i've moved!

little steps, baby steps, angel steps. i'm creating a new home for my sports entries, and i am throwing wide open the doors for you to enter.

come over to my new sports domain at SVELTE SPORT.

hope to see you there soon! :)

knockout

look who's just won france football's prestigious ballon d'or award :) it was no huge surprise and something that was timely, coming after ac milan's champions league triumph early this year in a rain-soaked final. considered to be the most prestigious award for individual football players, kakà joins a list of awardees that reads like a who's who in ac milan's roster: van basten and schevchenko were teammates who had won the coveted award for the world's best footballer of the year. brazilian compatriot ronaldinho had won the award two years ago. 96 international journalists voted from a shortlist of 50, and kakà was quick to give praise to the two young superstars he bested, cristiano ronaldo, the flashy and powerful portuguese midfield attacker from manchester united and lionel messi, brilliant and savvy argentinian dribbler playing for the bernabau (fc barcelona). this article shows why kakà is respected by coaches and players alike: he is a calm presence on and off the court, and never fails to vitalise the ac milan offense with his dazzling plays. personally, i find him to be one of the cutest and sexiest football players on the planet, and not just by the way he looks but by how he moves his booty (read: magnifico!) on the field. it is fluid art. priceless. simply smooth.

not again!

the draws are out for the euro 2008 and the matches will be played from june 7-29. check out the groupings:

A--- Switzerland, Turkey, Portugal and the Czech Republic
B--- Austria, Germany, Poland and Croatia
C--- Italy, France, The Netherlands, Romania
D--- Greece, Sweden, Russia, Spain

for starters, you can say that group D is the most open group as any team can make it through to the knockout stages. greece says that they should be careful about sweden's ibramovic but i see spain and russia as teams that cannot be counted out either. my predictions for the top 2 at this early stage? spain and russia.

host switzerland has what appears to me as the easiest group on paper, but we know better than to count out portugal (repeat after me: ronaldo and deco), the czech republic, or turkey. with the home crowd backing switzerland in basel, you never know what the small country might whip up. predictions? portugal and the czech republic.

germany and poland have a history of overly emotional fans getting into fights at their matches so you can expect the organisers agonising over the logistics of this encounter. you also have croatia's acerbic fans chanting racist slurs; they have been warned by FIFA that a repeat offense would mean the disqualification of their team. you can never count out the vociferous home support for the austrians. predictions: croatia and germany.

i saved the best for last: can you have a better tag for group C than fireworks brigade? world cup 2006 finalists italy and france square off --- again! --- on the international field and with the zidane-materazzi fiasco still fresh in both teams' memories, so anything can happen on the pitch. coaches of both teams hope (or so they say) that cooler heads must prevail to avoid unnecessary encounters but this is football, mate. didn't i say it before? anything can happen. the netherlands and romania can't be too happy either with this grouping, especially since the dutch have been struggling with form of late, losing to belarus in their most recent encounter. predictions: surprise, surprise, italy and france.

bbc's commentators, when reporting after the draw was completed, were a picture of glumness and professionalism in conflict. they looked gutted still for their own team not qualifying for the prestigious tournament but braved on with their coverage in spite of it. i don't know what england will do now to get the right man to be steve mcclaren's successor as manager, but i cannot imagine the likes of mourinho or klinsmann rushing anytime soon to fill the void.

pancakes and tennis don't mix

*i started writing an entry about who the next manager for england's national football team might be, and my thoughts on my personal choices, klinsmann & mourinho, but decided to put off the football writing for another time. to my dad and dear baasti, i hope i do not lose you too soon. :)

it was a sunday afternoon and one of the most competitive women's tennis matches was taking place in madrid between justine henin and maria sharapova. justine had already been affirmed as the year-end number 1; whether she lost or won in the final would not change that fact. maria had squeaked into the year end tournament of top 8 players in the world due to the withdrawal of the year's wimbledon champion, venus williams.

justine swept through her round robin group with a predictable but nonetheless impressive 3-0 record over her tired (jelena jankovic)/overwhelmed (anna chakvetadze)/rattled (marion bartoli) opponents. she proceeded to demolish the emerging princess of adidas from serbia, ana ivanovic (the same woman who had slid into her throne as the face of the german sportswear brand) in the semifinals. then in a classic 3-hour match, she overcame the shrieking, powerful serving maria sharapova.

maria, in the other group, blitzed through her own matches, taking the scalps of svetlana kuznetsova, daniela hantuchova, and ana ivanovic in the round robin stage and then eliminating anna chakvetadze in straight sets in the semifinals. for a woman whose shoulder injuries had seen her chalk up a progressively worsening loss record at the majors (she went out in the semifinals in australia, the quarterfinals in france, and round 3 in the united states), she played a splendidly resurgent game in the year-end tournament, showing critics and fans alike that if she is healthy, she is truly a force to reckon with in the game. her absence in the tournaments between the US open and the year end tournament made me realise that even if i intensely dislike the way she shrieks on court and stares down her opponents, that when she is not around, the game is strangely void of her presence.

here i am, speaking of an event that is long past. the tennis stars are rolling in their millions, enjoying their holidays before they hit the road again in january for the australian open, "the happy slam" as roger federer describes it. the thing is, while i was watching the riveting final between justine and maria, i was trying to cook pancakes à la belgique (the belgium way) for my sons who were due to arrive at any moment from a birthday party. you can see it was a project gone awry. i could blame the batter or i could blame the tennis. what (not who!) do you think was the culprit for such a royal mess?

