Wimbledon's gonna be fun...

We have 3 people who have a very good chance of winning at Wimbledon. We got Novak Djokovic, a great all-court player, the Aussie open champion and arguably the next world no. 1. We got Rafael Nadal, who is on cruise control right now, blowing past Federer in the French Open and then running though the draw on the grass courts at Queens. And then we got Roger Federer, the 5 time defending champion, one of the best tennis players of all time.

Going by current form, I would not bet against Nadal actually winning Wimbledon. He is playing the best tennis of life, even on grass, where he beat Roddick and Djokovic back-to-back at Queens. Federer, on the other hand had a horrible start to the year, but is playing much better now having made it to the French Open finals and winning the Gerry Weber Open on grass. Is this going to be the year Federer is finally toppled at Wimbledon? Or is Federer going to turn around the year, with his 6th consecutive victory at his favorite venue?

Gamesmanship... or cheating?

In today's ultra-competitive world of pro-sports, gamesmanship is becoming a bigger and bigger factor in the outcome of games. Here are some things which tread the fine line between gamesmanship and cheating:

1. Sledging (or trash talking) is rampant in cricket. The motive is most often to disturb the concentration of the batsman.
2. In tennis, players grunt loudly when hitting the ball, wear squeaky shoes or annoy the opponent by varying the number of times they bounce the ball before serving.
3. In NFL and college football, coaches routinely take a time-out just a split second before the opposing kicker is going to kick a game winning field goal, thus making him kick again.
4. In basketball, fouls are an integral part of the game plan, especially during the closing seconds.
5. In soccer, players fake or amplify injuries, to pressure the referee to penalize the opposing player.

I'm sure there are many other such instances in other sports too.

So, whats the solution? On one hand, we could have stricter rules to prevent these things from happening. Or we could adhere to the principle: If you can't take it, you don't deserve to be there. I think there is no simple solution to this problem. Making rules stricter would take the fun and emotions (and ultimately spectators) away from sports, while keeping them unchanged would lead to more and more players finding inventive ways of gamesmanship.

Watching Federer live

Thanks to the 2 people who actually read my blog, for egging me on to write this post. It has been long overdue.

The big story is of course that I went to see the US Open mens semis and got to see Roger Federer live. The GOD himself. Now I can strike that one safely off my list of "Things to do before I die". It was a simple 3 set affair in which Roger easily beat Nikolay Davydenko. At the end of it, I was actually rooting for Davydenko to take a set, just so that I can see more of Roger. Not to be. Anyways watching Federer live is a treat, as he stands out from the rest of the field with his graceful and elegant strokeplay, if not anything else. Something not to be missed even if you are even a casual tennis fan.

Here are some pics:
This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog

The other semifinals Djokovic vs. Ferrer was decent too, with Djokovic showing some big time potential. While he does not have the finesse of Federer, he looks to be the next great all-court player, more so than Nadal who is by and large ineffective on hard courts, where his top spin isn't as lethal. Lets see if Djokovic can back his potential with some Grand Slam wins.

Back to Federer, we should consider ourselves lucky to be around watching him play. In the 90s it was Sachin Tendulkar with his batting masterclass and this decade it is Federer with his flawless tennis. Here's hoping that such geniuses continue to be born, regaling us with their wizardry....

Hawk-Eye in tennis

Recently the Hawk-Eye technology has been used in tennis to judge close line calls. I had previously posted about Hawk-Eye, thinking at the time that it was the right way to go for tennis. In this post I will try and make a case otherwise :).

The problem with using Hawk-Eye in tennis lies in the fact that what it shows us is the 2d projection of the tennis ball. This is fine when the ball is traveling through the air. But when the ball hits the ground, it is not the 2d projection of the 3d ball which is the point of contact of the ball with the ground. The soft tennis ball gets partially squashed when it hits the ground, & it is the squashed portion of the ball which touches the ground. Thus the point (or region) of contact is actually a fraction of the 2d projection shown to us by Hawk-Eye. Moreover such a fraction would be hard to figure out using simple physics, since it's a chaotic system depending on a lot of factors like speed, spin, angle, surface, temperature etc.

Of course, one can argue that Hawk-Eye need not be perfect, but merely better than the human judges for it to be used. But testing such an assertion would be very tough, simply because there is no ground truth in this problem. Even if such a test comparing Hawk-Eye and human judges were to be performed, who decides whether Hawk-Eye or the human judge is "more right"? That would have to be a system better than both Hawk-Eye or humans. The existence of such a system would imply that we wouldn't have this argument in the first place. Ah paradoxes :).

Damien Martyn retires

Damien Martyn announced his retirement from test and one-day cricket today. Martyn was one of my favorite batsmen to watch when in full flow. His shots were a treat to watch, played with exquisite timing and lazy elegance. Very similar to the way Herschelle Gibbs and VVS Laxman play. Though he didn't possess the technique of a Dravid or even Mark Waugh, he made up for it with pure shotmaking skills. He made batting look easy, a lazy Sunday afternoon walk in the park.

I have practically given up watching cricket in the past couple of years, but I hope we have more like him, who make watching a whole day of cricket worth every moment.

Update: Now Warne also announced his retirement.

Federer v Nadal, for the final time this year

The setting was the semifinals at the season ending Master's Cup at Shanghai, the biggest tournament of the year outside of the 4 Grand Slams. It pits the top 8 players of the year against each other in a round-robin followed by the semis and finals.

Federer won 6-4, 7-5 in a match that was way more competitive than the scoreline suggests. It featured some ridiculous hitting from both the players, and some of the rallies were just out of this world. Especially the last 3-4 points of the last game with Nadal serving at 5-6 were just incredible, given the kind of pressure these guys were under.

I have said this before and will say it again: We are looking at the best tennis EVER played. Better than Sampras, Agassi, Rafter, Becker, Edberg, McEnroe, Lendl, Borg or Connors.

With this victory, Federer has won the last 2 matches against Nadal, after losing 5 consecutively before that. I can't wait for next season and Federer's quest for the French Open and a place in history as the greatest tennis player ever.

Here are the highlights.



P.S: Federer went on to blow away Blake 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 in the finals. As if anyone really had any doubts.