The Clearing

After asking around, asking dozens of people to come along, it was finally my dear ole sister--whose interest in tennis can be described at best as casual--who took pity on me and decided to accompany me to the US Open. I had decided on Wednesday, the 6th of September, as the men's quarter finals were slated for that day. I arrived at base camp, Princeton, which is where sister is currently based a day earlier, late in the evening. Over dinner we were chattering excitedly about what all we would be taking to the US open, what we would do to avoid getting into the bag line, and other logistic issues when we realized that I had left the tickets back in SC! Major panicking happened on my part and the stoic in me started to make a case for me to drive back to SC and bring the tickets. This would have entailed driving for eight hours through the night and being sleep deprived the next day which would have been, going by experience, detrimental to full enjoyment of this unusual outing.

After we had a few seconds to think about it, common sense prevailed and we decided to call Ticketmaster, the people we had bought our tickets from. In case you haven't heard, Ticketmaster rocks, for apparently this is a fairly common occurrence (duh!) and they have this system of providing replacement tickets at the venue when things like this happen. I didn't drive all night but I still managed to get very little sleep that night--always find it hard to sleep at places away from home when I first get there--yes, an extremely inconvenient trait.

We left around 9:30 aiming to get there a little after the start of the day session at 11. This involved switching trains thrice and a travel time of roughly an hour and a half through parts of New York I had never been before. By 11:30 we were in our nosebleeders high up in Arthur Ashe stadium watching Safin and Haas continue their game from last night which had been stopped due to rain. I had imagined that we would be so high up that it would be difficult to follow the action on the court. Fortunately, having pessimistic bouts has its advantages sometimes, was pleasantly surprised to see how well we could see the action down there. Though after the initial euphoria died down I found myself finding it hard to care about the game much. Some of it was my lack of sleep compounded by having such high seats--yes, they seemed quite far now-- and some of it was the quality of the game which was not very high. I was obviously rooting for Safin, hoping that he would beat Federer in the finals like he did a year ago at the Australian. Shivani had slept better, and about an hour or so into the match she went exploring the rest of the complex. She came back with reasonably good Indian food--a tip we had got from Jon Wertheim's column in the Sports illustrated--the only kind of food I wanted to eat in that sorry sleepy state.

Federer was playing in Armstrong but decided not to relocate as I still had hopes that these two here would elevate the level of their game as the match progressed, besides, Fed was playing a virtual nobody and that match had whitewash written all over it. The Haas-Safin match went to a fifth set tiebreaker but the game remained too error-strewn to become interesting. The stadium itself was only half full, the crowd didn't seem much into the match either, partly also a relic of being such a large stadium that when not filled close to capacity it tends to dissipate any kind of collective involvement from the crowd.

After being resuscitated by the food we decided to take the half-filled state of the stadium to our advantage and moved to a tier below ours to watch the next match which was between Henin and Davenport. The view from there was obviously much better, it also suited my short attention span really well. This match was a better contested one but I left when Davenport got broken late in the first set, she didn't seem like she was going to take a set of Henin.
I had, by this time, been watching uninterrupted tennis for a while and decided that I was now feeling sufficiently non-zombie-ish to venture out of my seat. I left the stadium and went to Armstrong where Nadal was playing Youzhny, the atmosphere here was much more exciting, everybody was closer in and more involved with the match. Youzhny was playing great, hitting absolutely stunning backhands while Nadal was very much on the defensive against his opponent's ferocious attacking game. Though my support for Nadal was just as ferocious I couldn't help but admire how well Youzhny was playing.

After the second set Shivani and I met outside Armstrong and made another, this time more relaxed, trip around the grounds. We went to the really small courts where you can literally touch the players. We saw Jankovic, Safina, Hantuchova, Martina, Bjorkman, and Myirni among the notables. Had some more overpriced borderline palatable food, and then went back to see the completion of the Nadal match. Youzhny was too good, and wrapped it up in 4 sets. We then went back to Ashe to see the end of Blake and Berdych. Berdych was totally off his game and Blake was totally destroying him. By now I was sufficiently in good spirits and really got onto cheering Berdych into making a match of it, it was the third set and it seemed like it was only a matter of time. All this was tinged with a note of desperation as I didn't want to go back yet and this was the last match planned in Ashe for the day session.


