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Thread: Tennis Forever

  1. #1671
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    2014 ends on happy note for Sania Mirza

    Sania Mirza grabbed her third mixed doubles Grand Slam title and wrapped up her dream season with the year-end finale trophy even as India’s established male tennis players found the going tough in 2014.

    http://www.thehindu.com/sport/tennis...?homepage=true

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  3. #1672
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    Watched an ITF match for the first time. It was at a posh club just 10 minutes away from my place and entry was free so I thought why not.

    Must say I was astounded by the level of play even in an ITF match. It was women's singles. One was a Russian ranked almost 290 and the other a Serb ranked 500 -odd. There was no let up in intensity throughout the match and both struck groundstrokes with awesome power. I can only imagine how good top 10 players would be to watch live in the stadium. TV simply doesn't do justice to the pace at which tennis is actually played. All I can say is, just try net rushing like a lamb to slaughter to the baseline game of today.

    On the other hand, in my previous experience of watching cricket in the stadium, I felt TV was better because it allows you to switch off, mentally or even physically (I mean the TV set) and wade back into the match when you want. Things happen too slowly in cricket and compared to the match I saw yesterday, the intensity level was pretty low in the cricket matches I watched. Granted, those were IPL matches but yesterday's was ITF too, not WTA/ATP.

  4. #1673
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    Nadal loses to Berrer in his first ATP match of 2015 (Doha) 6-1, 3-6, 4-6.
    Nadal has kept his amazing streak of "never defending a non-clay title" intact..

  5. #1674
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    Djokovic loses to Karlovic at Qatar Open (Doha) 6-7 (2/7), 7-6 (8/6), 6-4.

    Nadal & Monaco reach the doubles finals beating Djokovic & Krajnovic 7-6, 6-1.

  6. #1675
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    Give him an audience. Watch him perform.

    -On the eve of starting his 25th season on the ATP World Tour, at the Aircel Chennai Open, Indian writer Deepti Patwardhan pays tribute to Leander Paes.

    Hold them. Wow them. With a backhand drop volley; with a ferocious, lunging forehand volley. Poacher’s move. Squeeze the ball in the little space that neither men across the net can reach. The joy for his art. The joy his art can bring people.

    “Magic”. That’s what Leander Paes plays for now. To create such moments, to add to his legacy. Now, that he has ticked most boxes. Now, that he starts in 25th year on the ATP World Tour.

    Paes, the showman; Paes, the strategist.

    “My own sense of competitiveness makes me put the hours in and then when the magic happens, in a big tournament or in a shot, it is very clear to recognise it,” he says. Dressed in a neon orange tee-shirt, he’s just finished yet another practice session in yet another off-season grind.

    “We talk about athletes having an ego. But it is probably not ego. It is the pride of performance. The years of perseverance. I know every inch of that court. The difference between winning and losing lies in whether, when the pressure is on, you can hit a bottle cap on a tennis court.”

    Eye of the tiger. Thrill of the chase. That’s what’s kept him in the hunt so long.

    Andre Agassi, in his autobiography ‘Open’ describes Paes, whom he faced in the semi-final of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, as: “…a flying jumping bean, a bundle of hyperkinetic energy, with the tour’s quickest hands. Still, he’s never learned to hit a tennis ball. He hits off-speed, hacks, chips, lobs…Then, behind all his junk, he flies to the net and covers so well that it all seems to work.”

    Paes makes it work. He wills it to work. “You cannot waver on the hunger.”

    Son of an Olympic medal winning hockey player, Vece Paes, and basketball player, Jennifer, he is a natural athlete. Blessed with fast-twitch fibres. Blessed with a great hand-eye co-ordination. But the passion and the smarts it takes to stay in the game for so long were relentlessly developed and nurtured.

    Paes, Bruguera, AgassiHe won the Wimbledon boys’ title in 1990. Became the No 1 junior in the world in 1990. Changed the way India looked at its athletes in 1996, by winning bronze at the Atlanta Games while ranked 126 in the world. For 44 years India had waited for an individual to win an Olympic medal.

    “My god! I had worked my butt off for that one.

    “The number of seven kilometre beach runs on the sand that I used to hate. But eventually when I stood on that podium I knew they were well worth it. I played the bronze medal match with a broken wrist, but the power, strength and speed in the legs got me through. It is probably the most important trophy I have. At that point no individual athletes from India were winning medals. So that was special. To move the whole country (into thinking) that we could be world beaters.”

    At every Olympic Game event since, India has returned with at least one individual medal.

