Roger Federer - The End of a beautiful Tennis Era.

It was the eventuality that no true tennis fan wanted to really confront. But finally it happened, Roger Federer announced his retirement last evening. LIke his game and legacy, the retirement reel on instagram was full of class. (https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cih0_lCgJul/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link) 

Thanks Roger for delighting tennis fans over the past two decades and a half. You made me and whole lot of sports fans fall in love with the game. Your records are unmatched and might never be surpassed for generations. It wasn't just the records, it was the way you brought poetry in motion to tennis. It was like watching an orchestra conductor wave his wand and conjure some magical tennis notes.  I remember watching you win your first grand slam in 2003 at Wimbledon when you beat a formidable Mark Philippoussis in an intense final. From then on the love affair continued, following you stack up win after win and slam after slam. I had the great fortune to also watch you play live at the Dubai Open when you won your 100th ATP title. 

A great player is incomplete without great rivals. Your battles with Rafa and Novak have raised the bar so high for other tennis players that no one else could even come close to the three of you. So complete was the domination of the Big 3 that it was unprecedented in tennis history (I wrote about this a while back - http://amrithmusings.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-greatest-13-year-era-in-history-of.html). 

 If I look at the updated numbers, from 2005 to 2022, in a period of 18 years and 71 grand slams- the Big 3 won 60 of them. In no other era in tennis of similar duration can you find such domination. We were truly blessed to be active tennis fans in this golden period of the sport. 

Though your rivals have better head to heads against you, for me you will still remain the greatest player to have ever played the game.

Some of my most memorable moments from your matches have been the following

1. 2001 Wimbledon when you announced your arrival on the big stage by taking out the great Pete Sampras in the 4th round. 

2. 2005 US Open when you beat my other favourite Andre Agassi in the finals in an epic masterclass. 

3. 2007 Wimbledon when you beat the rampaging Rafa in 5 sets. 

4. 2009 Wimbledon - a thrilling 16–14 fifth set win  over an inconsolable Andy Roddick.

5. 2017 Australian Open when you won a stunning upset over Rafa, coming back from a break down in the 5th when everyone had written you off. 

6. 2019 Wimbledon Final - An epic battle with Novak despite the ripe old age of 38 - you were one point away from an unlikely victory. 

To end with some records of Roger which I think will not be beaten for a long long time

• Most consecutive weeks at #1 in the world (237 weeks) - over 4 years

• Winning two different grand slams five years in a row each - He won 5 consecutive Wimbledon's from 2003 to 2007 and 5 consecutive US Opens from 2004 to 2008.

• Only player to reach the finals of all four grand slams in the same calendar year three times (2005, 2007, 2009). 

• Most grand slam wins 369 - even more than the legendary Serena who is second at 365. (this one however might be overhauled by Novak who is at 327. 

• Never retired from a match in his career having played 1251 singles and 131 doubles

Thanks Roger and thanks for all the memories

The Thomas Cup Triumph - A 73 year wait is over

 

Super Sundays are generally spoken of in the footballing context, but a super Sunday for badminton came in the form of India winning its first ever Thomas Cup. For the non-badminton aficionado, the Thomas Cup  is badmintons equivalent of Tennis’s Davis Cup or if you feel a bit more adventurous – like the FIFA World Cup. It’s simply put the World Men's Team Championship, one of the most “prestigious” tournaments on the BWF circuit. The women's championship is the Uber Cup (not to be confused with the ubiquitous ride hailing app) which plays out in parallel. The Thomas Cup happens every 2 years since 1982, previously being a once in 3 year affair. The present one not-withstanding,  32 versions of this tournament have been held so far with only 5 nations having won the title. Leading the pack is Indonesia with 14 wins, followed by China at 10, then Malaysia with 5 of them , Denmark & Japan have won 1 each.

Thanks goodness for BWF live streaming this tournament on YouTube and I was able to follow India’s progress in the Semis and Finals. India’s previous best showing was a semi final spot, so reaching the finals itself was a monumental achievement. In fact India did not top their group stages, losing to Chinese Taipei to finish second.

THE SEMIS:

When they met the fancied Danes in the semi finals, you wouldn’t have bet hard earned money on them going through. After the mercurial Lakshya Sen lost rather tamely in the opener to the best player in the world currently, Victor Axelsen, you would have felt even better about not being a betting person. India’s doubles pairing of Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty are a young team that has been slowly but surely stamping their class on the top of the mens doubles game. They put up a monumental fight against a strong Danish pairing and despite missing multiple match points, they managed to pull off the win 22-20 in the decider. Kidambi Srikanth who is going through a mid career resurgence in the last few months, was up against Anders Antonsen who himself has rapidly climbed the mens rankings to world #3. Kidambi played a masterclass against a much more fancied opponent.

