One man show

Normally sporting arena is one of the competitions and rivalaries...
There have been only a few teams and players that have dominated their sports for a long period of time....

A few examples from the past have been West Indian team under Clive Loyd in cricket, Sergei Bubka in pole vault, or a Bull run in NBA, or Ferrari-Schumacher's brief domination (I maybe a bit less informed about the other sports though).

But apart from this most of the sports have been blessed with healthy rivalaries at any point of time to make sports worth watching.

My dilemma offlate has been in tennis where however much I want to watch Federer play his magical shots but most of the time forgone conclusion of the match or the helplessness of the player on the other side makes the whole spectacle similar to watching 100th rerun of Friends episode.

So I had decided to give Federrer Vs. Roddick a miss.... and as per the script Federer despatched Roddick in straight sets.... reducing Roddick from title hungry competitor to down and out beer thirsty bloke.

I am not actually praying that Federer loses next time by playing below par game but praying for someone to come along and play at his level to beat him ( wouldn't that be a slugfest worth plonking yourself in front of telly for )... there aren't many who seem to be capable of this at the moment, maybe and just maybe Marat Safin.....

talking of domination ... another spectacle had gotten off the blocks .... Tour de France... which commentrators have started dubbing already as "Tour de Lance"....
actually cycling worldover ( in my marignalized world maybe ) is known for its drug scandals and Lance Armstrong's post cancer heroic efforts.

by the way Tour de France is quite confusing to follow for me .... just too many jerseys I guess...
as of now champion seems to be in 16th position....as of stage 2...

the championship worth watching

I caught the ladies singles final just as when Venus was hanging tooth and nail out there..
I rushed home from office .. and oh boy was it worth it...

the sheer tenacity with which Venus was hanging in there...
fighting her own unforced errors.. breakpoints.... matchpoints...
( as I am writing this England and Australia have managed to make the final a nailbiter..)
and thru all this Davenport was hurtling thru her service games with not much of a problem..

then came that one point which started the tide in Venus's favour...
there is always one point or one moment in every game, where one really starts owning the opponent...
and that point came in final set with 29 stroke rally....
at the end of which davenport was left hanging her head and grasping for breath...
this was the longest ladies singles finals... 2 hrs 45 minutes....
and I guess this longest wait before winning her 3rd... and I think most cherished wimbledon was well worth for Venus Williams...
I think at the end of it.. Venus deserved it more for hanging in out there and fighting with each stroke...
I haven't been Williams fan before but I think now she looks like a born again player these days..
but her post match antics are somehow hard to contend with.. its like a kid let loose out there....
uncontrollable joy is so much in contrast to the focus and concentration during the match....
kinda jekyll and hyde in a good way....
so one dark horse has won.... ( no pun intended)...
tomorrow is another day when Roddick will have to come out with not only the kitchen sink but the whole household to try and make it 2 dark horses for the course this year...

(England needs 3 to win in 1 ball and they lose 1 runout wicket..... :) )