So I have dedicated myself to find some time, to watch and blog about tennis again. And it has been quite a fun time, It seems tennis has gotten way more competitive, with so many upsets.

I was still getting over Federer’s loss at Indian Wells, and now there are more upsets to enjoy. Incase you are wondering why I enjoy upsets, well the simple fact is that I love excitement, I have become neutral towards most players. And hence, like to watch tennis with an entertainment quotient.

Lets discuss Murray, he never found his rhythm and was constantly looking for ways to get settled in to the match. Trying different tactics, non of which paid off! I have learnt that Murray is not very dependable, unlike Federer or Nadal, you cannot really count on Murray. And the same applies for Djokovic, both seem to lack that dependability one can find in Roger and Nadal (Before Injury)

In other news, Ljubicic retired from his match with a back injury, which is sad as I was intending on seeing more of him in the tournament. Federer gets through in straight sets and Soderling dishes a bagel.

I’ll be writing more soon, so check back, and do not forget to watch “Nadal v/s Nalbandian”

Roddick Vs Ljubicic – was not the final I had envisioned. Furthermore, Ljubicic winning the final, was something I thought would never happen. But it has been quite a surprising chain of events, at Indian Wells. And I like it.

Unfortunately for Roddick, his serve let him down when it mattered – Tiebreaks. Ljubicic kept his cool, and thats probably why he prevailed. Its his first ATP Masters title. Here are some fun facts -

• Ranked 26th in the world, Ljubicic will rise to around 13th in Monday’s ATP Tour rankings, returning to the top 20 for the first time in more than two years. He broke through in an ATP Masters 1000 final for the first time after losing in 2006 to Roger Federer at Miami, and in 2005 to Tomas Berdych at Paris and Rafael Nadal at Madrid. Ljubicic is the first player outside the top 20 to win a Masters 1000 title since No. 21 David Nalbandian in 2007.

In other news, Janko won the Women’s title. I have always wanted her to do well, and shut any critics mouth, this win is a step in the right direction, as far as silencing critics is concerned. Jankovic is projected to rise to No. 8 when the WTA Tour rankings are released Monday. She hadn’t won a title since August at Cincinnati; Indian Wells is her 12th career title.

I would like to begin this post, by giving my honest opinion on the official “GOAT” when it comes to Tennis.

“I never liked Roger, for many of the same reasons I never liked Sampras, Manchester United, Schumacher, etc. I guess its obvious from the previous statement that, I like under-dogs, so thats why I always rooted for Agassi, Aresenal, Mika Häkkinen etc”

However, when it comes to athletes of the caliber of Roger, it is hard not to make an exception. One cannot help like Roger, his game, mainly his whipping forehand and his smooth but lethal service. His wit, his personality, how he single handedly has made tennis way more popular. Its hard to not “love” Roger.

So I finally declare myself to be a Fedaphile, AKA – A Roger Federer Fan”

Now coming to a brief analysis of the match, I felt that the match was tuff to begin with, but Roger always had the momentum, until the match point. From there, it was a classic Federer meltdown, the lack of hustle in Roger became evident and Roger lost another match, even after being in a formidable position to win it.

So do I want Roger to Hustle? Hell no, the charm about Roger’s game is that he does not hustle, he would rather lose, but come across as a hustler, and I love that aspect of his game and deeply respect it. He has nothing more to prove or win, lets give the man a break, shall we?

As far as Baggy is concerned, he really held his grit and all credit goes to him, for snatching this match from Roger.

"The conquerer"

I have been slightly busy over the past few months, I am going to start blogging about Tennis again. Since the last time I have posted, Roger has further increased his dominance, making all four finals in the previous year.

Del Potro shocked us all, by winning the U.S Open. He bitch slapped through Federer’s attack and managed to win a Grand Slam before, his arch rival Andy Murray could. But has failed to impress since.

Also emerging as a player to watch, is Robin Soderling, more popularely known as the Slayer of Nadal.

So drop by, to get another “skewed view” on the world of tennis.

So I haven’t made a single post through out Wimbledon. I’ve been way too busy, with my job. But here are my thoughts for the final.

Most of you who read my blog know that I ain’t that big on Roger. Its not that I don’t agree that he is the greatest player ever, or that he is the most talented of the lot, or that he is the favorite going into this final, I know those facts. However I do not get a thrill of a player winning over and over again, So I am gonna obliviously ignore these impeccable facts and write about Roddick’s chances.

Roddick is in the best form of his life. Yes I said it. He hasn’t played this good ever. His serve is bang on, with 160 aces in 6 matches. His 1st Serve  percentage is up there at 71%. What that means is, he ain’t gonna be broken as easily Roger would prefer. Roddick also seems to be holding up well on his groundstrokes. His unforced errors against winners stand at – 112/331 against Roger’s 71/239. Ratio wise they are almost the same. And I think if Roger and Andy are equal on groundstrokes then Andy has more chances going into this, because of his killer serve. However just like facts that Roger possesses, these are just facts and I don’t think that this match is going to be won based on facts.

This match is going to be won on Grit. Roddick needs this bad to take away the one-slam wonder, to prove to himself and all the underdogs that Head to Heads are irrelevant. To prove that he has the goods to send Roger packing in a Slam. He needs to make the most of, this opportunity that seems to be one of the last few to win another slam. I feel he is gonna go in there and make the most of these chances. However Roger has allot at stake aswell, surpassing Pete’s record. Winning his sixth Wimbledon. And regaining his number one spot. However Compared to Roddick, his needs to win this seem a little less urgent. They can wait, there is always US open.