The 2^nd men’s doubles was a breeze for the Danish pair as they overpowered the  #45 ranked, relatively inexperienced Indian pairing. It finally came down to the talented but inconsistent HS Prannoy who was playing Rasmus Gemke – another talented Danish singles player ranked #13 in the world, ten places above him. After losing the 1^st game rather easily and suffering an injury scare in the 2^nd, only a blind patriot would have been following the game hoping for a win. But “HSP”, as was the chants ringing out in the Bangkok stadium, rose to the occasion and pulled out an amazing win sending India to the finals. The team swamped him and you could see what it meant to them to reach the finals for the first time. They started to believe they could write history.

 
THE FINALS

But standing in their way was the most successful Thomas cup champions of all time, they had the #1 & #2 doubles pairing in the world, they had Anthony Ginting and Jonathon Christie who were ranked #5 & #8 respectively. On paper Indonesia should have cruised to its 15^th title. But Lakshya Sen had other ideas. The 20 year old (hopefully future world #1) played a spirited match against Ginting who looked superior for most patches. But Sen kept hanging in there with dogged defence and forced Ginting to play that extra shot. He then upped the attack in the 3^rd game, playing some sublime points which left Ginting’s game in disarray. Sen closed out the deciding game with a  spinning net shot. India had the perfect start.

The Indian power boys were up next, playing a scratch Indonesian pair (they split their regular doubles pairing) and it was again a topsy turvy match with match points being saved by the Indians in the 2^nd game, but they held their nerves in the decider to win 21-19. India were on the brink.

Surely they couldn’t do it 3-0. Kidambi rolled in next and played a measured opening game against the higher ranked Christie. You could see the nerves showing for both players in the back end of the 2^nd game. Srikanth blew a comfortable mid game lead and lost 8 out of 9 points to hand the initiative back to Christie. But Christie himself did not capitalize much as he made errors on crucial points which could only be attributed to nerves. He had game points to take it to the decider, but Srikanth kept the pressure , his net play on match point down was not for the faint hearted, but it got the desired result and it was all-square. In top flight badminton, like elite tennis, the difference between winning and losing is so thin – its hinges on a couple of critical points and who is able to keep their nerve. On this occasion, Srikanth was able to close out the match with a leaping overhead smash to send his team mates scurrying to the court to carry him and send his country into raptures.

A badminton Super Sunday indeed. 

TOKYO WOW MOMENTS - PART IV - THE INCREDIBLE SIFAN HASSAN

 

The Tokyo Olympics have been full of legendary & incredible performances but I doubt there will be any greater than the treble of Sifan Hassan. When she let the world know that she was competing in the 1500m , the 5000m and the 10,000m at the same Olympic games, it was unprecedented. It meant she would be running 5 days out of the 9 day athletic schedule and she would be running more than 61 laps if she were to be a medal contender in all events. She would become the only athlete in history - male or female to win a medal at these events in the Olympic games. 

There have been triple hauls before - the Finnish legend Paavo Nurmi won the 1500, 5000 and 10k cross country, the Czech locomotive - Emil Zatopek did the 5000m, 10000m, and the marathon in the 1952 helsinki Olympics. The double of the 5000m and the 10000m have been done by quite a few legends including Mo Farah, Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibala etc.Kelly Holmes did the 800m & 1500m in 2004 while El-Guerrouj did the 1500m & 5000m in the same Olympics. But a combination of the distances that Sifan Hassan was attempting was audacious and unprecedented. In an interview she stated that she doing it because she wanted to see how much she could push herself. Talk about pushing yourself out of ones comfort zone. 

She starts off her journey in the 1500m heats. Her running style is mainly running at the back of the pack and then kicking up the pace in the end. She was towards the back of the pack with the last 400m to go when disaster struck. A couple of stumbles in the running pack ahead, created a ripple which led to Sifan Hassan colliding with a runner and tumbling to the ground. She rolled and almost in one motion was back on her feet and running. But precious seconds were lost and she was dead last with less than 300m to go. Her ambitous goal of the treble was almost over before it had even realistically started. Cliche as it sounds, but when the going gets the tough, the tough get going - she put in a kick over  that one lap and overhauled all the athletes one by one. She needed to be in the top 4 to qualify but she ended up coming first- talk about sending a message of intent. 

