Rain & Roggie at Roland Garros and Wimbledon 2001

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Originally uploaded by bono-fan.

Roggie Won, as usual. I ve been reading on few tennis sites and discussion forums that people find this boring. I ask WHY ? I ve heard same questions and such concerns back in 2005 when schumi won everything in F1 . Or when Aussies win in cricket. I dont know, but i think if you`re winning just about everything you particiapte in - its sign of greatness and above all, consistency than anything else. Whats bad in that ? Why cant people accept that ? I mean, if Godforbids, Rog fails to win French this will be like a stigma for the rest of his life , just like sampras. But no one will look at the fact that he has lost less than 10 matches in 3 years.

Anyhow, Mr. Falla was no match to king fed, and he won quite easily, albeit with few weather related interruptions and man, they are so bad. I mean, we the audience hate the break, what would go in mind of a player ? Sidrah mentioned Nadal writing a blog which btw is quite an interesting read and gives an insight into the mind of world's no.2 player who is gunning to get his 2nd slam .. its great to see him take time out to write a blog. So yeah, point was, i ll expect to read something from nadal regarding the same that what does players do when they are on a rain break.

This reminds me one of the most cherished tennis memories ever, related to rain break. Back in 2001 Wimbledon, Goran Ivanesivic was playing his last wimbledon. For the past decade the giant croat was doing his level best to somehow win the slam he cherished most, Wimbledon. He was denied most of the time by Pete Sampras, or at times by some other random players but he was always there deep in the 2nd week. But in 2001, sampras lost to a certain, 18yr old Roger Federer and right then tournament was thrown open. Tim Henman was carrying british hopes and everybody thought THIS is his time. Semi final time, henman faced Goran and it was all Henman, infact 3rd set mein he wiped goran with 6-0. Fourth set, goran down 2-4 and staring at the barrel ....... and then came the rain ! It rained continously and the smie had to bde delayed for next day. With weather forecasting sunny and bright day, Goran came back, all guns blazing and roared back into the match. Broke henman right back , snatched the tie breaker and went onto win the match and wimbledon later on, making it 4th time lucky for him. It was among one of the greatest wimbledon stories ever !!

The kid is too friggin cute: he thinks a blog post a day is called 'making a new blog'. Shhh, no one him tell him otherwise! :) Plus, abid thinks no different at the rate he updates :P

"I will come back to you and let you know."

Oh too CUTE! You do that!

Day Three: .....



God dang you, Gonzo.

Rafa's next opponent is American Kevin Kim, a qualifying tournament (not so) lucky loser. Kim has never even met Rafa let alone played him. He may be a bit unsure of his chances since he is quoted as saying "My mum got his autograph today. So I guess I'm going down already."

- VamosRafael.com

Day Two: Fifty-Four

History begins from fifty-four! Yep, folks, we’ve done it.

Rafael Nadal has broken the thirty year old record of most consecutive clay court wins today, by demolishing off a broken-spirited Robin Sterling, winning fifty four matches in a row.

The commentators defined Nadal today, as a “most annoying player”: He’ll run for every drop shot you throw at him (and he usually gets there and cross-courts a return to your very shock), he’ll pump himself up even when he’s three games down in a final set to the point where he’s transformed into an enthusiastic five-year old, he’s one of the most focused players on the tour today – not breaking his rhythm and always, always dictating the pace of the game (which is why he is able to unsettle Roger Federer so much, I think – he gives Roger too much time to think – and we all know what happens to Roger when he thinks too much), and most of all, he never, God Forbid, gives up, our Rafa. Most annoying, how he has a strong defensive game that means the points he loses are usually more fun to watch then the ones he wins, since he’s throwing himself all over that floor. Most, most annoying how he angles his shots at the most impossible corners of the court, and just when you’re smugly patting yourself on the back for a lovely winner. Heavily annoying, how friggin good the kid is.

And he still has room for improvement in his clay game!

