up.....

Nadal,obviously not my favorite,had snatched two sets from the Swiss genius Federer,after the latter led 4-1 in the second set. I gave up hope on Federer unless he could break Nadal's service,which he did only once all the match.But he had other ideas.To hold his serve,which was working magic for him and strike back in the tie-breaker.He won two tie breaks and it was 2-2 duece in the final set on Federer's serve,when rain interrupted again.To be frank, rain helped Roger get back on track when he was leading 5-4 in the 3rd set, with 2 sets down.With nerve wracking tennis in store, i went to sleep at 0030 hrs, simply hoping Federer's service and forehand would win him the title.But next morning, i only woke up to see the bad news on TV.Nadal had ended Federer's winning streak at Wimbledon and on grass.!!!!!

It was so heartbreaking......Kudos to nadal anyways for the victory. I was so disgusted that i asked my pro-nadal room mates to switch channels when the match was being re-telecasted on Star Sports.But i could not resist watching it too!!!! Though it would cause me despair(even on watching a finished game) i wanted to see how on earth did Nadal conquer the 12 time grand slam champion!!!!

It was nadal's power game that did the damage,no doubt.Also the biggest reason was federer's mental state after losing the French Open finals,winning only 4 games in the whole match!! He probably always had it on the back of his mind, albeit he kept telling everyone that it was a thing of the past.He lost points on key moments at the net, with simple volleys on an open court,only because he looked in a hurry to finish off the points.Never did one see federer in such hurry,that too in his own backyard at SW19.All this because he was playing NADAL.The thought that "the Spanish matador" would chase any ball down was the ultimate cause.Further Nadal played the best in the most critical points of the match(especially 30-40 down on his own serve at 3-4 in the final set), a trait that was more synonymous with federer.

So times seem completely changed now.All went on record saying federer would win about 25 grandslams,with a golden slam as well.May be it was spoken too early,may be not....it is still debatable.Nadal already has 5 now, threatening to catch up with federer very soon. Nadal is 22,Djokovic is 21- both are snapping at the heels of the world no.1 ,who shall turn 27 in August,on the opening day of the Olympics . A great time to look forward to in tennis in the coming few years.

But hold on....same was said about hewitt, roddick and safin when they arrived in the sampras era. Sampras wondered whether he can match the speed of Hewitt after losing to him in a US open final. The champion he was,he came back, beat Emerson's record of 12, with a final US open and left on a high with a world record on his name.Yes, Nadal and Djokovic look in better shape than the mentioned ones..... But do not count out Federer just yet.....

May be it was Spain's time in sports in the last months,winning also in Euro football and in golf.The honeymoon shall soon be over now....
There's no more threat than facing a wounded Champion.....The English will agree with this...(Remember Ashes 2005 and Ashes 2007)...Alonso won 2 F1 world champioships,now he has faded away..so can Nadal or Djokovic.Taking nothing away from Nadal for his spectacular wimbledon win....but i am a hard core federer fan..and will be till he retires...My friends still could not believe it when Sourav Ganguly came back the way he did in international cricket!!! I was being laughed at and ridiculed when i supported him all through....Same with federer:-)


Looking forward for the tennis action at Beijing now ......And i will go all out in support for ROGER FEDERER to win the Gold medal.....:-)

Well,well,well.......lost again!!!

Its been a particularly hard time for me with predictions related to sports for the last few months. And it adds even more salt to injury when i lose to my namesake roommate.I had mentioned about it in my last blog.

Prashanth Salian(aka Triple and also called by lot other names)is this person i hate to lose to,but i have been on the receiving end many times now.I really dislike putting down this list, but let me give credit to that guy's "luck on prediction".....

1.Australian open tennis 2008 where he was for Djokovic

2.Indian Premier League final where he backed Rajasthan Royals and i backed "MSD led" Chennai Super Kings

3.French open where he backed Rafa, and my bet Roger was mauled to submission

4.Kitply cup final where he was for Pakistan, primarily because he did not want Dhoni to lift the cup(He has his own ridiculous reasons for it !!!)

5.Euro 2008 where he backed Spain and my team Germany was done in by a solitary goal from Torres, who came into limelight out of the blue

6.Ajantha Mendis, the guy who he was boasting about actually turned out to be india's destroyer in Asia cup Finals

7.The worst of them all....Nadal beating Federer at Wimbledon....and i am still recovering out of it...!!!!