She won the first of her treble with the 5000m gold in convincing fashion and was up against the brilliant Faith  Kipyegon in the 1500m. Sifan ran a tactically aggressive race but did not have the finishing power of Faith and the British runner Laura Muir. She finished with a bronze - a medal nevertheless. 

The last event - 10000m was on the last day of the Olympics and she was up against the young Letesenbet Gidey who set the WR in both the 5000m and the 10000m. I watched the whole race and it was a tactical masterclass. Sifan instead of hanging at the back of the pack kept pace with Gidey throughout, when Gidey slowed down she did the same, when she upped the pace, Hassan was two steps behind  prompting an annoyed Gidey to have a bit of a verbal diatribe with Hassan. But Hassan kept her head down, did not respond and kept Gidey in her crosshairs. In the final lap, in typical Hassan fashion she took off and there was no catching her. She broke into tears after crossing the finishing line, an indication of the enormity of the task on her mental strength. She admitted later thinking during her medal ceremony - "It is over , Now you can sleep"

What Sifan attempted in Tokyo was bold, audacious and without precedent. Doing the 5000m and 10000m double puts her in the league of legends, the 1500m bronze elevates her to the unchartered territory of trailblazers who show that impossible is nothing. 

TOKYO WOW MOMENTS - PART III - Womens 400m Hurdles - The handing of the torch

 

If the men's 400m hurdles was being touted as the race of the century, the women's version almost outdid it. Now a bit a history and rivalry to this race. Dalilah Muhammad has been the undisputed queen of the quarter mile hurdles for nearly a half a decade. She won gold in Rio and was the World Champion in 2019 and set the WR of 52.16 in that race. That golden run led her to be named the Womens track and field athlete of the year in 2019. 

Sydney Mclaughlin who is 9 years Dalilah's junior was a prodigy in her junior years. She was breaking high school and university records and was the youngest US athlete to qualify for the Rio Olympics at the age of 17 , but went out in the semi finals. Since then she has been getting better and better. 

Before the Tokyo Olympics - both Dalilah and Sydney went head to head in the US trials. The race was the standout one of the US trials with Sydney eclipsing Dalilah and setting a new WR, becoming the first women athlete to run that distance under 52s. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DATsj8mzD2g

So heading into the olympics, both women knew that they would have to run the race of their lives to beat the other and win gold. Then there was the prodigal European Femke Bol who had also the talent to play spoilsport to their epic face off.  As the gun went off Dalilah blazed off the starting blocks setting the early pace, eating up the track and her fellow competitors. Sydney kept pace with a steady rhythm but was clearly behind Muhammad heading into the final straight. The last 2 hurdles saw the power and pace of Sydney coming through. You could see Dalilah pushing with everything that she had but Sydney had that extra zip in the final 20 meters. The time was again a new WR of 51.46 with Dalilah coming through for the silver in 51.58. 

Sydney has publicly credited the presence of Dalilah as the reason for her being able to push herself to break these records. Dalilah has a few more years left in her corner, but the torch has been handed over in this  event. Sydney definitely has her hands firmly on the crown but  a new rivalry blooming between the two 22 year olds - Sydney & Femke (who finished 3rd and took bronze) can only mean great thing to come in the future. 

Tokyo WOW Moments - Part II: Karsten Warholm & the race of the century

 

The 400m Men's Hurdles had some heady anticipation about it. 3 men capable of breaking records and setting new standards, were at the prime of their careers - Karsten Warholm, Rai Benjamin & Abderrehman Samba. Warholm was at the forefront of this trio having just set the WR @46.70 in Oslo in July 2021. Rai Benjamin and Samba too had broken the 47 second barrier and on their day were capable of giving the Norwegian prodigy a run for his money. 

The heats were on point with all of them winning comfortably. The semis saw Alison Dos Santos running 47.31 to eclipse Samba and bringing himself into the mix. Warholm and Benjamin ran in the other semis with the Norwegian clipping Benjamin at the end to send a message. So onto the finals with all 4 men believing that they had a chance for a medal. The race exploded into life with Warholm setting off at a blistering pace. He had overhauled a few runners in front of him including Samba. But Benjamin wasn't out of it yet, he reeled in the Norwegian and in the penultimate hurdle was almost at par with him leading to the commentator excitedly calling out "here comes Benjamin". But Warholm showed his finishing prowess and brute strength when he pulled away after the last hurdle and won with a 2m gap over Benjamin and smashing his own WR and dipping under the 46 second mark for the first time in human history. 