musical chairs

dear fernando,

i have made a bet with an old high school classmate as to where you will be racing in 2008. call me daring, but i'd like to think that your hispanic personality might make you want to break free from what everybody is pointing as the obvious choice for you. i wagered that you just might decide to join red bull over the giants renault (the obvious choice, pundits say) and toyota (they've got the bucks to afford a man of your stature).

i can't reveal what's at stake on my end, fernie. just know that i realised what a sucker i am for ayrton senna, because i said that if i win this bet, i want a copy of his famous biography, "Ayrton: The Hero Revealed." if i lose, what embarrassment, what horror, i have to send a very personal item across the atlantic to my classmate with rather bizarre inclinations.

fernando, could you deign to race with either coulthard or webber next season? i'd rather you raced alongside the scotsman than the hotheaded australian, and one of my petty reasons is that coulthard may be somewhat accustomed to sharing the garage with a world champion, as he did with mika hakkinen in the 90s at mclaren.

however, as i finish this letter, i just read "shattering" news in light of my wager, and i guess my only hope now is that you decide NOT to join renault for next year. save me from the embarrassment of having to send....... to washington dc! the US post office might think i'm sending some form of biological warfare to their shores... there goes my ayrton senna bio.

hoping to get it right next time,
sr

sublime

from getty images

the semis for the women have been decided with the willowy beauties from the red group making it to knockout saturday while the petite and wily ones make it out of the yellow group. bugger for jelena but she looked exhausted even before hitting a tennis ball this week so now she can take a long holiday. as for next week, bring on the men!

to dear sweet guga, i condole with you on the loss of your brother.

to dear cute nalby, i hope that training program yields plenty of dividends in 2008!

ajde serbia! vamos rafa!

madrid & interlagos

let's throw in zürich for good measure because as i write this, justine henin and tatiana golovin are embroiled in the first set of their final, holding serve at 4 games apiece. i'm home this afternoon and evening (sorry, brussels mads, i hope my injured back excuse holds water and that none of your members ever chances across this entry) with every intention of watching the following finals today:

• the atp madrid masters final between david nalbandian and roger federer. before roger got david's number in the senior tour, david owned roger on the junior circuit. the head-to-head record between the men used to be heavily in david's favour until roger started gaining ground on him and all the other players on the tour whom he could not beat in his younger years (such as tim henman). i'm rooting for my soul-eyed argentine, he who is no longer paunchy and fat. :) vamos, david!
• the brazilian grand prix at the interlagos circuit in sao paulo. as i wrote in my previous entry, three men are fighting for the driver's championship title and right now (i took a break from blogging to do the dishes and clean the kitchen) my heart is beating twice as fast. i have conditioned myself to accept that lewis hamilton will make his explosive impact in formula one history but am crossing my fingers anyway that my beloved party animal kimi will somehow do the near improbable. allez kimi! :)

today belongs to argentina!

for this writer, this weekend is a whirlwind of exciting sports events. to enumerate briefly, these are the ones that have me in a tizzy:

1. the atp madrid masters. after five weeks of lay-off, roger and rafa return to compulsory action at the masters series in spain. one of them is still in, another was upset by an unseeded player who had ranked as high as third in the world.
   
2. the formula one grand prix. it's the last race of the year and three men head into sunday's exciting finale with a chance to clinch the world driver's championship title. will it be the young rookie sensation from britain? the double and reigning world champion from spain? the cool and unflappable speed maestro from finland? i'm cheering for the most improbable outcome, with all the permutations explained here.
3. the rugby world cup. as they did in 1998 for football, paris is once more hosting the once-every-four-years event. tomorrow we have the improving english side against the surprise team of south africa. kick off is 9 pm local belgian time. in spite of the violence, i will be watching.

of the sports mentioned above, #s1 & 3 are of special note tonight. let me tell you why.

• tennis: it was quarterfinal day for my rafa and blue-eyed david nalbandian. a year ago nalby was among the top 8 players in the world. two years ago he had been one of only two men who had defeated roger federer the entire year. earlier today, the two conquerors of roger in 2005 faced each other across the net. in a match that took just 1 hour to complete, david had wiped rafa off the court in front of a partisan spanish crowd. it was at the same stage last year that rafa had been roundly beaten by a tall, gangly czech with a big serve, tomas berdych. i have always pulled for nalby in spite of his surly attitude during press conferences, in spite of his paunchy middle, in spite of his prioritising the world cup match of his beloved country in last year's wimbledon championships. today, he showed how his beautiful backhand, clever anticipation, and using his opponent's pace to gain the advantage won him the match. i was gutted for my joyless and serious rafa (i think i always will be when he loses a match) but i was also quietly elated for david's sake. i really really want him to prove his worth to one and all and to get back into the top 10 not unlike the way tommy haas has done it in the last two years.
• rugby: i have never followed this sport in my entire life and watching the battle for third place earlier tonight i felt nauseous half the time due to the inherent violence involved. doesn't matter, my team won that one --- rather, the side i thought had a more cohesive game plan took the third prize.

in both tennis and rugby events today, argentines won. i mentioned that nalby had asked wimbledon officials to reschedule his match in 2006 so he could watch argentina play their world cup quarterfinal match in germany. it must be said: nalby lost his match that day; his beloved team bowed out of world cup glory after an ignominious penalty shootout (oh, the heartbreak! it's like a fifth set tiebreaker in the US open --- the worst way to decide a closely contested match!).

today, however, nalby won his quarterfinal match 6-1, 6-2 against the world number 2 AND his rugby compatriots played gloriously against france in a 32-10 crushing. all argentines won convincingly. vamos to you!

