Nadal thrashes Federer like never before

World No. 1 Roger Federer was beaten down in one of the most humiliating Grand Slam final's defeats ever ever. He won 4 games in total and displayed a terribly languid performance. Probably he made a record of unforced errors today; I did not have the heart of reading anything about the match afterwards, so cant confirm. I have heard of players having an off day but the Swiss was looking far from even making an effort, which is a scarier news.

Anyways, its a well-deserved credit to the 22 yr old Spaniard whose record is stellar on clay. I see him winning 2-3 more French Opens easily. This is his day and lets not take it away from him by blaming Federer for playing bad. It is Nadal who defeats him, sometimes physically and sometimes mentally.

Federer's real struggle starts now

Roger Federer, the most anxious player to claim the French Open title before its too late, has three considerable hurdle en route to victory. Although, the World No 1 is looking in good shape, the real tests begin only now when he plays some big names.

• QF against Fernando Gonzalez : not as simple as one may think. The Chilean is capable of pulling surprises and he got the better of the Swiss in their last meeting in 2007 as well.
  
• SF against Ferrer : The Spaniard (another clay court specialist) has had two 5 setters in last 2 rounds but has survived names like Hewitt and Stepanek. He troubled Nadal in Barcelona finals and may prove a hurdle in Federer's track. This is all meaningless if Ferrer loses to the local favorite Monfils, who eliminated Ljubicic earlier, in the QF. It may be a close call given that Spaniard's exhaustion may play a role.

• F against Rafa/Nole : Well, the SF between the No. 2 Spaniard and No. 3 Serb would be as mouth-watering as any Grand Slam final itself. If their match in Hamburg was any indication, this SF will be nothing less than a treat to watch. This should go to 4 sets in worst case and unless Nole has picked up some new tricks, Rafa will prove to be an unsolvable mystery once again. It will be a matter of who can survive and persist longer in the end.
  If Federer makes it till here, which he should, he will have to display an unparallel determination and confidence if he is dreaming of his career grand slam this time. Saddened to say but he doesnt have much time left to prove himself and as seen in Monte Carlo and Hamburg, he needs extra mental toughness and self belief to defeat Rafael Nadal. Probably, it will be better for him to face Novak Djokovic in the finals just to avoid that mental block against Nadal. In any case, his actual fight begins only now. Lets see if third time is lucky for him.

Forget the West Indies, lets move to Roland Garros

2007 is one year Indian cricket fans wouldn't like to remember. I dont know if theres any consolation in winning the up-coming Indo-Bangladesh tour or if it'll mitigate the seething anger of a defeated game-loving nation but I am sure it'll take more than a world cup defeat to remove cricket craze from India. But why brood upon the Port of Spain shocker, lets move on to the more exciting world of clay, tennis and an interesting rivalry.

The comfort of watching a game in which ur home country isnt a strong contender is that u can enjoy the 'good' game irrespective of patriotic loyalty. You can support the top-notch player and feel good about victory, that is a mirage in ur home game such as cricket. I'll stop bashing the cricket devotion here and talk about what I love to watch - tennis. Some people say its getting boring - monotonous would be a better word. Even Federer fans are waiting for an upset for a change (this doesnt include me). I am game for perfection and luckily for me, perfection doesnt get prosaic ever. What would have been humdrum is if one was winning by the sheer incompetency of other contestants but with Roger, that is not so. What works for him is his own impeccable play more than the lack of talent on other side of the net. It is true that he is far ahead of any of the other players and that it would have been good if he had stronger rivals. But by saying this, are we not just admitting how fantastic he is?
What makes Roland Garros special is that it promises more struggle for Fed'ex' than rest of the grand slams. And that is precisely the reason I am looking fwd to see the otherwise 'lesser' interesting championship. I lost my interest in this event since Pete Sampras never advanced beyond 2nd round (apart from 3 QF n 1 SF) through-out his career. To watch him play has been one of the simple pleasures of life. If he couldn't play on clay, I lost interest in the brown surface without any other consideration. What I haven't yet understood is that why only men players have this clay fear; most of the great ladies players have been able to achieve the dominance uniformly on all the surfaces..be it Navratilova or Graf or Seles or Hardenne. Agassi has been the exception in men but somehow I never think of him as legend on the same level as Sampras or Federer. So, to see a man coming up strongly on clay after his grass forte is very interesting.

Nadal is the answer of prayers of people who cant stand Fed's praises (for what weird reasons, I've no idea!). He has provided the only considerable challenge to the Swiss genius in past 3-4 yrs. While he is the eccentric one and crowd finds him more colorful than the 'keep it simple and straight' swiss, I think its merely the variety in the winners list that crowd is longing for. I mean how boring is it to see the same name in front of all grandslams in the winners' list. He has already broken siginificant no. of records and is heading consistently to make more than he breaks. 2007 might be the year of having a uniform winner for all the 4 major championships but what I would like to see is a good, hard-to-win match. I think we can rely on Nadal for that. The action begins 27th May. If last finale is any indication, we can look forward to a killer match since Fed is improving relentlessly and Nadal isn't going to give up the clay so easily.