Why is this race so remarkable?  This race saw all 3 medalists breaking the existing OR and the top 2 broke the existing WR. Benjamin smashed the old WR by half a second but came in second. Dos Santos finished in 46.72 just 0.02 outside the old WR and won bronze. Six out of the 8 competitors set new National records and PB's. 

Watching this live on TV was amazing and the commentary team were caught up in the moment and made some bold statements right there... "Is this the greatest performance in an Olympic final of all time?" , "If this doesn't encourage young boys and girls to get out and train for the olympics - nothing will ", "This performance rivals Bolts run in Beijing or Rudhisha's 100 sec of the 800 in london"

The 400m hurdles has seen one of the longest and most dominant streaks in sports history when the legendary Edwin Moses won 122 consecutive races over a 9 year period. During the streak he won gold medals in the 1976 and 1984 Olympic games and set the WR in the event 4 times. 

Warholm might find it difficult to match the legend Moses's streak but has definitely established his pedigree as the greatest 400m hurdler of our time and we can hope that Benjamin, Samba and Dos Santos continue to push him and themselves to greater heights. 

Tokyo 2020 Olympics - My Personal WOW moments - I: The Magnificent Mirabai

The build up to Tokyo 2020 was probably the most uncertain and volatile build up to an Olympic games in recent memory. From an unsurprising postponement by a year, to still many question marks about the event actually happening in the lead up to the games. Corona and it many waves, vaccination protocols, athlete safety, crowds in the stadiums etc made the Tokyo 2020 organizing committees tasks, one of the most unenviable jobs in the world. However despite all the trepidation and uncertainty leading up to the games, once Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron in a fairly unspectacular opening ceremony, what followed over the course of the next 14 days was pure sporting poetry. The athletes lit up the world with their spectacular performances and re-instated the Olympics at the pinnacle of human sporting endeavor. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed the action and want to pen down what i personally saw as my top goosebump moments of the Olympics. I am sure I might miss out some seminal moments from sports I didn't follow as closely. 

Silver for India on Day 1 of the games: The Magnificent Mirabai Chanu

The @olympic app was a real lifesaver,  giving me live updates on schedules and allowing me to follow the action. And fortunately on 24th July at 10am, we as a family were glued to the tele and following the 49kg weightlifting action. I knew that Mirabai was a real contender given her pedigree in previous world events - she had won the world championships in 2017 and had finished 4th in 2019. She had won gold at the 2018 commonwealth games and silver way back in 2014. She had genuine medal potential, but she also had a poor showing in Rio 2016 where she did not complete a lift in the clean and jerk leading to a DNF status. 

On that Tokyo morning, she had lifted a 87kg in her snatch section and was behind the Chinese lifter going into the clean & jerk. Now the chinese lifter -  Hou Zhihui was in a class of her own. She had lifted 94kg in the snatch setting a new Olympic record and was miles ahead of the rest. In the clean & jerk, Mirabai lifted 110kg on her first attempt and her second lift was pegged at 115kg. This lift would see her claim the lead. Amid cheers from Gia & Agastya who were watching their first Olympics, Mirabai lifted the bar high and kept steady for those 3 white lights signalling a valid lift and putting her in medal contention. 

The Chinese lifter lifted 116kg fairly easily setting a new OR again. Mirabai was now assured of the silver and valiantly attempted 117 to get back the OR but failed, even though she is the current WR holder at 119kg. No matter, she had done herself and India proud with an amazing show. Her combined total of 202kg (snatch + clean&jerk) was among her best scores but still quite a way behind the Hou who totaled 210kg for a new OR and took gold. 

Silver was a great start for India and though we wouldn't hear the Indian National anthem at the medal ceremony (not yet atleast, that came later on), it put India at #3 in the medal tally leading to many including me taking a snapshot of that anomaly. 

After this victory, Whatsapp went into overdrive with unverified stories of Mirabai's childhood struggles and her hollywoodesque journey to Olympic glory being forwarded. As a romantic sports fan,  I want to believe all of them but knowing the reputation of Whatsapp forwards, I will wait and hope for Mirabai to come out with her autobiography which I will gladly read. 

THE GREATEST 13 YEAR ERA IN THE HISTORY OF TENNIS

2017 has been a surprising year in tennis to say the least. After a grand slam drought in the preceding two years of 2015 and 2016, the old lions, the two GOATs came back roaring to split the 4 grand slams of 2017 between them.  Enough has been written about how Rafa and Roger have dominated the tennis landscape in the last decade and how they are probably the greatest players that have ever played the game. But what has probably escaped attention has been that, this era of tennis has seen the fewest number of grand slams champions. What this means is that from 2005 to 2017 (13 years) the 52 grand slams have been won by just 8 players (Roger, Rafa, Novak, Stan, Andy, Cilic, Del Potro & Safin).

