[Sports Watch] Tennis Roundup

Sania Mirza, after creating much expectations, has struggled to live up to the pressure & hype created by the media. She lost in the opening round in French Open Championships. She has been plagued by injuries. We'll keep a close watch on her progress in the coming days. It is too early to judge her abilities as yet.

Agassi's ignominious exit from the French open let loose the talk of him retiring from active tennis. Agassi is a master at comebacks. Is this too late for a comeback ?. It is sad that a person of his class, as evident by Sampras's remarks that Agassi can give a run for his money anyday, has to face such petty talks about his retirment time.

Interestingly enough, Agassi kept saying at every given oppurtunity at the rivalry with Sampras as 'Sampras is one person, who could still beat me, even while I play my best tennis'.

Talking of Sampras, the person touted as the next Sampras, Roger Federer, apparently inherited Sampras's nemesis as well. The French Open. Sampras's only missing trophy was the french and Federer has not been able to get to it either. Will Federer live upto Sampras reputation ?.

Even though Federer has better allround game than Sampras, he does not have a flair for serve & volley like Sampras did, neither does his forehand appear as deadly as the running forehand of Sampras. Pistol Pete is The Peak. I'd hate to see Sampras lose the throne :-(

Rafael Nadal, the new sensation, would be watched out for his performance on grass. There were many such 'couple of season' sensations on clay. Like Beresatagui, who used to hit the ball with only one side of his racket for both the forehand and backhand. (He was the surprise finalist at french open in 1994.)

Our own Leander Paes & Martina Navratilova - two 'old workhorses' who never seem to tire, inched their way upto the finals in mixed doubles. Both of them are known for their reflexes and sharp angles and perfect placement of the exchanges at the net.

Back home, when any sports fever was around the corner, that would spill onto the streets well. Football worldcup meant everyone on the roads with a football, not so much for hockey ;)...and goes without saying cricket would *always* be on our roads :-)

Keeping that in mind, we went to some local courts to play tennis, and crowded court greeted us, there was no chanting from the crowd except the sound of tennis balls getting hit around. All the courts were full. What a bummer :-(

As they say, mazhai penja adhuleye oru quick kuliyal eduthukko, i decided to use the time that i'd have played tennis to blog about tennis ;) atleast konjam satisfaction :-)