Safin reminds me of Goran

The first thing that I ever do once I get myself near a comp. is to check out the Australian Open results. Never missed watching a slam since 1989. But all that changed once the rigors of higher education gets to you. Four years in the hostel so most of the tennis came through Nirmal Shekhar and The Hindu. And, for the past two years I atleast got to watch the US open and Wimbledon on TV. So, Safin beat Federer 5-7 6-4 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 9-7.........it took some time to sink in and bear in mind this is your average couch potato whose only form of excercise comes through moving the mouse. I think Safin might feel like that he won the Australian open itself. Well why all this hullaboo? Federer in his current form is like a grave digger with a racquet instead of a spade for the other players on the tour. Pure genius, I remember reading an article which called him the Mozart of tennis. This guy shut out the best returner of the game...Agassi...in 3 straight sets. Ok, Agassi is 35 but still shutting him out in 3 sets requires superlative tennis. He made mince meat of Hewitt in the wimbledon final last year....If you had the chance to see the match...you would have felt sorry for Hewitt. Hewitt looked like a 14 year old atleast that was the kind of respect he got from Fed. It took 4 years for the tennis world to find the next Sampras.

I like Sampras's and Federer's game but the predictability that comes along with makes it really boring to watch. Only the McEnroe's, Goran's , Safin's and Roddick's make tennis exciting. All these guys are dynamite talent but they can play like horseshit the very next day after winning a slam. Goran is probably the classic example....a 3 time wimbledon finalist...Agassi and Sampras made sure that he remained a finalist and the best player to have never won the wimbledon. But all that changed when he was a given a wild card to play the Wimbledon in 2001. I remember watching the wimbledon 2001 semifinals where Goran was playing Henman. He was 2 sets to 1 down,with the help of The RainGods and some breathtaking tennis he was able to dispatch the eternal semifinalist of Wimbledon. Henman has a a sobriquet too...the best brit to have never been in a wimbledon final. I think this Australian open semifinal in a way reminds me of that match and Goran. Goran jokingly in a press conference said that he plays his best tennis when all the other 11 Gorans inside him agree to play. He would be a handful to anyone if all the Gorans played collectively.Safin is just like Goran, a huge serve that comes with a mercurial temper. He could pummel anyone down on his given day. But...I had my doubts....we are talking about Federer here. And this game followed the same pattern Safin was 2 sets to 1 down and came back from behind by saving 1 match point to beat Fed. But Federer saved 7 match points in the final set to hang in there...thats what happens if you havent lost to a top 10 player in the last 24 matches that you have played. All I want as a tennis fan is that if there is one God like Federer we need a dozen devils like Safin to test his genius and thats what will make Tennis exciting.

Ephedrine

I think the tennis fans would know what I am going to talk about after seeing the title. Recently, the Belgian sports minister revealed that the 2004 US open Champion Svetlana Kuznetskova (I hope I spelt it right) consumed a banned substance called ephedrine. Jeez...Whats the big deal even I had ephedrine. Ok folks now dont put your hands over your mouth and think of the various correctional facilities that you could send me to for drying me out. Ephedrine is added to most of the common cold medicines for nasal decongestion. I thank God they didn't make us give dope tests after the University Exams, because I wrote most of my exams under the influence of this drug. Vellore is a dusty place and I had a perennial cold and I had to consume these cold tablets to keep me on my feet. I do not know why they make a big deal out of it. On hind sight, I did read of a side effect....it could reduce your sperm count. Yeah I was a little worried...anyway let bygones be bygones :D. Anyways for the record I have shifted out of vellore and so no more cold and no more ephedrine which means ---------

An eventful Vacation

The 4 or 5 people who read this blog, please DO NOT STOP CHECKING THIS SPACE. And for people who have a little more concern towards this long lost friend...I am safe and alive.

Okay, as usual I was very happy to get a break after ages and going home doubled the excitement. Bahrain: Parents who provide you good food and clothes, a country thats warm during the winter and unlimited TV/movies/music...In short you know "the works". Vacation...aah.....Something that every Man needs to reinvent himself, Just like how every car needs overhauling.

Now there are two sides to a coin....and this side was a little too ugly for my pleasant tastes....So,What I didn't know was that, towards the fag end of my vacation I would get "THE FLU", a nasty cold and will be on antibiotics for a week. So the last week of my vacation which was supposed to be blissful turned out to be watery eyes, gooey green mucus and dry coughs. My mom painstakingly cooked day in and day out to make me fat(not that I am very thin...you know how moms are) was lost in a jiffy( hmmm...maybe I could call that a silver lining in a very grey cloud) To make matters worse BA lost my baggage and so I came home tired, hungry and underwearless(ok shirtless and pantless too). Then I had to fight with the BA'stards to locate my bag. One of the guys from BA asked me the most stupidest question ever...Sir, did you check in your baggage....Thank God I didn't spend a lot of time talking to him....Maybe he would have told me "Sir, I think all the stuff in your box don't like leaving London and they deserve a few more days of vacation and we will take good care of them".So after some investgative research through the telephone I finally found out where my bag was.Apparently the tags had come off the baggage and so it stayed back in Heathrow and BA were extremely sorry about it...the guy was trying to convince me that he really meant it. I was a little happy because I would be getting 50 dollars for every day lost and thats when the rudest of shocks awaited me. The reply from customer service personnel...thinking about it, it ought to customer irritation personnel...."Sir, As you are a resident of the United States you are not entitled to receive the 50 dollar compensation which is meant for toursits and visitors to the United Sates." Well, didn't this pig know that there is no difference between being a visitor or a resident if he has lost all his clothes . They have to wear the same smelly clothes that they wore in the wretched aircraft for the next three days. Maybe BA might have done some serious research and might have found out that the sweat glands of "RESIDENTS" manufacture some special sort of chemicals which keeps their clothes fresh for days and so they do not need any compensation and on the contrary they should appreciate BA's efforts in giving them an opportunity to excercise their incredible powers.

Ahhh...whatever...I think I should stop whining and get on with my dreary life.