May be i must try and be in unison with his ideas....that will probably get me results for what i actually support...:-)

Anyway the battle continues dude.....I dont mind about the other defeats...but Federer's losses have troubled me....don't write off the champion swiss yet.....Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost!!! :-)

After a longggg time......

Ahhh...its been so long since i came back to my blog.The last one was a very very long one, as per the comments made by most of the people who read it,or rather by my friends who visited my blog,and never read it due to its length.The stereotypic "Perth Conquered" blog now seems to be excruciatingly long!!!! So it shall be a conscious effort from me to restrict my blog length henceforth.Secondly,another effort would be to reduce the number of blogs on cricket.In that sense,this shall be my first blog which is not necessarily on cricket.
Lots of things have happened round the world and also in my personal life in those 6 months.
On the sporting front....
Team India humbled the Australians in their own den in the last tri-series (atleast for now) to be played down under.Virender Sehwag joined Lara and Bradman in the list of only players with 2 triple tons in test cricket.That was some breathtaking and belligerent knock mannnn!!!! Then came one of the defining moments of cricket.The Indian Premier League!!! Well, it became a daily routine for me to come back home from office and tune into SET MAX. It was like madness combined with style.Lots of icons failed to make a mark.The only nations to have benefited from the IPL are India and Australia.Aussies got a fantastic replacement for gilchrist's batting in Shaun Marsh.Shane Warne still showed why he is the best ever captain australia did not have and our very own MS Dhoni rode on some of his good luck as ever to reach the finals,when Mohali deserved to make it.Also were in action were the 2 mercurial cricketers of the new millennium- Harbhajan and Sreesanth.I need not write more about it!!! Lot other things also happened in the IPL,but i will stop here.
Australia are still looking the part even with few retirements and will dominate international cricket till 2011 i believe.
Coming to Tennis...Roger Federer,the best tennis player ever to have graced earth according to me, limped a bit this year.The loss to Djokovic in the Aussie open was a big setback and this was followed by the clinical drubbing at RAFA's hands at Roland Garros.Just wishing he answers all critics as Fedex lines up another Wimbledon final against Nadal.And also proves right my support for him...I have a duel with my namesake room mate,whenever grandslams come by. No prizes for guessing who he supports!!! Yes, i know Nadal looks the part,but he has to win Wimbledon and hardcourt gransdlams to be categorised in that "GREAT" list with Federer,Sampras,Bjorg,Agassi et al.......
Euro Soccer was fantastic.Though i did not watch a single match due to timings of the games, i followed every bit.Times have changed!!! I would have watched sports even at 3 am in the morning as a student.Not possible now as i am into profession now......By the way even during Euro the same room mate of mine had his favorite teams and i had mine.One of my favorites Germany atleast made the finals, while his-Portugal,Czech,Holland-all were knocked out.....ha ha:-)

In the meanwhile pressure continued to mount on me at work place,which is any way associated with every IT guy.To add to it,i suffered bouts of Typhoid and Chicken Pox within a span of 2 months, which further halted my daily routine.I am fighting back on the health front now, so that's one of the reasons for this long gap from blogging.

The IT industry is on a slowdown now due to the recession in the US economy.Its affecting my employer as well, with a decrease in number of employees on the billing chart.Lay offs are the common things seen in IT Multinationals now and job switching is that much more risky.The US senate elcetions in November will decisive on this front, so also will be the India elections which seems to be arriving around the same time.Fingers crossed on that!!!!
MBA is another option i am mulling over,so have begun preparing to bell the CAT.Yes it is not easy as it looks,since it has been 3 years since i prepared for competitive exams.Going smoothly now though with the preparations.Only few months left for me now.Hence frequenting on the blogosphere again looks difficult.However i shall make a conscious effort to have a blog up atleast once a fortnight.
I thought of blogging on the IPL,the greatest wicketkeeper ever to have played-Gilly,the MSD factor in Indian cricket......all of this did not reach the implementation stage.
Anyways my next blog in line is dependent on the result of Wimbledon final between Roger and Rafa.If Roger wins his sixth consecutive title at SW-19,London, i shall leave no stone unturned in getting back at my room mate....:-).....
Till then...CIAO :-)