A load of crap from an idle brain

After Saina, its Paes again.  Consistency when you are 37 years old is no joke.  At a time when tennis players hang up their racquests, Leander Paes is still going strong.

India’s Leander Paes and Cara Black of Zimbabwe beat South African Wesley Moodie and Lisa Raymond of the US 6-4, 7-6 (5) to win the Wimbledon mixed doubles title here Sunday.

With this victory, Paes surpassed his one-time doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi in winning the most Grand Slam titles for India. Paes now has six doubles and six mixed-doubles titles. Bhupathi has 11 Grand Slam titles — four doubles and seven mixed doubles titles.

Full article here

Above pictures courtesy: Wimbledon

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Leander Paes equalled the record for most Grand Slam title triumphs by an Indian as the veteran and his Zimbabwean partner Cara Black clinched the Australian Open mixed doubles Championship with a straight-set win here on Sunday. Top seeds and favourites, the 36-year-old Paes and the 30-year-old Black beat 10th seeds Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and Jaroslav Levinsky of Czechoslovakia 7-5 6-3 in just about one and a half hour.

The triumph gave the Indian his 11th overall and fifth mixed doubles title. With this, Paes has equalled one-time doubles’ partner Mahesh Bhupathi’s tally. The last couple of times they reached a Grand Slam final, Paes and Black ended up on the losing side and eager to make amends for that, they were dominant from the word go.

They broke their rivals as early as in the third game and save for a couple of breaks lost on Black’s serve, the Indo-Zimbabwean pair seemed hardly troubled by Makarova and Levinsky, who committed far too many unforced errors. Black, whose net game and serve were the weak links for the top seeds, raised her game when it mattered after getting some pep talk from Paes.

Full article here

Above picture source: Topnews

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The Federer Express chugs on, merrily eclipsing all the records in his way and at the same time winning over friends and opponents with his ruthless display on the court.

Roger Federer finally broke the 14 Grand Slams record of Pete Sampras by winning the Wimbledon this weekend beating Andy Roddick of the US in a 5 set thriller.  The final set went on for an astonishing 95 minutes.

I was expecting to see another sobbing Federer at the end of the match, but it seems he managed to keep his emotions under perfect control.   An amazingly cool and composed player who very rarely loses his cool both on and off the pitch.  For a growing up kid, there is no better role model in Roger Federer.

He’s never been seen to yell either at the opponent / match officials, doesn’t spit on the ground, is modest about his achievements, but sometimes he does surprise us with his comments about the absolute confidence he has in his own game.

It would be easy to say that Federer won the last remaining Grand Slam, the French Open simply because Rafael Nadal was knocked out early in the tournament. And that Federer didnt have to meet his most decisive opponent in the finals.  But the fact is that it doesnt take away the sheen from his achievements.

Roger Federer’s Grand Slam victories

2003 – Wimbledon
2004 – Australian Open
2004 – Wimbledon
2004 – US Open
2005 – Wimbledon
2005 – US Open
2006 – Australian Open
2006 – Wimbledon
2006 – US Open
2007 – Australian Open
2007 – Wimbledon
2007 – US Open
2008 – US Open
2009 – French Open
2009 – Wimbledon

For a person who has achieved possibly everything that men’s singles tennis has to offer, it would be very tempting to either walk away from it all or to find motivation to save that one next set point or match point.   But knowing the champion that Federer is, am sure he will be back to entertain us, to show us the sheer joy of winning and most importantly that you dont need to be a brash, abusive, megalomaniac to be a champion.

All rise for the greatest tennis player ever.  Roger Federer.

Above pic source:  Din and Noise & IBNLive

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India’s Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic won the French Open men’s doubles title on Saturday with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Wesley Moodie of South Africa and Belgium’s Dick Norman.

It was 35-year-old Paes’s fifth men’s Grand Slam doubles title having won twice here in 1999 and 2001 with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi, 1999 Wimbledon with Bhupathi and the 2006 US Open with Martin Damm.

“Dick and Wesley served really huge and made it difficult for us. They did a great job in getting to the final,” said Paes who has now won 40 career doubles titles.

Paes and Dlouhy first teamed up at Roland Garros last year, losing in the last 16 to eventual champions Pablo Cuevas and Luis Horna. They then finished runners-up to Mike and Bob Bryan in the 2008 US Open final.

“We started playing together at Roland Garros last year. We lost then to the champions so we made it a point that we would come back and try and win it this year,” added Paes, who has also won four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles.

Above news source: ToI

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Some great news all round. India has taken a series winning 3-0 lead against the Sri Lankans in the 5 match one day series.  Meanwhile, South Africa  humiliated Australia by winning both the one day and test series.  To rub  salt into the wounds, New Zealand forced a win in the first one dayer against Australia on the last ball of the match.

Brad Haddin lived upto his captain’s reputation as a cheater by dislodging the bails with his gloves instead of the ball and had the gall to question Daniel Vettori when his actions were questioned.  Pricky Ricky Ponting followed suit in defending his co-cheatmate.  I was waiting to hear a classic in the lines of

If you are questioning my integrity, then probably you shouldn’t be sitting here.

but, unfortunately no such pearls of wisdom sprouted from Ricky’s mouth this time.  In other news, Ricky Ponting has been asked to rest. Heh.  Great news.  If Australia are really serious about mounting any challenge to South Africa or India, they seriously need to get rid of Ricky as captain.  He’s still a good batsman and commands a place in the team purely on his batting and fielding.  But when it comes to captaincy, he often looks lost when the chips are down.