Back to the record – no one thought it possible to break Vilas’ record, no one thought that in the current stench of competition with all your Gaudios, Corias, Ferreros or Moyas could there come any player who would not only be three paces ahead of the current competition, but actually lead to the downfall of all the mentioned, just because he didn’t let you win. That’s just what he did, Coria is a non-existential factor who might regain momentum if only his serve hadn’t completely left him this season, Ferrero, no matter how much I adore him, has lost all firepower and magic, while Moya with the occasional upset, is past his prime. Gaudio needs to fix more then just that obnoxious bun on his head to get back into gear – but your know what – it still doesn’t matter. The next couple of years sees Nadal dominating the clay game well ahead of his colleagues. Hey, you might even see him actually challenging Federer for number one then, too (right now he has too many thing to work on to be any sort of a disturbance to numero uno).

So it was fifty four today. How long will Nadal’s record go up till? Will his record be broken? Is it really only his second year on tour? Has he really tied history with the likes of Borg, Vilas etc.? Is the kid REALLY nineteen?

it has arrive-eth!

Day 1: Just Getting Started

Ahh, the sight of the lascivious brick-red Parisian clay- nothing tops the start of your favorite grandslam event of the year. Another calm day in tennis-haven - no upsets, everything went well on paper and best of all Tommy Robredo is on fire!

Last year, this time around, me and a certain bono-fan were plotting death-threats to the young Spaniard, who had deminished our hopes of seeing Marat Safin clinch the cup (though I'm pretty sure Nadal would have stopped him any way). After 11 months and 2 weeks of extreme hate, we put last years match behind us and embraced the growing phenomenon that is senor Robredo. Maybe it was the ATP blog, or maybe just the heart-tugging way he breezed his path through to the Hamburg silverware- whichever, ladies and gentlemen, Tommy Robredo has landed. And the current form he's in, it seems like an easy ticket to week 2. Not only did he annihilate Zib to Zilch today, he did it without breaking into a sweat. Definitely the most effortless win of the day, easily getting 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.

Federer started rough, being 0-3 done the first set to lucky loser Diego Hartfield - and though it could be argued that Hartfield was hitting all his worth, having no expectations from the match, hence no tensing his hit sin the least - we tend to ignore the fact it could have gone the other way: big occasion, the world's, perhaps history's, best player staring down at you and playing your first ever grandslam match, and that on center court. Though, I must admit, at no point in the match did I ever believe Roger was in any trouble, the scoreline was a hefty 7-5 7-6(2) 6-2. Good job to Hartfield (but what is with all these hair-buns in the men's tour!? I want to sue!)

Sharapova, sans obsessive family member, seemed rather uncomfortable on court, breezing through the first set, but losing momentum in the second, and having to gruel it out to the third to Mashona Washington. She's still up to her mind games, I see, calling injury timeouts at crucial moments - but we won't be as unfair enough to associate her success today to a measly restrapping. No we'll give it to her, she won it on her own. Can't say I'm cahoots about the ballerina outfit, though.

tomorrow's matches of note:
Sebastian Grosjean (FRA)[21] vs. Andrei Pavel (ROM)
Robin Soderling (SWE) vs. Rafael Nadal (ESP)[2]
Venus Williams (USA)[11] vs. Sybille Bammer (AUT)
Michael Llodra (FRA) vs. Radek Stepanek (CZE)[11]
James Blake (USA)[8] vs. Paradorn Srichaphan (THA)
Xavier Malisse (BEL) vs. Nicolas Massu (CHI)[32]
Tomas Berdych (CZE)[20] vs. Feliciano Lopez (ESP)

Laureus and French Open - Bono Fan

Well, first before beginning to update on French Open and everything else related to it, I will thank Sidrah for dragging me, literally pulling me back to blog sphere with her continued insistence and tutorials, which actually made me, sit up and get back to blog world. This time, with not one but TWO blogs to manage! Now that is a surprise itself because that’s coming from a guy who cannot manage a single blog! But anyways, now moving on to the more important matters which right now are

A) Laureus Awards
B) French Open draws and prediction.

