Here is an excerpt from a blog post i wrote here on my other blog:
http://knayam.com/2009/02/01/rafael-wins-australian-open-beating-federer/

It was the scene when at presentation ceremony the great Roger Federer broke down and cried inconsolably. Man, I could not bear those scenes. Roger said” May be ill try later. God, its killing me…” and then he broke down cried his heart out for long time. A tsunami of emotions at that very moment. A terrible sight for tennis fans. I would have written about how he played the match but after watching this, I am not in a position to write anything. It was just so overwhelmingly difficult to see him sry. That shows how much he wanted it (a win against Nadal in finals) and how badly it hurts him losing yet again to Federer. But I dont think the loss again was the factor that made him cry. Nadal has just gotten so deep.. ahh…forget it. I wont say anything. It was just too hard to see that. For the champion he is, I cant believe it. You are still the champion and still the greatest Roger. That is one sight I will never forget.

The both played gruelling tennis for almost 5 and a half hours (314 mins) and at the end it was a double fault by Verdasco serving at 30-40 down 4-5 in the final set which winded up the match. That was a sad ending to a great semi final. The duo shosed impeccable physical and mental strength in the match.

The match had everything you would want. It was really hard to choose between the two. Verdasco hit 95 winners and still ended loosing,that tells you the quality of the match. Total points won were 193 to 192 in favour of Nadal. Both the players played amazing shots. They were drained of almost all their energy but somehow to everyone’s wonder, they managed to produce enough steam when it mattered, even in the fifft set,in the post 4 hour stages of the match. The WImbledon final last year between Nadal and Federer was also about 5 hours of time but we can not forget that they had rain breaks in between. These guys played exhausting tennis for continously 5 hours. Today’s match was itself worthy of a final.

Verdasco was in supreme form through out the tournament and he defeated one of the favourites and in form player, the Brit, Andy Murray en-route to the semis.

On the other hand you have Nadal. Man with the never-say-die attitude. He will chase any ball in the court. For him the point is not over till it changes the score board. He picks up impossible balls, which any other player would not even bother to chase. No matter how good your winner is, if he will try his best to reach out to it and put the ball in your court. He just makes you play an extra shot. The thing is, sometimes the opponent ends up hitting an unforced error which becomes a plus for Nadal as he wins a point which was almost gone. That also gives confidence to him and makes his opponent ponder what extra do they need to do? How much more virtual winners do they need to hit? Today also in this match, when Nadal was serving 40-30 at 3-4 in the fourth set, Verdasco hit 4 shots which would have been scorching winners against anyone but Nadal not only managed to keep the ball in play but also won the point on a magnificent pass. He can win a point from any part of the court. If you are thinking of winning a point from long rallies of him,forget that, he is un matched there.

It was a delight to watch the forehand of Nadal. That is a fiery and devastating weapon on tennis court today.

Im a huge huge fan of Federer but the shear guts of this man, Nadal, makes me his admirer. He has what it takes to beat a champion like Roger and keep him guessing.

That being said, what can Federer do to stop this incredible athlete? Im too small a person to comment on that, Federer knows better than any other man on earth but there are two aspects which are very important. His first serves in percentage. Though Federer has a great serve, can hit aces on his will but for beating Nadal, his 1st serves in should be high. He can also try chasing a few points like Nadal does. In my opinion,he tends to give away points easily. Its seems like he thinks,okay,this is strecthing for too long, I am a great player, I can win even if I let go this point, so lets play the next point. That can not be the case with Rafa. Apart from that, his game is just too divine. I watch him in awe.

I hope I will be writing a post about Roger winning his 14th slam after a great final on Sunday and there by equalling the great Pete Sampras’s record of most Grand Slam titles.

All the best wishes to you Roger.

Go Roger go!

Here are the higlights of the match:

(Sorry for the bad quality A/V)

He,still created history by becoming the first Indian boxer to win an Olympics gold medal. His medal win made Beijing Olympics India’s best olympic ever. All the three medals, 1 gold and 2 bronze came in individual sports.

Abhinav Bindra in 10m air rifle, Sushil Kumar in 66 kg free style wrestling and Vijender Kumar in 75 kg boxing.

These are good signs for India with Commonwealth Games of Delhi just around the corner.

Michael Phelps, the swimming sensation has taken the world by storm. He made history by winning 8 gold medals in a single olympics.(Thats more than what most countries can manage) He won his 8th gold medal in 4×100 medley relay event. He now has 14 Olympic gold medals in his kitty, 8 from Beijing and 6 from Athens last time. Whoa. He has most golds than any one else, thats a record too.
His overall medal tally is now 16, only two shy of another record.
But the 23 year old,popularly known as the Baltimore bullet is far from finish. With London 2012 games well within his grasp, what can we expect from him? Well,can he touch 20 gold medals? thats a staggering figure,one that will take probably forever to be broken but, as the man says, nothing is impossible. Well you have to believe it if he says so.

Phelps broke the 36 year old 7 gold medals in one olympic record of Mark Spitz which he managed at the Munich games of 1972. But how will this record be bettered, will remain to be seen. I will consider myself lucky to see this record broken after having witnessed what it takes to make this record. There were times when he was trailing, still Phelps came out from behind to win. Amazing stuff. Champion of champions. Well, if you want to break that record then you better start practicing now. All you need is lots of self bellief, stamina, dedication, commitment, focus <….put as many adjectives you want here>and lots of apetite(he consumes nearly 2000 calories a day!)

I have added a widget in the sidebar that displays top 10 medal winners.

If you also want the medal tally on your wordpress blog, download this plugin.

See how well he imitates some of the best in todays tennis, Roger Federer, Andy Roddick,rafael Nadal,Maria Sharapova.

Absolutely hillarious.

Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra shot his way to glory today. He won the first ever individual gold medal for India.He won gold in the 10m air rifle event.
China’s Qinan Zhu won silver and Finland’s Henri Hakkinen won bronze.Finland’s Henri Hakkinen hit a dismal 9.7 in the last shot and dropped to third place.

Bindra shot 104.5 to take his total to 700.5 in the final.In ten rounds, Bindra shot 10.7, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.5, 10.5, 10.6, 10.0, 10.2, 10.8 in the final.

Though India has won 8 gold medals in Hockey, they never had won an individual gold.Last gold came in Moscow olympics in 1988. Best individual performance for India before this was a silver medal win by Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in Athens olympis in 2004.

Congratulations to the 25 year Khel Ratna awardee Abhinav Bindra on his brilliant win. Win will hopefully boost up the morale of the entire Indian contingent.

Take a bow Bindra!

Happy birthday to you Roger Federer. He has turned 27!

The year has not been good for Federer so far. He hasnt won a slam this year!

Lost in Australian Open to Djokovic, lost to Nadal in French Open and the most hurting, lost to Nadal in Wimbledon. All of these losses were in the finals.

And as of result of all this, he will soon lose his world number 1 ranking, which he has held for more than 4 years

Now US open is left and he is not high on confidence it seems. But he can and he will bounce back, no body doubts his abilities.

He has Olympics coming next. He has said recently that Olympics are very impotant for him. Coincidently, Olympics are starting from today, i.e. 8th Aug, which is also the birthday of Roger Federer. I hope he can win in Beijing.

Best of luck for your career and life!

Long live Roger!
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