Roger Federer lost in the finals of the Australian Open and that’s something iam unable to come to terms with.  Rafael Nadal seems to be his achilles heel. Nadal has quickly moved from being a good player on clay to grasscourts too.  So, Federer has lost his monopoly in Wimbledon now having lost to Nadal last year.  Am sure Federer will make a comeback and break Sampras’ record of 14 grand slams, but the delay is the killer.

Watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona last weekend.  Scarlett Johansson is yummy and so is Penelope Cruz.  I still cant get over the evil role of Javier Bardem in No country for old men and had a tough time thinking about him as a casanova in this movie.

Meanwhile, i will have some great 2 weeks starting this sunday.  Biwi ji will join me here in Singapore

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Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi won the mixed doubles title at the Australian Open, beating Nathalie Dechy (France) and Andy Ram (Israel) 6-3, 6-1 in the final in Melbourne on Sunday afternoon. The ace Indian pair thus made up for the disappointment of last year when they were beaten by Tiantian Sun and Nenad Zimonjic in the final.

While Sania picked her maiden Grand slam title in the process, Bhupathi swelled his Grand Slam title collection in mixed doubles to seven. Before Sunday’s triumph he won six mixed doubles crowns with different partners, the last also at the Australian Open in 2006 when he had partnered Swiss Martina Hingis.

Sania and Bhupathi had an easier time than they may have expected. Ram was broken in the opening game and from then on there was nothing the French-Israeli pair could do to stop the Indians. Two more breaks, in the seventh and ninth games, and Sania and Bhupathi had the first set in their bag in 28 minutes.

The second set too was one-sided. Bhupathi kicked it off, winning at love. Then a break on Dechy’s serve put the Indians high in the saddle at 3-1. Another break off Ram’s serve and the Indians were cruising at 5-1. Sania completed the formalities by serving out the seventh game for the set and match in 54 minutes.

On Saturday, Bhupathi and his Bahamian partner Mark Knowles squandered a one-set lead and went down to Bob and Mike Bryan in the men’s doubles final.

Above picture from: Australian Open & news from Rediff

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Delhi boy Yuki Bhambri on Saturday created history by becoming the first Indian to win the junior Australian Open title, beating Alexandros-Ferdinandos Georgoudas of Germany 6-3, 6-1 in the final.

Yuki follows in the footsteps of Indian tennis greats Ramanathan Krishnan, Ramesh Krishnan and Leander Paes to win a junior Grand Slam.

Ramanathan Krishnan won the Wimbledon junior title in 1954, the first Asian player to achieve the feat. His son Ramesh carried on the legacy to win the junior titles at French Open and Wimbledon in 1979. Paes was the last Indian to win a junior Grand Slam when he won the Wimbledon Boy’s title in 1990 and the US Open in 1991 as a 17-year-old.

Sixteen-year-old Yuki came into the Australian Open as the top seed, having reached the semi-final here last year. Yuki has been performing exceptionally in the international circuit. His best show so far has been the title win at the Orange Bowl in Key Biscayne in the US, considered to be the fifth Grand Slam, besides the Osaka Mayor’s Cup in October. It catapulted him to No. 2 in World junior rankings.

However, Yuki’s doubles campaign ended in semi-final after he and his Taipei partner Liang Chi-Huang lost 3-6, 1-6 to Russia’s Mikhal Biryukov and Japanese Yasutaka Uchiyama on Friday.

Yuki honed his skills at the famous Nick Bolletieri Tennis Academy in the USA. He is coached by Aditya Sachdeva, who accompanied him to Melbourne.

With Mahesh Bhupati in both the mixed doubles (with Sania Mirza) and in the men’s doubles finals, its some exciting days for Indian tennis.

Above pictures and news from: TimesofIndia

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Indian tennis ace Leander Paes and Zimbabwe’s Cara Black won the mixed doubles crown at the season-ending Grand Slam on Thursday. The fifth seeded Indo-Zimbabwean pair beat the American-British pairing of Liezel Huber and Jamie Murray 7-6, 6-4 in the final.

The triumph increased Paes’s  tally of Grand Slam crowns to eight. In 1999, Paes had partnered Mahesh Bhupathi and Lisa Raymond to win the men’s doubles and mixed doubles crowns at Wimbledon.

American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan won their seventh Grand Slam men’s doubles crown Friday, defeating India’s Leander Paes and Czech Lukas Dlouhy 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (12/10) to take the US Open title. The Bryans, who ran through the tournament without losing a set, previously won Slam crowns at Roland Garros in 2003, the US Open in 2005, Wimbledon in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2006 and 2007.

The defeat denied Paes a chance at a US Open doubles double, having already claimed the mixed crown with Zimbabwe’s Cara Black. Paes had claimed such doubles in 1999 at Wimbledon and the French Open, partnered with American Lisa Raymond in mixed and compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi in the men’s doubles.

The victory enables the Bryans to move back into the world number one ranking from second.

News and pictures courtesy: AFP, Daijiworld

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