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.