    He went toe-to-toe with the Agassis of the world. He beat Pete Sampras on one occasion. In Davis Cup, he beat Goran Ivanisevic and Henri Leconte. The ‘flying, jumping bean’ was indefatigable when playing for the flag. He constantly punched above his weight in singles. He tirelessly played all three days on the Cup weekend. A record of 89-32 puts him fourth in the list of most successful Davis Cup players. First in the list of active players.

    He has won 14 doubles Grand Slams with seven partners. Competed in 30 Grand Slam finals. “That number speaks of my longevity more than anything else.” He has won 54 doubles titles and one singles title on the ATP World Tour.

    A serial overachiever - The legend of Leander.

    For me, and many of my generation, he has been like the north-star in the Indian sporting galaxy. Always there. Seasons have come and gone. Good, bad and ugly. But once the clouds disperse, he’s found the vigor to shine on.

    “I come from a country where you’ve got to be hungry. I come from a space where you have to be very, very hungry. Where I grew up, in Calcutta, you don’t get a free ride; you don’t get a free lunch. I’ve slept in enough locker rooms to know that feeling that you never want back. That taste in the mouth is so relevant, that even now when I don’t have to worry about it. I use it as a motivation”

    So he keeps his body battle-ready and mind ticking.

    He has no vices. “I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t do drugs.” The reflexes haven’t dulled. Neither has the zeal. “Lots of athletes have lost their careers to alcohol.” Not him. “Not me.”

    “The showcase has got more trophies than I ever thought I’d have, it’s got more Wimbledon trophies and Grand Slams than I’d ever thought I’d have. The Olympic medal, which was the one trophy I really wanted, is already there. At this stage in my career I am playing for pure passion. It is actually quite a refreshing feeling.”

    Despite that, 2014 was not a good year. “Probably the hardest I had as a professional athlete.”

    There were problems on the personal front. And there were problems on the professional front. Not enough matches – win-loss record of 26-16. His ranking dropped to 35 before he made up some ground. Brought it to 29. Still the lowest he has been ranked in the year-end list in more than a decade. At the age of 41, with Raven Klaasen of South Africa, he will start the long climb back. He’s looking forward to the long climb back.

    When will he take the eye off the ball? When will he give up the chase?

    Not yet. “Not till Rio.” His seventh Olympics, in 2016. Not many believed him when he said it after 2012 London. After one of the most trying times in his life, one of the most trying times in Indian tennis. When the power struggle between India’s top three doubles players — Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna — meant Paes had to play with Vishnu Vardhan, ranked beyond 300 in doubles then. When his historic sixth Olympics began without hope and ended in tears in the second round.

    Not till Rio. They may start believing him now.

    He looks the fittest he has in five years. No more one-hour sessions. “They are not enough.” He puts in a minimum of three to four hours a day. “Playing, training, stretching, recovering.” Midnight runs, midnight swims, midnight football sessions. And he needs to find a mental space to enjoy that pain. “I drive myself very hard, physically because I still have many goals to achieve. No point turning up at Rio for the sake of it.” He wants to go there to win.

    “My mantra has been to find a way. I am not the most talented cat on the planet, I am not the tallest, I am not the strongest; I don’t have the best technique. Some people think I don’t even have technique on my backhand. But I only have to be better than the guys across the net. Life goes through a journey. Deal with adversity. This is another journey, I have to re-invent myself.”

    Dance with the demons. Dance with the angels. “How you play the game of life is well within your control.” For years he’s been doing it. And with nothing more left to prove, he’s really starting to enjoy it.


    Posted with thanks to ATP News: http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Ten...-25-Years.aspx

  7. #1676
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    Roger Federer tells next generation the Big Four aren't finished yet

    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/s...w/45824098.cms

  8. #1677
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    Aircel Chennai Semifinals:

    Wawrinka -vs- Goffin
    Bautista Agut -vs- Bedene

    Quatar ExxonMobil (Doha) Semifinals:

    Ferrer -vs- Karlovic
    Berdych -vs- Seppi

    Brisbane International Semifinals:

    Federer -vs- Dimitrov
    Nishikori -vs- Raonic

  9. #1678
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    Rafa Nadal wins the Doha Doubles Crown (with Monaco)

    http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Ten...nal-Nadal.aspx

  10. #1679
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    Karlovic bombed Djoko out of Qatar. Lost in three sets to Ferrer.

  11. #1680
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    Fed beat Raonic for his 1000th win but it was mighty close. Raonic has improved phenomenally over the off season.

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