for tomorrow's semifinal in madrid, i actually want nalbandian to win against my beloved djokovic (i don't know what's gotten into me). i want to see him face federer in sunday's final. henin will face whoever in the wta tournament in zürich, but i'm not really interested in that. :)

a healthy dozen

where else be crowned for your 12th grand slam but under the lights in the big apple, wearing your specially designed tuxedo-like nike outfit, down to your socks and shoes? (don't forget the headband and wrist)

congratulations, roger, for a job well done. you don't have to play your best to do what needs to be done. 2008 might be your year, your golden slam. for rafa's sake, i hope not, but sometimes the wheels of history cannot be derailed.

onto madrid, bercy, and shanghai!

ajde nole!

you are the underdog, dear clown and ravishing serb. but it does not matter to me. i am willing you onwards to your maiden grand slam. this is the most fantastic way to cap a brilliant year that has seen you catapulted to the top tier of men's tennis.

beating roger in montréal three weeks ago is nothing compared to beating him on the largest stage of hard court tennis of all, flushing meadows, a place roger has owned since 2004. i would like to think that you are much much better than andy roddick and andré agassi were when roger snuffed out their hopes (besides, they had already both won it previously at the time of their losses).

stand by what you said in your press conference yesterday, "i simply have to believe that i can win it and play accordingly" (as opposed to just playing your best, because that gives a margin for losing, which is not an option!).

if roger four-peats at flushing meadows, it will be a no less great night. this is THE final of the year. ajde novak! :)

*photo courtesy of BBC sport

who would have thought?

we're just about wrapped up the fourth round of the women's draw at the USO but things are pretty hot and exciting. i am no rabid fan of the women's tour but the past weekend brought about some interesting storylines for the bottom half. the quarterfinalists in the top half have been, we can say, predictable but nonetheless action- and drama-packed.

here are my random thoughts and feelings:

with maria sharapova getting blown out of the bottom half, it's a matter of glass half-full/half-empty now, depending on whether you are a casual or non-tennis fan (which i can group with the cbs moguls in entertainment hungry new york), or a bona fide tennis lunatic like myself. not having the paris hilton in the draw, along with the sympathy losses of martina hingis, nadia petrova, nicole vaidisova, and patty schnyder, could have the tv executives wringing their hands over a possible anna chakvetadze or svetlana kuznetsova emerging from the bottom half to contest for the USO trophy. anna who? svetlana who? well, they're just strong top 10 russian girls who have been making splashes on the tournament circuit but not on the big stages of the grand slam. at least sveta is the USO champion from 2004, but one look at her arnold schwarzennegger looks and you know why cbs and usa network might be weeping come super saturday (men's semi's and women's finals played on the same day).

in the top half you have the more exciting matches that, even at this stage, can already be dubbed as de facto finals. check out the quarterfinal matches: serena-justine (this is the 3rd time these two heavyweights are facing each other before the final in a grand slam. they met at the french open and wimbledon quarterfinals this year. they also clashed at the miami final last march which serena won in an exciting see-saw battle over 3 sets). can the feisty belgian spoil the possible williams party in the semifinals? i'm putting my money on that one (plus i get live coverage here in belgium AND i believe justine and rafa's fates are totally intertwined at grand slams). jelena-venus. luckily for the serbian hottie, she has won over venus in their previous two meetings. she does seem to stand a better chance against the "gazelle"-like venus (as she was described by her father; serena was described as being like a "pit bull & mike tyson") with her better all-around court game, which includes grrrreat defense and net play. incidentally, these were the two exposed areas in ana ivanovic's game when she faced venus yesterday. couldn't help but wince every time she struggled to get to ground strokes pounded to her forehand side and hail, she only made 1 in 7 points at the net! this girl has got to learn how to put away volleys commandingly, and pronto!, if she wants to redeem herself in madrid by year's end. venus has been playing awesome tennis similar to her wimbledon campaign, and it takes one gutsy move to bet against her hoisting that trophy come september 8.

in the bottom half, the younger girls in agnes szavay, agniescka radwanska, shahar peer, julia vakulenko, and victoria azarenka are all scenting a golden opportunity to be in the final. i'm hoping that the polish version of venus williams (that'd be agniescka to her l'il sister urszula's serena version) will take out the aranxta-like peer in today's match on armstrong. i have picked vakulenko to get one over szavay simply because i saw her dismantle daniela hantuchova in the first round, although i have read that the hungarian teenager has been playing well all summer. my sentimental vote goes to sveta in the first match up on ashe against azarenka.

what can i say? the women's draw has not been this exciting this early in previous slams and i can only thank the rising serbs and comeback diva williams sisters for the upsurge in excitement. i think i've already bled dry the threat of the young ones nipping at the heels of the veterans for a piece of the glory pie. exciting days are now upon us!

*in photo: maria sharapova's plucky conqueror, the 18-year old agnes radwanska from poland. she now has to buy herself and her sister a louis vuitton bag each after a joke dare they placed before her stirring upset of the two-dressed siberian. (courtesy of pete bodo's blog at tennisworld.com)

hajde serbia!

when nole & rafa got bumped out on their first day of play at mason, ohio, earlier this week (cursèd wednesday, to be exact), i lost 50% of my interest in the atp masters event. sure, lleyton hewitt, juan carlos ferrero, and carlos moya were some oldies still left in the draw, but what did they stand against the might of roger federer?

the final which is at 10 pm my time between james blake and federer seems a foregone conclusion already, this in spite of roger not playing at his best all week and last.