So I am gonna go with Roddick in 5 sets.

There are going to be a allot of things that may happen as a result of the catastrophe, that is Rafa’s exit from Wimby.

Federer’s chances must have gone up considerably. I know for sure that Federer, must now think that the title is his and I can’t really debate on that, the title is Federer’s to win. Now Federer will have players who haven’t even won wimby to contest with, unless Hewwit shows up against Fed.

Murray and Djokovic are also going to think that their chances have increased. In a way they have, I guess Murray and Djokovic do not have to worry about the most damned brutal player on the circuit any more. However Djokovic still has to defeat Fed before the Finals and I feel if Djokovic cannot finish the job, Andy will.

In my opinion this year’s wimby will be as full of surprises as this year’s french open. These are interesting times in Mens Tennis

Federer has succesfully carved his name in stone, among the greatest to have ever played in the history of the sport we all love called Tennis. Not only does he tie Pete Sampras’s record of 14 Grandslam wins, he has also attained what seemed impossible just a month back – A Career Grandslam. He becomes the sixth finger in the handful of men to have achieved this feat. The others are Don Budge, Fred Perry, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver and Andre Agassi, the American who surprisingly won the title here in 1999 and presented the trophy to Federer. I especially enjoyed Agassi’s presence as he is my all time favorite player. This must be monumental for Roger undoubtedly, to have finally achieved the single triumph that eluded him. He clearly confesses the pressure he and his fans and critics put on himself in this quote -

“This could be my biggest victory, the one that takes off the most pressure,” said Federer, who dropped to his knees on the clay after he had secured victory. “Now for the rest of my career, I can play relaxed and never hear again that I never won the French Open.”

I even being more biased towards Rafa than Roger, cannot shrug away the innate talent this swiss maestro packs inside of him. He has possibly the most complete game, the best serve and one of the most breath-taking fore-hand. Surely his tears of joy were more appropriate and heart touching than his Ausie Open breakdown. I can imagine how the moment of winning the match could have been the epitome of Roger’s life.

The thing to notice here, is that Roger has improved and worked hard. This is clearly evident in the way he maginficantly used the dropshot this tournament. I feel that has added to his arsenal of possesing weapons to win easy points. His serve seems much stronger, possibly because his back has now fully recoverd. His movement seems more effortless than ever. He seems to have found his rhytym and is definetely having a good season. Who knew, when Roger said “Thank god, the hardcourt season is over” that would infact have a better clay season, nay that he would live the best period of his tennis career?

I feel he obviously deserved this title, for a long time. With Nadal out of the way, it was only evident that Roger would have his best shot this year. Kudo’s to Roger for actually achieving what seemed impossible at the start of the tournament. And I hope now, that all the pressure is gone Roger will play his best tennis.

As much as I want Federer to win. I want Soderling to win more. There might be a chance that Agassi (my all time favorite player) may present the trophy

Rafa has withdrawn from Queens tournament as a result of a knee injury. To top that of there is a chance that Rafa may not contest in Wimbledon. That is really bad news as far as I am concerned. I hope he makes a recovery in time for Wimbledon. It may be devastating for his confidence and ranking if He cannot defend his title. Here is the article courtesy of Great Tennis Photo’s.

Toni Nadal, Rafa’s uncle and coach, said that Rafa had a damaged right knee and was doubtful for the Grand Slam which starts on June 22.

“We have taken him out of the Queen’s tournament (June 8-14) and will do everything possible to get him there, but this is subject to medical tests,” Toni Nadal said.

“There is something wrong with his knee but right now we are uncertain what the problem is,” he added.

Rafa has been advised to rest by his doctors and here is what he said today on his website:

“I am very disappointed to not be able to come this year to Queen’s, defend the title I won last year and enjoy playing in front of their magnificent crowd. To play in London has always been special to me, to play at the Queen’s Club is an honour and the fans in the UK are among the best I have ever seen, always supporting me since the first time I played there.

It’s no secret to anyone that I have been having some problems in the past months with my knees, which did not allow me to compete at 100%.

I need to work with my team to recover well, work on my physical condition to be at my top form and get ready to play on grass at Wimbledon. I hope I will be ready to compete by then.

I am really sorry and I hope that the people at the Club will still want me to come next year.

Rafa”

I didn’t bother to watch the match, assuming Dinara will walk away victorious, which was an assessment based on her current clay court record. I have learnt a big lesson though. I have learnt that records can stand meaningless, stats can be defied and win-loss records are irrelevant, when the player you thought would so easily come through doesn’t. And the reason that Dinara didn’t win was very simple, she could not step up to the occasion. Obviously she has the goods to send Svetlana packing, she has done it before. Even if Dinara had lost in a three setter, one could infer that it was a tough match in which Dinara gave it her all and lost to the better player. However losing the way she did, in straigt sets can only mean one thing – Dinara couldn’t rise to the ocacasion and play her best tennis, unlike Kuznetsova – Who did.

I feel so happy for Svetlana, I can only imagine the confidence this win will give her. Being labelled as a one time wonder and choker in big matches cannot be easy and it requires results like these to hush such critics. She has done the best possible thing for herself. Whereas Dinara will only have more critics to answer to and more of Serena’s egoism to deal with. I hope that when I say “Serena’s egoism” I am not judged as someone who hates Serena. I find her to be an amazing tennis player, possibly #1 in her own way, as she claims. However I find most things that come out of her mouth rather un sportsman like.

I have always thought of WTA as more interesting than ATP. This result, further strengthens that theory. Obviously French Open this year has been interesting for ATP as-well though.