It's been a pretty tiring and eventful week. Lot of work, late evenings, and terrible food as a consequence. My social life hit an all time high this Thursday when I discovered the polite British equivalent of club-hopping. First I had drinks with Deutsche Bank, then I returned to a Banking group BBQ and drinks followed by an informal drinking session with a few trainees taking the Vacation Scheme bunch out. The terrible side of this is that I only had one beer as a sum total - not even one per..just one. What a waste of free alchohol!!
I did, however, meet the 'Woman who screamed Superman'. Her name as estimated by me, was not Elizabeth, but Claire - some photos are on their way over from her camera soon. I shall go through the lot and post a couple of the least embarrassing.
In other news - there has been much happening in sports - Federer will be playing Roddick in tomorrow's final. I watched the third set of the match between Roddick and Johansson and it was simply magnificent tennis. Brilliant to watch, and I was hoping that good old Thomas won that set, cos it would have ensured a nice 5 setter. Anyway, as I walked out of the Linacre Common Room at the end of the set, I knew that Roddick had the match in the 4th. But to his credit Tommy fought hard and Roddick won it in a tiebreak. Commendable.
Flashback - June 2004, People's Sunday, Centre Court. I'm watching Roger Federer take on Thomas Johansson. Everyone has, of course, heard of Tom, being a former Australian Open champ in 2000, i think. But if you asked me to describe his game, it was pedestrian at best. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed watching Federer's majestic game on display, but you want to see him pushed so that the best of him can be seen. Frankly, he looked as if he was walking a pram that afternoon. Cruising through in 3.
Johansson, to his credit, has picked up since then - I think he was just out of long term injury last year - and played some awesome tennis today. Anyone who can take Roddick's serve to Deuce in 4 straight games is special. As for the final, I'd like to see Federer winning in 5, although I secretly admit to myself that it is unlikely and that the best we'll probably see is him winning in 4. But I always love an upset in the later stages of a tournament.
In other tennis news, Todd Woodbridge announced his retirement after this Wimbledon. He is still in the mixed doubles Quarters and will take on Bhupathi and Pierce in the Semis should he get through. To put his career in perspective, the guy has won the Wimbledon doubles title 9 times. 6 with Mark Woodforde, his long time partner and 3 with Jonas Bjorkman who now plays alongside Max Mirnyi. Of the 6, 5 were consecutive between 1993 and 1997. The 3 with Bjorkman were also consecutive between 2002 and 2004. I don't care what you say, in a game as unpredictable as doubles where top seeds get dumped in the first round every alternate slam, that is A record! He is also a singles semi-finalist in 1997. So... It's sad to see him go, but I suppose everyone must call it a day at some point. I hope he gets another Wimbledon title before he goes.
As we discuss players, one of the guys I've watched for a long time comes to my mind - Leander Paes. He popped up in one of the many tennis conversations that anna and I have. A little about him and me. I first remember watching him as a 14 or 15 year-old taking on the big boys in Challenger tourneys at MSLTA. He was undoubtedly good. I can vividly recall a doubles match he was playing with Zeeshan Ali against the Russian duo. (One of them was Vladimir something and had a quite a fan following the two years he came. He won the singles the first year and got dumped early the next memorably flinging his racket from the baseline into the net during the match - luckily it hit no one). Anyway - Paes won that match (a final). He then went on to win the Juniors at Wimbledon in singles and became India's backbone at Davis Cup ties. Incidentally, other Indians to have won the Juniors at Wimbledon are the Krishans - both father and son. Ashok Amritraj and Jaideep Mukherjee have been losing finalists.
Then last year, on People's Sunday - we left Centre Court to watch him and David Rikl take on Vincent Spadea and some other chap. It was a shit showing. Poor play with a poor partner. I remember a point where Lee and Rikl were at the net and a passing shot was coming in. Paes says (mid-rally) "Cover your lines". Rikl doesn't. Passing shot goes down the lines on Rikl's forehand. Paes actually turned the other way i.e. not facing his partner and walked back to return serve the next point. Really bugged expression on his face.
All this is fine, cos it's a shit partner he's playing with. I was still hoping they'd get through and backing them. There was a huge Indian contingent to cheer as well.
Then one game where Paes was serving, he served a first fault. And as he tossed the ball up and some (definitely stupid) female screamed "Come on, Leander". He aborted serve, served a double fault, lost the next point and his serve. Everyone was at this point basically giving dirty looks in the direction from where the scream had come. Then as he walked to his chair, Paes looked to that part of the stands and said a caustic (and audible) "Thank You". Anna got it bang on when he said "I just lost all respect for the guy after that."
It got worse a couple of games later when a guy screamed "Come on Indians, cheer for Leander" (or something to the effect in Hinglish). There was a huge cheer, and Paes actually rolled his eyes and shook his head, the ungrateful _____. People would die to have over 100 people cheering for them on bloody Court 8 which is the 2nd worst court to play on after Court 7.
At the end of the match when autographs were being taken from Paes, anna asked me whether we should go and get one. I mumbled something about him having just lost etc and how it might not be fair to him. But frankly, I didn't want to get his autograph, or have him sign anything that I would keep. I didn't want to go have a chat with him even if I got a chance, something I would readily accepted before this match.
Anyway - that's enough about that. Suffice to say that Paes will not be shaking my hand at his (or my!) autobigraphy's signing (if and when they happen!)
Other news - none. The Lions got hammered this morning. Good on the All Blacks - still my fav. rugby team.
Otherwise everything is hunky dory with one week of work to go. More blogging then.
And sweeping up the jokers that he left behind
you'll find he did not leave you very much
not even laughter.
Like any dealer he was watching for the card that is so high and wild
he'll never need to deal another.
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger.
-'The Stranger Song' by Leonard Cohen
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2 comments:
on the other hand, i thought about it later: wasn't he diagnosed with the brain lesion just after that, was that the year before and my chronology is screwed up? or was this big wimbledon mahima break up?
i've seen leander play davis cup in calcutta 4-5 times now, and he's unfailingly polite to the fairly demanding calcutta fans, who think they own him. so i was horrified by how he behaved at wimbledon.
of course, this might just be an excuse, but am wondering if there was more at play than the tennis that day. always fun to speculate!
oh, since i can't thrash him personally at the moment (and god i'd love to), please thrash ur anna at badminton/TT/Tennis/Boggle/Whatever else you play, and let me enjoy some vicarious pleasure!!
and as the story goes, federer continues his reign on grass, with a pretty convincing win over roddick, the finals was by no margin anything more than 101 minute bore, all credit to federer, i don't know if roddick was playing his worst tennis, or if federer was that good that he made it look so easy, its very rare to win so convincingly over roddick, the big dude rarely goes down without a fight.
bhupathi is by far the best indian tennis player to grace the court, infact one of the most humble as well. i had the opportunity to sit next to him on a jet airway flight from bangalore to bombay, very simple chap with a big heart. paes and bhupathi could have gone down as legends if it wasnt for paes and his father, that caused them to break up? paes was just the start of better things to come, now i hope sania and bhupathi both do indian tennis proud, the new crop doesnt seem quite up to the mark.
dude, one glass in the whole night, that's a new record if u ask me...:p
abt the rugby, this lions team is by far one of the worst i've seen, though not to take away anything from the all blacks(who happen to be one of my favourites too along with the springboks)who did more or less cream them...
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