now, the rogers cup in toronto is another matter, even if big names were scratched from the roster last wednesday as well (ana ivanovic, anna chakvetadze, elena dementieva). if it wasn't a mouthwatering ana-justine final predicted after ana's carson triumph exactly a week ago, it's now a j&j encounter, still a serbian, this time jelena jankovic against the feisty belgian justine. the world number 1 against the world number 3, mirroring somewhat the roger-nole final that took place in montréal a week ago, same time. this will most certainly be broadcast live here in belgium at 8 pm our time and i will be on hand to watch this come about.

jelena has a rather dismal head-to-head record against the belgian, 0-6, including big match choke-fests at last year's US open semifinals and this year's French Open semifinals. it's a long shot that she is ready to face the mentally tough wallonian, seeing as how she is still bothered by line calls that don't go her way. barring that, however, i am still crossing my fingers that somehow, just maybe, she might throw this persistent monkey off her back and get a decisive win heading into the last grand slam of the year.

so, dear jelena, hajde hajde hajde!

man love

frodo and sam, move aside! you've been upstaged big time by these two!

front backwards

roger raises the wimbledon trophy for the fifth time, facing photographershowever, something is not quite "right" in this photo... can you tell me what it is? i await your astute observations...

5 & 4

young uns, wait another year, 2007 isn't auspicious enough for your break through. this year it is all about multiple slam winners, only in their mid twenties, to take the headlines at wimbledon.

roger: fifth straight (2003-2007), tying borg's impressive feat (1976-1980). 9th grand slam final appearance in a row since the US open 2005, winner in 8 (i will give you one guess for that elusive grand slam he will never win hahaha). total: 11 grand slam titles. and he's only 25. if he wins the US open this fall, it will be his fourth consecutive year of winning the wimbledon and the USO back to back. beat a 21-yr old spanish prince from mallorca.

venus: fourth wimbledon title. lowest seed to ever win it. and she's only 27. beat a 22-year old country lass from france.

goose pimple murray

what a fabulous wimbledon men's final. this, of course, followed a fantastic women's final between the two lowest seeded players to ever contest the prize (venus williams, ranked 31 in the world, was seeded 23rd at the championships and marion bartoli, ranked 20 in the world, was seeded 18th).

as if anything could top that on the emotional richter scale. of course intercourse, as chuchi would say.

the coup de grace, icing on an already wonderful cake, was jamie murray and jelena jankovic coming from nowhere to win the mixed doubles crown in dramatic style: with a deciding third set. i would give more credit to how jelena handled the back court and troubled opponents with her sizzling returns, especially off her forehand wing. but stretch murray was just as fabulous with his lightning quick reflex volleys at the net, and this surefire combination won them their first wimbledon title.

so why my rippled skin and heaving emotions? because while the press were bent all over themselves focussing on andy murray to buoy british hopes in their home slam, it was the dimpled, shyer, overshadowed older brother who would do britain proud by hoisting aloft the mixed doubles trophy. never mind that he got bonked on the cheek by jelena's trophy while they posed for photographs, the fact is he, by dint of being british (scottish would be more the thing i believe), gave wimbledon a touch of being owned by them brits.

why am i mum about the men's final? am currently in grief over how rafa came so close to winning. as roddick said in his presser, "i can't begin to explain to you how it feels in the pit of my stomach." i can't say more on this except kudos to roger federer for a well-played final. he is truly one of the greats in tennis, now that he has equalled the legendary borg's five consecutive wimbledon titles. can he do a sampras and gun for titles six and seven? i would like to think that rafa, novak, richard, marcos, and yes, andy, will be looming large next year, definitely standing in his way down that path.

for now, wimbledon has come to an end and i hope my feverish excitement of the past two weeks will melt into tiny rivulets of productivity of the mundane kind. as sue barker says at bbc, "until next year, bye bye."

nike & adidas @ wimby

the things i notice, sometimes even i shake my head at myself.in the wimbledon men's quarterfinals, i saw the cutest things (and this apart from the delicious men just showing off their booty on court 1 and centre court):

• marcos vs djoko: adidas boys battling it out in the same style of shirt. the only difference was that novak had HYPO sewed onto his shirt sleeve. this is the credit card line he endorses in serbia. how did i know? i saw the ad on you tube! LOL

• rafa vs tomas: nike boys! the swishes were in complete harmony, from their cap (berdych)/headband (rafa) down to their shirts (both boys had similar designs; only difference was that rafa had a cut-off sleeves to tomas' regular tee), shorts/piratas (guess who wore what?), wrist bands, socks, and shoes! pretty cool sight to behold.

personally, i enjoyed looking at marcos and novak more than i did rafa and tomas. you could say that the marcos-novak match was more explosive and dramatic than the straightforward affair between tomas and rafa. or we could uphold the truth, which is that there the HOTTness factor was simply higher in court 1 (marcos' winsome smile and novak's simply drool-inducing bod) than on centre (rafa's bulging everything versus tomas' sullen leanness).


but like i said in my previous entry, the men's final belongs to nike, as roger and rafa are nike boys through and through. vamos rafael!

happening london

apart from today being the birthday of my best buddy in high school (happy happy to you bee bear!), london has got to be the place to be if you're a sports addict like me. check these out:
tour de france: kicks off this year in the millenium wheel city.

british grand prix: with lewis hamilton, the local wunderkind of formula 1 racing circa 2007 in pole position, it will either be the day he stamps with authority his commanding lead in the driver's championship standings, further boost mclaren's constructor points, and rub it hard in alonso's face that perhaps HE (hamilton) should be the first driver OR kimi raikkonen and felipe massa of ferrari do a tag team act and steal the thunder from lewis in his home grand prix to make the ferrari-mclaren rivalry even more exciting. you all know i'm rooting for kimi, no? yes! but if lewis gets this one, well-deserved and simply capital.

