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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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. :)