Well, as mentioned in the previous blog, Tennis ruled supreme and King Fed won the award again and despite my failed attempt at convincing Sidrah that he deserved it again, I ll try it once more because what fed did last year was more than he achieved in 2004. First up we have to consider the fact that how laureus awards are given and what are the primary decisive factors and one thing for sure is that they always tend to be slightly biased towards solo sports than team ones, man powered than machine powered. That’s a very natural instinct sine the players are doing all they do without any outside help. Which is why I think Fed deserved the award more than anybody else and that is why he was the runaway favorite to win it despite a real strong competition. You don’t win 84 matches and lose 3 in an ENTIRE YEAR. Out of those 3 losses, two came when he was coming back from injuries! So technically, come to think of it, he was just at it all over. He is without a full time coach; he does not have an entourage following him EVERYWHERE unlike other players. His coach Tony Roche, a superlative player in his own time back in `70s does not travel all the time with him. Tennis is a most demanding game and the fact that you are doing it with your sheer skill and god gifted talent, I see no reason anybody else can beat him for that. Winning it 2 years in a row simply confirms the fact that we are living in an era of an all time great athlete, who is not only supremely talented and gifted; he is, above all, a humble human being and a role model. Bottom line; Roger Federer, Sir, You Rock.


Now, French open is starting from tomorrow and the first round draws are just so sumptuous, nothing more than a really good Chilean player, Fernando Gonzalez against mine and Sidrah’s favorite player, the mercicural, the afridi of tennis, one and only, MARAAAAAAAAAAAT SAAAAAAAAAAFIIINN ! Now that should be one helluva match I tell you. Two of the most unpredictable and most entertaining player on ATP tour are against each other and I am expecting some heavy, heavy artillery put out in paris.
King Fed was supposed to play charismatic Santoro but he pulled out with some injury and will be up against a lucky loser from argentina. Nadal, the ultimate favorite to win this slam is against Robin soderling, who despite being a decent enough player will be fodder for the beast from Mallorca and will end up as his 54th victim on dirt which will eventually make nadal as the most accomplished player on clay since Gullerimo vilas won 53 straight. There are quite a lot of other interesting matches pitted in this draw which predicts that fed and nadal should fight it out for the main thing a fortnight from now. Monfils is up against arrogant british snob murray whereas poor roddick, with a heavily strapped left foot will be against Spanish clay court specialist alberto martin !
So now then, wait for tomorrow and let the show begin ! :)

Just a few pointers in celebration of tommorrow:

• M. Safin versus F. Gonzalez in the first round. But ofcourse -we had to get Gonzo. But if Safin nicks the match (he has all the ability too) whose knows, he might even make it to the fourth round. Yeah, okay, you can laugh now.
• Rafael Nadal will do the ATP Blog for the week!!!
• Nadal has a relatively easy first-week pickings. R. Nadal versus R. Soderling match is a must-see: that's when he'll pick up his 54th consecutive clay-court win, and plus, his camera signoff will be most amusing.
• Daniela Hantuchova, wherever are you? The poor lady has disappeared off the face of my television set since US Open 2005.
• Roddick with an injured left ankle. Heh heh heh.
• Lleyton Hewitt, another one you don't see knocking tennis balls around lately. Would love to see how he plays after weeks off from the tour. And whether his wife still wears those atrocious pair of tan sunglasses.
• Right. Now down to some serious tennis tommorrow.

Wow - what a week for tennis everywhere - first nadal and federer (who, i disagree with bono-fan, did not have a obvious clear-cut easy-as-a-aussie-draw victory - i mean comeon! he was up against ronaldhino, armstrong, rossi and fernando "Hate Me Please" alonso of all folks! PLUS, he won last year! is that even legal? winning two years in a row?) clinched the laureus (the oscars of the sporting world for all of you who don't know) respectively - second, we are just three days away from the best two weeks of tennis you can feast your soul on. And finally - STOP THE PRESSES - the much-awaited nadal-girlfriend pictures are out!!!

It was rumored for months and months now that she exists, and finally, after months of deligient digging by the eager mallorcan paparazzi (who actually took the pictures 10 minutes off a relatively isloated beach, a summer holiday resort for the Nadals - see, deligient!)

well good for you rafa, kiddo. though i can't say i'm entirely pleased, hmpff.

marat, you still single?