wimbledon: save the best for last. The greatest tennis player of all time will be gunning for his fifth consecutive wimbledon singles title in the presence of the august bjorn borg (who is back at wimbledon after sooo many years of not being around) OR the king of clay for the past three years will attempt to become the first man since the august bjorn borg to win the french open and wimbledon titles back to back. either way, today is going to be a historic day, and i am about to pee in my pants at the prospect. come on my rafa boy, give it to roger and make a dang go of the title! can you smell it? i would love to see you at that champion's ball, dancing with venus. just this one time around! then come 2008, you have just got to give the french open to roger, then we'll all be happy, no?

i'm faint with excitement... nike has scored another coup in the finals! :)

4 in a row in 2007

amazing. the mighty federer has not reached the final of any masters event this year since winning the australian open in grand style (not dropping a set at all along the way).when asked what positives he could take from the match, federer said, "at least this gives me time to prepare more for the french open." after winning the year end event in shanghai last december, he announced that his main goal for 2007 was to win the elusive french open crown at roland garros... (read more about the match and what TMF said in his post-match presser HERE)i'm actually glad he's lost again, great as he is. it opens up the field and gives other players in his half of the draw a chance to put their own self belief on the line and go for the "almost slam" at the impressive foro italico in rome (the event is also known as the italian open).

----------------

tonight, rafa takes on mikhail youzhny, a man who has beaten him three consecutive times, one of three men who owns a superior head-to-head record against him (2-0); the other two players whom rafa has never beaten --- on hard court --- are james blake and tomas berdych (although he DID beat berdych in monte carlo, handing the czech the dreaded bagel in their first set mwahahaha). this will be a match to watch. i will be very nervous, no doubt... as this will be following rafa's dizzy spell from his match yesterday against italian daniele bracciali and subsequent visit to the hospital. youzhny is a passionate player with clean strokes and a sweet backhand who salutes like a fascist soldier and who honestly freaks me out. if it isn't rafa across the net, i like his game. but tonight, i will be on tenterhooks.

cold war in sunny down under

a conflict that lasted for fifty years is back --- on centre court in melbourne park. when the women's final begins tomorrow in the rod laver arena, an american squares off against her russian opponent. the sentimental favourite is out of contention, freed to move closer to her dream of marrying and having kids of her own, a family entire that may some day be sitting in the stands and cheering the players on court.

who will you be rooting for? will it be the player who played only 2 matches prior to her australian open tournament, ranked 81st in the world, is unseeded in the year's first grand slam, and hounded by injuries in the last two years? there is, of course, the tiny fact of her having never lost a semi-final or final at melbourne, as were the cases in 2003 and 2005. or that she's a former world #1 and dubbed as a comeback queen, the label manifesting itself in her dramtic wins over 5th seed nadia petrova (who served for the match at 5-3 in the 2nd set) and 16th seed army private shahar peer.

or will you be rooting for the #1 seed golden girl and face of women's tennis, the nike/land cruiser/*insert any product brand here* model of russian descent yet american sensibilities who won the most recent grand slam in new york last september? the tall, "i feel pretty" blonde, whose face my older son likes is a fighter of mental grit that belies her 19 years, and has a 2-2 win-loss record against her opponent tomorrow. (2004 wimby final and year end championships that sharpie won; miami 2004 and the 2005 australian semi that serena won)

both girls are based in florida and play with the bollietteri brand of tennis, shrieks and "come on!"'s included. both have achieved diva status in their off-court lives and this rematch of their 2005 australian semi-final will be an interesting one to see. i hope they bring their best on court, hopefully sans the screaming (reach for the stars, svelte rogue!) and we are party to an exciting match. aesthetic tennis police, keep out!

as for me, bring on the serena train. and keep the hubris out when she does win. go, serena!

survival of the best

the australian open has churned out some great matches. what will stay in my mind for a long time to come is the thrilling five-set match between rafa and andy and serena's come-from-behind magical wins over nadia petrova and shahar peer. of these three matches, i tell you, the better player won.

in today's second men's quarterfinal, gonzo obliterated my rafa in three convincing sets. i knew rafa would lose and i stared in wonder at the chilean as he moved around the court, feeling something akin to burgeoning excitement stirring within. again, in spite of my deep loyalty to the sun-bronzed mallorcan, the better man won, and gonzo was it. there was something about the way gonzo carried himself on court that gave a stamp of authority to his already powerful forehand and made him glide from fabulous wide serves into sweet volleys into the open court. his time is now, my friends, and even if he loses between now and sunday, i am telling you, he is my man for the australian open. if by some outlandish stroke of fate andy beats roger tomorrow (and i'm wishing for that, not because i like andy, hell no, but because i want an unpredictable final, a mouth-watering final where the trophy will be disputed from beginning to end) and gonzo gets past tommy haas (another wonderful story in itself), fernando gonzalez is my man. yes, i am picking the cutie chilean. vamos, fernando!!!

today is remarkable in that two players, both in their mid-twenties, considered to be past their prime, and who are old enough to have played greats of the previous eras (think of people no longer in the active atp circuit such as sampras and kafelnikov), overcame their higher-seeded opponents, both in the quarterfinals. both were older than their opponents. this is quite telling. when it came to the big moments, you could argue that their experience --- perhaps of loss (tommy haas' interview transcript details some major losses at grand slams in the past eight years) --- saw them through at the crucial moments, helping them to rise above the occasion and take their grand slam quest one step further. both haas (seeded 12th) and gonzalez (seeded 10th) have never won a slam yet looking at the way both men played their hearts out in the past week and a half, i couldn't help but think that maybe this could be their time. surely there has to be a goran ivanesevic moment for them (if you don't know what i'm talking about, you have got to read this) and when that happens, mark my words, my sofa will be drenched in my sweat AND tears.

