Sad finish

The women's finals of the 2006 Australian Open have just concluded and my favourite from the start Justine Henin Hardenne retired half way through the match against Amelie Mauresmo citing an upset stomach. Now Justine has been my favourite from a couple of years, but today was a .. well .. its hard for me to say disappointment .. but sadly, it was. Mauresmo was mowing through Henin-Hardenne, having won the first set 6-1 and looked well set to capture the second one too. The match was all but decided when Justine stopped play due to being unwell.

Two things bother me here .. aside from the fact that Justine didnt look like she had any problem earlier in the game (but what do we see). One is that if it was just an upset stomach, then she could have pulled through the rest of the match and given her opponent a fair and well deserved win. Second is that in her speech during the ceremony, she apologised to the fans but not to Mauresmo .. I feel sorry for her .. she was winning convincingly and fairly. To have won your first Grand Slam in this fashion would be like an irritating fly in her chardonnay for sure.

Vodafone ditches ManU

Vodafone has terminated its contract with Manchester United. The dismal performance of the team this season, coupled with other team problems they are having forced Vodafone's hand and probably speeded up the inevitable.
Starting mid next year, the Manchester United jerseys will no longer sport the familiar 'Vodafone' across them. The ManU jersey is a sport icon in itself and I believe vodafone was just the 2nd sponsor after original sponsor Sharp.
This may be actually a good thing for the Red Devils. The embattled club may do well to ink a more profitable deal from some other big brand willing to pay big bucks to get their name onto sport royalty.

Gruelling weekend ;-)

Kim Clijsters outplayed Mary Pierce in every aspect at the US Open Championships. The belgian showed remarkable poise and claimed her first grand slam title. Both Pierce and Clijsters spoke well afterwards during the awards ceremony. JP Morgan Chase president .. who droned on for quite a while was booed by the crowd.

Agassi was clearly the crowd favourite in the men's final, but after playing valiantly failed to overcome the whirlwind that is Federer.

What has been notable during this open is the resurgence of 2 shall we say .. veterans of international tennis .. Mary Pierce, 30 and Andre Agassi, 35.

Meanwhile, in Belgium itself, the F1 race was pretty exciting. McLaren would have been ecstatic at getting their first 1-2 finish in .. oh-so-many years. But Montoya crashed with just 3 laps remaining in the race and the race finished with Kimi Raikkonen being 1st and Fernando Alonso (who else) coming in 2nd. Had Montoya lasted the last 3 laps - then the GP would have been real exciting. Not only did McLaren lose out on very valuable constructors points, but in the driver points .. Alonso claimed a bunch more too. Now it looks like just a matter of when Alonso will become the youngest Formula 1 champion ever. I am hoping for a McLaren 1st in the constructors though.

While my interest in cricket seems to be deteriorating by the week, both Australian openers .. Langer and Hayden notched up centiries. Australia needed to win this test in order to level the series 2-2 and hold off an imminent Englad victory. However despite spririted bowling by Warne, England managed to hold off the Aussies and secure a long awaited Ashes victory!

Agassi

I have never really been a Agassi fan. I was always a Sampras backer. But as I sit here watching Andre Agassi Vs Roger Federer .. the 2005 US Open Men's championships; Agassi has converted me. Lionheart, age 35 - is playing wonderfully well, trying to fend off the ever engeryful Federer. The crowd is totally with Agassi and is cheering his every point as if he just won a set. If there ever was a match for which I wished I was present there .. it is this.

It is 6-3 0-3 right now, with Federer winning the 1st set. Agassi fended off 7 set points during the first set and 3 breakpoints during the last game. Every time he is under pressure he seems to will out all these wonderful plays, stretching more than you would think he can, mustering more strength from some hidden resource. The 8th game of the match .. when Agassi was down 5-2 in the first set and 0-40 in that game was the best set for me until now. Agassi faced 3 set points and the way in which he saved that game was terrific.

It is only fitting that 2 sportpersons - each a gigantic legend in their own right - Steffi Graf and Lance Armstrong are there to cheer Agassi on.

update #1: It is 6-3 2-6 now. Everyone leave everything and watch.
update #2: 6-3 2-6 5-6 .. Agassi just won a game after 4 deuces, saving 4 breakpoints and serving god knows how many times. The ace was a beaut.

Spurred On!

There are only a few players I really like in the NBA.

Woohoo

First things first. Narain Karthikeyan all set to enter the F1 world. He will be driving for Jordan. I know this is sort of not new now .. but its just too cool for me to ignore it. I am awaiting the 2005 F1 season for one more reason. After a disastrous 2004, McLaren now has Raikkonen as well as Montoya for 2005.
Second things second. Watched the India-Pakistan cricket match .. 1996 World Cup quarterfinals. Remember? Jadeja, Prasad-Sohail??
Woohoo!!

Jaguar racing Red Bulled

Red Bull has bought Jaguar Racing, giving it a new lease of life. Jaguar has been a not-so-recent entrant in the racing world, but failed to insipre all this time. Red Bull, a long time sponsor on track has finally become an owner and hopes to profit from the venture. Lets hope the new season will be more interesting eh?

Okaaaaaay

Okay; someone do something about this.

oh to sit back and watch..

Suddenly I find myself interested in recent sports events coming up soon ..

The only problem will be having enough time to watch all these .. with this being the last semester and all .. blah blah .. thesis work piling up .. more blah .. lets see..

.. oh and yes -- Happy BDay Chinmay!

F1 2004 Season

The 2004 F1 season starts in less than a month. 2 new races have been added this year. I'm sure this will be an exciting year. Last year is behind McLaren and they are raring to go. (heh heh - this will surely induce a few comments). My last post on F1, at the end of the last season was Schumacher wins (kutra). (It's in the old archive base on the univ server)

A lot has been said about F1 in India. It would surely be great and I'm sure fincancially profitable for all sides concerned. A friend sent me an email with the following pic tho -

[EDIT] : As Anand pointed out - why are both cars of Ferrari?