I have no idea where I will be next August so I'm really glad that I finally, after being in the US for so many years, made the trip to Flushing meadows. Curses to all my friends for not being tennis fans and not coming along, and thanks to S for being such a sport.

Labels: Sports, Trip description

This is great news! I missed most of the match but saw the last two games, and even with Andy Murray serving for the match at 40-0, I was not convinced about his chances of winning it, so larger-than-life is Federer's aura, not to mention his now 62-5 record this year. Andy seemed very calm, contrary to what we have come to expect from him--his tendency to tighten up when closing out matches--and even though Federer was able to save two match points, Andy was able to seal the deal, incredibly, in straight sets, with a sweet backhand passing shot. Federer was not playing his typical flawless game but that is usually irrelevant when this man plays.

Andy is the first person not named Nadal to have defeated Federer this year. Gasquet came pretty close last Sunday in the finals of the Toronto masters, but seemed to have got a bit overwhelmed by the occasion in the third set (funnily enough, the tournament is officially known as Rogers Masters--I guess they forgot the apostrophe!). This is a great build-up for my first trip to the US Open--inexplicable, I know, since I have been in this country for more than 6 years now, and fairly close to Flushing Meadows throughout--Federer is looking mortal for once and I'm beginning to entertain serious fantasies of a final that does not feature Lord Federer.

Labels: Sports

A quick round-up: With three of the four series going the distance, this second round is the finest I've ever been a `witness' to. The most unexpectedly competitive was, undoubtedly, the Pistons-Cavs series--now is as good a time as any to admit that I was wrong (ouch, that hurts!) to dismiss it as a potential waste of time. It was an immensely exciting experience to watch LeBron & co. make the mighty Pistons look falliable who, it must be said, did play sub-par. Although, ultimately, game 7 was a disappointment, the Cavs 'display ensures that they should be a more-or-less regular fixture in the playoffs in the years to come--they acquitted themselves well in their first trip to the playoff in many (being a bit lazy here) years.

The Heat-Nets series was unexpectedly disappointing--they were the number 2 and 3 seeds in the Eastern conference afterall. My prediction for the Eastern conference finals is Heat in seven--atleast that's what I'm hoping for. Two reasons for the suppport (I'm not saying I'm not being true to form here): firstly, gotta support the underdog, and secondly, the boredom factor--need a new Eastern conference champion--Detroit have won it atleast the last three years running.

The Western conference semi-finals were fiercely competetive--what every basketball fan hopes for. Happy to report that both teams I was supporting made it to the finals, really happy for the Mavericks who were finally able to overcome the Spurs. What a finish to game 7 where Nowitski made the big last-minute 3-point play, driving all the way to the hoop, wading through, seemingly, the entire Spurs team, and drawing a foul from the ever-dangerous Ginobli in the process, looks like he is finally ready to embrace his super-star staus. The Phoenix game 7 was a bit of a damp-squib, though the earlier games were indeed very well contested. I was a little conflicted in this series as to who the under-dog was i.e. whom to support. Was it the Clippers who made it to the play-offs after so many years of being the doormat of the other LA team, or was it the Suns who despite being plagued by injuries throughout the season still made it this far--with an MVP I admit, but one who is a David to the typical Goliath-ic MVPs. I'm still not sure whom to support for the next round--the Mavs since they've come away empty-handed in the playoffs the last few years or the Suns who are decidedly the underdogs this time round?

Labels: Sports

Nadal ties Guillermo Vilas' record of consecutive matches won, 53, on clay by beating Federer, yet again! Here's a prediction (of the doesn't-take-a-rocket-scientist variety): he breaks the record at the French Open.

Labels: Sports

I've been watching the NBA playoffs pretty religiously the past few weeks. This has meant that I've been staying up till atleast around 1 am every night--to say that this is creating havoc in my life might be overstating it a bit--and getting up much later (let's be a little vague about that, shall we?) than I should be. While the playoffs were still in their first round, it was atleast a possibility to watch the early Eastern conference games, avoid the late Western conference game, and still come away with the feeling that your urge to see good basketball had been satisfied. The second round in that respect has been disappointing. More on that later, let me just briefly explain why the first round matchups, in both conferences, deserved my (fickle) attention and (scarcely available) time.

