boohoohoo, euro fans

56 laps on a circuit (in)famous for producing wild and wooly races when the monsoons strke. and strike they did today during the sepang malaysian grand prix where brawn gp's jenson button emerged as victor to another unconventional race. of the 56 laps, 33 laps were completed, the race being red-flagged as the torrential rain reduced cars to spinning wheels.

IF the race had started at 14.00 local time, button would have had his full 56 laps and much-needed yahoo victory with the matching fist pumps and fingers jabbing in the air from the cockpit as he does his victory lap.

IF the race had started at a time NOT GEARED for european audiences, the rain would not have come and caused so much havoc.

so what if vettel had intimated that he was hoping for a wet race so that he might make up for his 10-grid penalty?

it happened at albert park in melbourne and it happened again at sepang yesterday. by catering to the european market, both races started later in the afternoon than they usually do so that when the twilight came on, drivers encountered visibility problems. in melbourne, the common complaint was the way the sun, low in the sky at 6 pm in the australian autumn, was filtered by the trees, which made it hard to see the corners. under the forbidding skies of a fickle monsoon malaysian sky, the threat of rain and gathering dusk reduced felipe massa, who was struggling to get into the points, to a screaming wreck. "give me a white visor please! give it to me now! i can't see! i can't see!" his ferrari team replied in befuddled tones, "ok, ok, felipe, we're getting the visor to you. relax."

as i waited for race control to declare a race restart, i kept looking out our living room window at the darkening sky. di na ito puede, i thought apprehensively. mark webber was making the rounds under his aide's umbrella, asking drivers what they thought of the conditions. nakajima, barrichello, and rosberg had gotten out and were slinking around the track railings, reluctant to get back into their car cockpits. those who had opted to stay in their cars like jarno trulli and jenson button did not look too thrilled at the prospect of trying to finish the race on a track filled with puddles. too many things had to be considered apart from poor visibility.

how to heat up the extreme wet tires in these very wet conditions?
how to focus on optimal racing in dismal weather conditions?
how to drive so that the spray of the car in front would not impede one's view of the track?

onto the clay season, m'love

so you lost to juan martin del potro for the first time today in three tight sets. it's ok, rafael, mi rafalito. all i know is that you're sweeping the ground clean in a few weeks! vamos and bring on the clay!

*in photo (courtesy of C-note): rafa in the heat before losing to JMDP

getting ready for spring

here it only moves from hot to hotter days and then not too hot nights. 6 time zones away in my beloved europe, spring has finally arrived.. and in sporting lingo... that means that all hell is about to break loose!

miami's atp/wta tour will end on april 4 and we'll be in the spring claycourt swing of the tennis calendar! french open and wimbledon... my favourite part of the year... no more all-day BBC coverage at SW 19 with all the rain delays... no more all-day France 1 & 2 coverage at roland garros...

formula one revs off with an all-new set of cars and KERS! no more sporza and la une or la deux coverage of qualifying and actual races!

champions league heats up towards the finals! no more in-the-zone watching from 20.45-22.30 of the knockout stages... i remember skipping aikido training just to watch my barca or chelsea slug it out on the pitch...

*if you go to the ATP page, you'll see the world's top 8 in their own version of the golden league :)

why he is my boy

see that beautiful gorgeous smile. a 22 year old boy from an island in the mediterranean, 6 grand slam titles to his name, 13 masters shields, 33 atp titles in all. after winning his first hardcourt grand slam title last january in melbourne, the world didn't notice. not really. everyone was talking about the crybaby that was roger federer and his waning moon in tennis nightdom.

finally, against a gracious red-haired scotsman who owns that swiss crybaby, my rafa got the attention he deserved from fans and media alike.

down-to-earth, hard-working, self-effacing, charming, matter-of-fact, simple, and silly.

rabid roger fans will never know how it feels to rejoice with someone who works so hard to be the best, to celebrate the victory of someone with an unparalleled work ethic, to be happy for someone they snobbishly dismiss as "just a clay court specialist". roger fans can be blind to the virtues of other players, disdainful snobs who might not even know their tennis at all. (i sat in a noisy shanghai stadium of roger-only screaming fans who couldn't even recognise roger's impeccable placement skill in serving --- they were disappointed that his serve speed didn't go upwards of 180 kph --- and they called themselves fans of roger. be fans of the game!)

as for rafa, well, he's for down-to-earth folk. not to mention lascivious, promiscuous, and salivating over the comely sight of biceps and buns.

vamos rafa the king!

*in photo: rafael in the press room with his 13th baccarat master shield, two-time winner of the BNP PARIBAS open in indian wells. next stop: miami! vamonos!

(my son has started his tennis lessons and i've never seen a happier boy on the court. for him and his dreams i would do anything. anything. i will not make him adjust to my schedule nor make him feel he has to fly to the moon and back in order to deserve a chance to be happy.)

amazing rafa

tang'na, ang galing ni rafa. the number one player in the world can't even write or brush his teeth with his left hand... yet it's that very hand that dethroned the gay-king of tennis himself, the mighty roger federer.

mellamo rafa!