serena williams is another player, who, in spite of being vilified constantly by the media for one reason or another (being fat, being arrogant, being unfit, having no match fitness, etc etc etc you name it, it's all in there), has shown that you just cannot snuff out brilliance. she doesn't have the prettiest tennis out there, but who says you need to score high on stylish tennis to be great? only people who would wish to impose their opinions of HOW the sport must be played and won, and these same people will never understand the thrill one can get from watching win a match with not only sheer grit and determination (and believe me, in my book, these count for more than half the match won already), but solid technique that withstands any "advances" or changes in the modern game. serena's backhand still looks the same, with that right foot angling at 90°, and man, can she hit that ball at incredible angles and with such depth and pace. fabulous shotmaker, i'd say. she is the only unseeded woman in the final four but i say, with serena, seeding logic does not make sense! in another forum, i commented that people like serena are geniuses, misunderstood and misinterpreted. they will be great always, in my opinion.

for the women's semis, my picks remain the same: serena over nicole (vaidisova) and kim clijsters over maria shriekapova.

if roger doesn't make it through the semis, what an exciting men's final! think of it: big-serving andy against either reverse-cap-hot-body haas or he-of-cute-jowls-and-sex-appealing-shorts gonzo. wow, watching tennis has never been this fun! :)

andré says it for me

from my daily dose of tennis news:

Retired four-time Aussie Open champ Andre Agassi is not a fan of the Extreme Heat rule that stops play at the Aussie Open, and says players need to suck it up and get in shape: "It is about being fit and being prepared, and tennis brings both of those things together, and that needs to be respected and appreciated. This is a sport, it's about handling the elements the best. It is not about playing great. We train for this. (If you are not prepared), too bad."

there you have it. conditions are part of the game, hijos and hijas. how can you say you've played well at the australian open if you've been playing three straight games under a roof, in an airconditioned stadium? some people play better inside (read: blake, safin), some prefer the outdoors (read: nadal and other hard-hitting clay courter or spanish speaking player). but part of the australian open magic, or rigour, depending on how you look at it, is dealing with the hand you're given, and the ace is staying fit to fight the heat. just as slugging it out on clay is a test of your endurance, playing on grass is a test of your shot-making ability, and playing in new york is a test of how much jologs screaming you can take from the home crowd, so you have to learn how to play in the searing heat, no matter how delusional you get.

one of my favourites puts it quite well:

As I said after my first match, it doesn't make that much difference to kind of how the court plays. The difficult thing is that obviously I'd been practicing all the time outside.

I'd come in, I mean, it might sound strange, but unless you play tennis, you can't really understand, when you throw the ball up to serve, the clouds and the sun, the blue sky's not there, there's kind of floodlights and stuff.

It's much different to serving during the day. I struggled to find the rhythm on my serve, because the first day I went and played indoors and then I played outside. Obviously then, you know, back to indoors tonight. But I practiced indoors here before my match. That's the one thing that's difficult, but it doesn't really change the way the court plays.

in my next post, i'll be writing about the recent surge of upsets at this year's version of the australian open. or maybe i'll say something about the retreat of the russian brigade. entering the second week, only nikolay davydenko (last man standing), anna chakvetadze, and vera zvonareva are left in the single's draws. but more of that in the next post. stay with me as the heat keeps burning down under!

the heat is on

the weather has been freaky all over the world, but down in melbourne, australia, the heat is cutting a swathe across all the courts, and even with the movable roofs over the rod laver and vodafone arenas, players are wilting. or not. let's see what some of them have to say about the australian open's extreme heat policy:

martina hingis

Q. How do you mentally prepare for the heat?

I mean, you just have to be fit. I mean, there's no mental preparation. If you're not fit, you can't go out there and feel like you're going to make it easy because the heat is going to affect you no matter what at the end of the day. Sometimes the fitter survive, and you can see that in the matches the past couple days.

andy murray

Q. Did you see any of Alan Mackin's match? You must have some sympathy for him having to play in that heat, especially against a South American.

No, no sympathy. I think you got to deal with the conditions. It's not an excuse. It's the same for both players. You know, I didn't get the chance to see it because obviously I wanted to stay at my hotel. Obviously it wasn't on the TV, but I was watching on the live scoring on the Internet. Looked like he was kind of in there in the first two sets, maybe didn't take his chances.

rafael nadal

Q: Had no problems with the conditions?

No. That's fine, no? Is unbelievable hot outside (smiling). I prefer play without indoor, but that's it. That's fine. Most important thing is I won today. Always is very difficult to start one tournament.

roger federer

Q. Considering the heat yesterday, the heat policy, it came into question, the fairness of that, the well‑being of the players. Do you think that's something that needs to be reviewed and looked at?

Guys didn't go on court after that. I guess you're an unlucky guy if you have the match at 11:00 because it's not hot enough yet. I kind of agree with the heat rule. I mean, walking around in the streets, I think it's fine. But going out on the court, you know, the court, it gets so hot, like you can't believe. I mean, it's not only the heat from the sun, but especially from underneath. This is what's really killing the players. The feet are just on fire. On top of that, we have maybe, what, two events a year that are that hot. I think it's okay that you have a heat rule. It's an advantage for all the players.

Q. But is it fair if they've started, they have to continue on in that kind of heat, where other people don't have to?

Maybe they should give the choice to both players, if they want to continue. If both players agree they don't want to continue, maybe they can make an arrangement this kind of way. But at the same time, look, we need to be fit, as well. Got to bite the bullet sometimes. That's what happened yesterday.