The Nets-Indiana matchup became exciting the moment the Pacers won an away game to level the series. It became even more exciting when they went 2-1 up. Sadly, that was the last game they won--sad only because it didn't go to a 7the game, I wasn't supporting either team.

In the Miami-Chicago series it was the Heat that were the team favored to win. Chicago must have fancied its chances when it won both its home games so convincingly (It was a memorable sight to see MJ celebrating in the rafters), but then Shaq decided to play ball and Chicago was toast. In this case I was definitely rooting for Chicago, it was an adrenaline-rush watching Gordan, Norcione, and Heinrich playing together, and playing so well.

The other two series were not so exciting. The Detroit series simply because Detroit was playing, and the only interesting series featuring them would possibly be the conference finals, and the NBA finals (I'm pretty sure they can only be beaten by a Western superpower). The Washington-Cleveland series was mildly interesting because of the LeBron factor, but the teams themselves are not of very high quality and do not good TV make.

Of the Western conference games, obviously, the most watched and talked about series was the one between the Lakers and the Suns. Nobody gave a chance to the Lakers before the series since they are considered (atleast at the time) a team going through the rebuilding phase. Nobody was saying that when they went 3-1 up, Phil Jackson has indeed worked a miracle here--Kobe, or no Kobe. Now, nobody was giving the Suns a chance of winning three games in a row especially since one of them included the one to be played in Lakers' territory. I'm happy to report that not only did the Suns do the unthinkable, they're also a game up on the other LA team.

The Sacramento Spurs series was supposed to be a no-brainer win for the Spurs but it turned out have a few twists and turns before it went the way of the inevitable. Sacramento was able to level the series at 2-2, in so small part thanks to Ron Artest who was acquired sometime mid-season, before giving in. Another noteworthy player who lived up to his alleged potential was Bonzy Wells who had atleast one 40 point game. The Spurs, unfortunately, just have too many weapons. One player I can't stand on their team is Ginobli who plays the game as if it were some combination of wrestling and kabaddi. I'm firmly rooting against the Spurs, and I hope that the Mavericks can finally find a way of dealing with them.

The Mavericks series was like the Detroit series, very one-sided and boring, as was the Clippers series with the Denver Nuggets.

Coming back to my point, the second round series of the Eastern conference are so uninviting that I'm finding it hard to resist (even mock-resist) the late West-coast game. One of the series is with Detroit--`nuff said--while the other, so far, looks, unexpectedly, like a blowout of the Heat at the hands of the Nets. Now, I'm off (to the TV, if there is any confusion there) to the Spurs-Mavericks game, I hope the Mavericks will appreciate me staying up so late to support them, and have a (the) way of showing it!

Labels: Sports

Saw the men's ncaa basketball final last night and was terribly disappointed. Firstly, Florida won in a blowout---I was inevitably rooting for the underdog, UCLA, and boy did they prove their pre-game status right. A reason for rooting against Florida was the way they demolished George Mason, the team I was truly rooting for, in the semi-finals. Florida definitely deserved to win, they were the better team, and outplayed UCLA which didn't show up at all till, for a brief while, late in the second half. Secondly, with the officiating which I thought was below par for a final, my Greek-basketball-viewing-companion (I'm sure I'll remember his name once I see it in writing) and I must have counted atleast 4 traveling violations, amongst other missed calls, that were not called on Florida.

Thirdly, with Joakim Noah who was responsible for most of those traveling violations. Also because he is over-rated and a bully. He certainly has a lot energy and bustle which in no small way helped the Gators win, but his ball handling is quite clumsy at best, hence the walks. The funny thing is that, considering my interest in tennis, I would have suspected that the odds were that I would be supporting Noah, since he is the son of the Yannick Noah, the first black player to win the French Open (Poor logic, I realize, but you need some reason, however inane, to select, or not slect, a team to support when all seem the same---there's a related phenomena in Physics called spontaneous symmetry breaking). Initially, I was. I was intrigued by the big fellow in the earlier games but have now decided to dismiss him off as an over-hyped arrogant ass. On the other hand, was excited to read in an interview of his to the nytimes the other day that he didn't like Crash, the `motion picture of the year', either, and here I was thinking that Jeeves and I were the only ones who did not.

Labels: Sports