Apocryphal Stories !!!

Djokovic signed off from the court, after his semi-final by saying that the final against Rafa was going to be physical. Though the words turned to be true, even he wouldn’t have foreseen the longest match at the Australian Open. A lot of credit is due to both the players. They played their hearts out. Not a single soul, who watched the match, would have demanded more. The quality of the service games, returns by Djokovic, trading of the forehands and the backhands. Everything about the match can be branded classic. If we dissect the match, it was Djokovic who had the upper hand after losing the first set. After dominating the next two sets, it seemed that he was on his way to a win in four sets. Remember, these guys hadn’t played a five setter before this match. At 3-4, 0-40 up, he seemed to be just five points away from the championship. Rafa roared back into the match with an eclectic mix of serves, forehands and backhands. At that moment it seemed that if the match went into the ...

In the open era(till 2004) 5 Spaniards have won the French Open 6 times. Sergei Bruguera was the only man  who repeated the feat twice. From 2004 on, Rafael Nadal won the French Open 6 times in  7 attempts. No wonder he considers his game to be tailor made for the clay courts. Though he loved clay- which also explains his love for Monte Carlo- it was his dream to win Wimbledon For a person whose game is entirely based on the power that he generates from his strokes, it is natural to go for every match as though it’s his last. When he lost the 2007 Wimbledon final to Federer, he wept under the shower for close to half an hour. What does the man do? He goes back and trains even harder. His belief in training has been steadfast from childhood It was Toni Nadal, who made him revere him training with unconventional motivation. That Nadal had a no-nonsense approach towards winning helped Toni. When he saw the effort dipping, he would fire him up with more practice. Nadal remember...

Though the players complain of scheduling problems, they are willing to put their might in for the Davis Cup matches. With Serbia, Spain and Switzerland in action over the last week, it gave the fans to watch a plethora of stars in action. With Djokovic, Nadal and Federer in action in these matches for their respective countries, it represented a turning of the corner for Tennis in general Gone were the days of major stars like Sampras shunning the Davis Cup preparation in favour of preparation time. With the change of rules in 2009, where ranking points were awarded for wins in Davis Cup, top players were back in the fold. This provides for superb atmosphere in what are called as ‘rubbers’ Davis Cup, in nature is totally different to Slams. It is the only tournament in Tennis, apart from the friendly Hopman Cup, that has the individual contributing to the Team’s cause.     It is this atmosphere that motivates scrappers like Lleyton Hewitt from Australia and Leand...

On 1 st February 2009, Roger Federer broke into tears at the Australian Open presentation. The words that he uttered before breaking down were ‘God, it’s killing me’. There was a reason behind that. Though Federer will not reveal it, it was pretty clear. 2008 was a year that Federer couldn’t put it through Nadal He lost the French Open final (expectedly) and then was at the receiving end at Wimbledon, which was later hailed as the ‘Greatest match ever played’ . All this came to a conclusion at the Australian Open final 2009, where for most part of the match, Federer had played the better tennis and even won more points than Nadal This season, Nadal went through a similar run. He entered into 6 finals against Djokovic and lost in each one of them. It is not a co-incidence that Djokovic is having a dream run. In doing that, Djokovic has spread his wins over Nadal on all the surfaces- hard, clay, and grass After he lost to him at the Wimbledon, Nadal acknowledged that Dj...

Just when does a person call any match as the ‘greatest match of all time’? It has got to have what one would call an occasion, setting and a storied rivalry. Wimbledon final 2008 had all of this. It was the longest final at 4 hours and 48 minutes When one chooses to write on the final, you would half expect them to write a lot about the match, for the match was one such. But Weirtham treads off the beaten track here as he concentrates on the growth of Federer and Nadal in his description of each set and talks about the Wimbledon grass, general health of tennis and also how the games are broadcast from Wimbledon The game was one such where Federer found it tough to break Nadal’s serve and ended up conceding 6 games in every set to Nadal. Weirtham also concentrates on how Nadal’s game poses problems for Federer. He reveals in detail the way Nadal tormented the (weak) backhand of Federer A lot many people will brush away lot of facts from the book as unnecessary trivia, ...

At 5-4, 15-love in the fourth set against del Potro yesterday, after Nadal had won the point, a man in blue sitting in his box let out a knowing smile. It tells us a lot about Nadal. It tells us a lot about the confidence of the man in Nadal. The knowing smile came about because Nadal and del Potro were trading punches like prize fighters. With this passing shot, Nadal was getting ready to trade the knock-out punches Not only is Nadal a champion at the game but he is also a champion at heart. After the foot injury , it might have been humanely impossible for him to continue the match. With the first few points in the tie-breaker  going del Potro’s way, it was thought that Nadal would be a sitting duck. People were thinking that Nadal’s unbeaten streak at Wimbledon, which dates to 2008 would finally be snapped. What is a champion without actually, pushing the limits? Nadal did exactly that as he came back to wrap up the tie-breaker. Not for the first time it was, that he displayed...

Circa 2009: Venue: Melbourne Park Incident: Roger Federer breaking into tears after the epic five setter , which he lost to Nadal All the Federer fans including yours truly was shocked with the turn of events and few converted to being Nadal fans, impressed with his grace and him consoling Federer by saying " You are a champion and am sure, you will win many more". Few fans even suspected if, Federer will manage to take a win from Nadal 2010, Roland Garros Nadal after his win against Lleyton Hewitt was all grace again as he admitted to Federer being the better player of them. He said numbers show that he won 16 slams to his 6 and even though their head-to-head tilts in his favour, it was skewed as most of the matches were played on clay What grace!!