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i got my own thoughts on this but i would like to see yours first. fair enough? come now, indulge me momentarily. :)

let the games begin

as of this writing, according to my pc clock, it's 8 minutes to 1 in the morning, gmt +1. melbourne is gmt +11, ergo... need i say it pa, 10 hours ahead of our local time. that means... in a little over two hours, the australian open starts a-swinging!

the men's draw is a nailbiter, anywhere you look, choose your quarter, and you're in for some potentially explosive encounters and possible upsets. can you say exciting in ten thousand more ways, please? in roger's half, he could face baghdatis in the quarters, either marat or roddick in the semis. tennis commentators and former players at espn.com predict that this is roddick's tournament, this is his year. for marat's sake, let it belong to the tall, beautiful moscovite. the texan can swagger into the US open or wimbledon later in the year. my russian needs this one! ice man roger, you are the favourite but please, step aside smoothly (i hope) and try not to snarl menacingly. you will still be enshrined in the hall of fame not too many years down the road. that's a certainty. rafa baby, i love your beautiful bottom, your muscled arms, your glistening body, your wayward locks, but can you handle kendrick in round 1? will you be able to stop blake? how about murray? will there be an intriguing semi between you and king david nalby? talk about a delicious match, if both of you bring your A games... huwaw!!! all-nighter but so worth it. marcos, can you go deep into the draw? hmmm, that sounded a little provocative now, didn't it? :) anyhow, enough of the men's draw. click here to see the draw for yourself.

on the women's side, i am openly rooting for kim clijsters to win the trophy for sentimental reasons (darn the girl, rolling in loads of money off endorsements --- did i hear at least $14 million --- and with a great career already in the bag) and because i love watching her play. she's got game. when she's on fire, she sets lines on fire and blows corners away. and she's not all power only. i love her lobs and recently, her crosscourt backhand drop shot that she used quite effectively against jankovic in their sydney final. (thank you, sporza, for the complete coverage!) i would love to see martina hingis go deep in the open, surpassing her quarterfinal showing of the year before, when she had just embarked on her comeback voyage... from a nominal seeding of 9,999, the tough swiss miss ended the year at number 8. she is seeded 6th at the AO (henceforth, this shall mean the australian open) and if she lives up to that seeding, it would be nice to see her win a quarterfinal and do one step more. everyone else, my eldest son included, is confident that maria sharapova will take the prize this year, seeing as how justine henin-hardenne has decided to disappear from the tennis grand slam radar to divorce her sleeveless shirted husband of the past four years, pierre yves. other players to watch, according to svelte me? my beloved russian pair, nadia petrova of the long legs and svetlana kuznetsova of the squat frame. elena dementieva won't be on my radar for the AO, not unless she has miraculously developed a serve that won't embarrass the monkeys. i'd like to see how jelena jankovic performs at this slam following her impressive showing the past two weeks in auckland and sydney, and her great run at the USO (US open) last year. vaidisova, ho hum. schnyder... will you be booted out of the top ten? safina? nah, marat is it as far as rooting for your family is concerned. anyhow, if you want to look at the women's draw, click here to see the match-ups in the coming fortnight.

live streaming? eurosport is offering it at reasonable rates, but until i can get my test video to work, i won't subscribe. am just waiting for technical support to answer my e-mail (read: desperate and needy). i hope i can get live streaming coverage. that's three courts simultaneously, baby!

it's late and i have a thesis to write. tomorrow is my first real deadline (at last!). so i shall rest for now. as for your thoughts on the men's and women's draws, please, let those thoughts flow.

the beckham product

have you read about one of the biggest sports deals of all time?

no matter what he says, or LA galaxy says, beckham cannot be leaving real madrid for tinseltown for the sake of soccer. he did say he wants to make history. i'll grant him that. but soccer glory history? c'mon david, kiss my ass. and make it linger.

as far as i know, you will make it glamourous. with skinny posh by your side, there will be exposure. for the love of football and sports, i just hope you don't sully a fantastic sport. the fact you're marrying the sport into entertainment marketing reeks. to high heavens.

bring in the high profile celebs and you lose the pure fans. or rather, you lose sight of the little person who gives life to the sport.

another harijan story in the making. the real sports lover will fall through the cracks.

i hope i am wrong. dead wrong.

your thoughts? prove me wrong, will ya?

choosing your battles

when i was a little girl, my dad kept telling me that i was like a decathlete, wanting to be involved in so many different things, and wanting to win in all of them. he was referring to my pursuit of activities and interests, and his way of making me channel my energies, to focus on singular goals, was to draw that analogy. (there are people who can do that, i believe, chase after many dreams and attain much success from multiple pursuits. my mom believes in that, and has always supported me in my wild-goose chases)

in later years, my dad switched to the metaphor of the warrior. the gladiator, armed with only a net and a spear, facing the centurions with their shield and short sword. "choose your battles, hija," he would tell me. know when to charge, when to retreat, when to keep still.

roger federer, in my book, or rather, my dad's book, is the athlete who will never join the decathlon. as a warrior, he would be dapper in his armani suits, but victorious in battle.

to my memory, he has not lost a match because he withdrew or failed to show up for the scheduled match. his loss record in the previous year have all been due to completed matches. many roger federer fans will tell you that their man tanked his lost matches, that he had the best strategy at hand, only to unravel and give the match to his opponent. in four out of five losses last year, he supposedly had the winning formula to beating rafa, but he didn't execute his game plan. in his loss to andy murray, the other youngster to beat him, he was probably tired from his tough toronto run and didn't last long on court.