I challenge you to find a 13 year period in the last century where the number of grand slam winners are that few.  What this means is that the big 4 or 5 have played a level of tennis that has been difficult to match up for the rest. But the genesis to this are the original maestros Roger and Rafa whose dizzying craftsmanship gave birth to the Novaks, Stans and Murrays who probably would not have hit those levels had it not been for the blazing standards set by the two.

What does that mean for a tennis fan. For someone like me who started watching tennis from the days of Becker, Edberg and then marveled at the Agassi – Sampras era, what always stood out was the depth in Men’s tennis and how the Top 10 in the world on their day could beat each other. A world #50 could easily upset the world #1 and this happened with regularity in the pre-2005 era. However with Roger and Rafa pulling away from the pack with the sheer talent and dominance, the gap within the top 10 became very pronounced. Then Novak stepped up, raised his training and focus to inhuman levels and consistently broke the Rafa/Roger duopoly. The  gritty Murray, the graceful Wawrinka and the mercurial Del Potro also stamped their legacy during this era by becoming grand slam champions. But none of them could match the longevity or the sheer consistency of the top dogs Roger and Rafa. Consider this, Rafa has won at least one  grand slam in each of 10 consecutive years which is a record , Roger has reached 23 consecutive Grand slam semi-finals and 36 consecutive Grand slam quater-finals – that’s 9 years of consistency which I don’t think will be replicated, ever.

Also consider this, It was 1905 when all 4 Grand slams became operational in one calendar year. After Rod Laver won the career grand slam in 1968 it took 31 years for Agassi match it. In the next 17 years, 3 players have done the career slam – Roger, then Rafa and Novak, all of them within this 13 year golden era.

2018 may turn out to be the year when the guard changes with Zverev, Thiem etc taking over , or it may signal the return of Novak, Stan and o fcourse a final swan song in the Roger – Rafa rivalry. Nevertheless, 2018 may be an added year to this golden era or we are at the cusp of the beginning of another.  

Olympics : The pre-post Mortem

Its day 9 of the Rio olympics and co-incidentally independence day and I cant help but be disappointed at our showing so far. Its not that our showing at the Olympics has been stellar but London 2012 surprised me pleasantly and I was hoping that his year would build on that success. So, if we do a quick flashback into our olympic history, our progression initially had been stagnant (Atlanta 1996 - 1 bronze medal, Sydney 2000 - 1 bronze medal, Athens 2004 - 1 sliver medal, then things picked up pace Beijing 2008 - 1 gold, 2 bronze). then came london where we got 6 medals - 2 silver and 4 bronze.
Olympic gold quest was talking about Indian gold medallists by 2020, if this was the plan then 2016 should have been a seminal year in that target. Sadly, it looks like we are going back a few decades.
Its easy to blame our athletes like a certain De-Diva did, but i think they have reached Rio despite any support from the state or the establishment.
For a sports optimist like me, I indulge in surrogate happiness when a jamaican wins the gold in the 100m or when an american becomes a legend in the pool. I gulp when a hungarian has tears streaming down her cheek when the national anthem of hungary is played. I watch replays of various athletes make that olympic dream a reality, i cant fathom the emotion i will feel when an indian does the same. (I did see Bindra win the gold, but the whole experience for some reason was muted).
When i was looking at the medal tally, I couldnt help but see the correlation between the economic prowess of countries and their tally of medals. So i did some googling and found that there is a definite correlation and the only notable exception is India. For the 7th largest economy in the world we are not even in the medals table. The US, China, Great Britain, France, Germany etc making their economic might count in the sporting arena. Every one of the top 10 economies have medal rankings which  are within +/-  ten spots of their GDP rankings. The countries which are over performing (ie their medal tally is higher than their GDP ranking ) are UK (+ 3 places), Australia (+5 places), Russia (+10 place). The under-performing countries are Japan (-5 places), Brazil (-19 places).  The rest are underperforming by early single digits.

While brazil being hosts and not performing in line with their economic potential is no solace for India, our performance cant even be mathematically analysed. If we do win an medal for eg a bronze then our under-performance will be -70.
So what is the solution apart from ranting and doing some couch analysis. For my part, I am going to use a part of my income to support a sport or an athlete in India. I will work in sports company and use my energies to drive sporting culture (oh wait, i already do that - score). I will get my kids to take up a sport and give it their best.
I can only urge all of my friends to do the same and maybe see India in the top 10 of the medals tally at the olympics before i die.