but that begs the question. my admiration for the dapper swiss is that in the run-up to the australian open, he chose to fly in to melbourne early, skipping tournaments in qatar, chennai, and adelaide, to practise with his coach, tony roche. this week he is participating in exhibition matches at kooyong; no competition rank points to be gained.

in light of the withdrawals of the men in sydney (see previous entry) and the equally disturbing retirements of two russian women whose games i admire, kutznetsova (respiratory illness) and petrova (abdominal strain), roger's choice to not push himself prior to next week's grand slam appears to be stroked with the hand of wisdom and grudging practicality. any match practice he will be getting is happening now, at kooyong (where, as of this writing, it took him over 2 hours to put away radek stepanek in 3 sets 7-6, 6-7, 7-6). acclimatisation to australia's notorious summer heat was addressed by flying in early last week.

if anything, the man has not thumbed his commitments to any tournaments, has showed up when he was supposed to show up. the only disappointed people, if at all, are his fans, who want to see him playing 100% (like he was against blake in the YEC final in shanghai) 100% of the time against 100% of his opponents. barring that seemingly impossible dream, he has hardly let expectations down. the two times he withdrew last year from a tournament were: 1. after the epic five-setter with rafa in rome, he pulled out of hamburg; 2. after winning the madrid masters, he pulled out of paris.

given the grinding schedule that the ATP has for its players, i'd say that roger has been able to choose his battles judiciously, avoiding crippling injury (read: mark philippoussis, venus williams, and mary pierce) while standing head and shoulders and chest and stomach above the rest of the field. that is the one thing that might help other players catch up with his 8000+ points, possible injury. but he has kept himself fit for the important battles and emerged victorious 99% of the time.

damn pretty impressive. and i'm not even a federer fan. but i sure wouldn't mind getting my hands on one of those cute feder-bears. everybody loves a winner.

new year, old plot

it happens all the time, players withdrawing in the middle of a match due to injury. when your favourite guy withdraws, for the first time, let's say, you forgive him instantly, blowing him a multitude of kisses enough to wet your screen. when rafa withdrew at the queen's event on grass before the wimbledon grand slam in 2006, it was easy for me to rationalise that he was dead tired from having just set a new world record on number of consecutive clay matches won, plus winning the roland garros plum the second year in a row. he seemed to be losing to hewitt in that match, at least the momentum was starting to shift in lleyton's direction.

then this week, earlier today, in the middle of a match against guccione where he was trailing, it happened again. rafa withdrew, citing leg injury. carlos moya, former world #1 and friend to rafa was quick to tell reporters that this injury was real, although, he disclaimed, he was not quite privy to the actual details. paradorn "the fighter" srichaphan had also withdrawn, losing "more" in his match against ivo minar, citing pain in his right wrist.

i don't know, guys, gals. it's the same old argument: "i shan't ruin my chances at playing in next week's slam, so weighing all my available options, knowing what is allowed by atp rules, it's best i withdraw --- now. looks like a losing proposition anyhow." this is a rough paraphrase of what then-world #3 david nalbandian said when he withdrew in the semi-finals of the french open last year against (hold your breath) roger federer. there was some pain in his side that hindered his service motion and basic swings. wimbledon, many say, is nalby's prime event and he stood a much better chance of winning at sw19 than at roland garros. it doesn't matter that he lost in the first week, opting to prioritise argentina's match against england in the world cup. argentina lost that matchon penalties. bummer for you, david.

the whole logic behind such withdrawals stinks , if you ask me. if you truly are reserving your strength for a more important goal, why would you shirk your commitment to the present tournament? can't you just play out the match anyway?

i might be generalising here, and tennis players might get on my case for such naive claims, but i am simply against players withdrawing mid-match whe their only reason is that they're reserving their best for the big leagues.

fans don't care whether it's a grand slam event, a masters series event, or just a tier IV event. fans pay to come watch their idols play, and to see them play their best given any restraints at any given time.

you shortchange the match, the event, the fan, and you shortchange yourself in the long run.

rafa, can you go deep at the AO? i sincerely have doubts now.

back for reviews

knock knock.
who's there?
svelte rogue.
who?
svelte rogue.
mmmmm, sounds...
familiar?
weeelll, uhrm, try... weird.
come on, gimme a break, close your eyes and it will all come back.
what will come back? who? you?
there, you looked at me for the first time today. like you really know me. or knew me.
yeah, guess so.
i've been sent back.
sent back... *rolls eyes*
yes, sent back. to write more.
wow, like your god's gift to word-dom.¨
*smiles weakly* no, really. i've been sent back. to write. for money.
ha, that's a laugh. since when have you done something you Love for money?
probably never. *guffaws briefly. pauses. chuckles*
hmmm, for money. times must be a-tough, eh?
quite. mostly in my mind. so i think i'll cash in on my mind.
so what will you be writing about?
oh, stuff. i don't know what about until i'm told.
what's this, big brother writing?
i suppose. but with a nice tidy sum going into some obscure account in the cayman islands.
*snorts* maniniwala na sana ako e.

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reviews. more opinions. dear friends, i need you to come and read the reviews that will eventually be put up here, and then i need you to tell your friends to come and read the reviews you've read. for now, i just need your friendly, wayward mouse click to bring you over to this space again, and by simply doing that, you help a person in quest of semi-pro-blogging.

if this clicks, i will definitely get my own private blog, and i hope you will be with me if and when that change happens.

for now, i need you to be with me in these first few days of baby-reviewing.

thank you so much in advance for obliging!