A new champion at Wimbledon.

It was probably the greatest tennis match I have ever witnessed.It was a gruelling five setter with all the elements of drama poured in.Emotions sored sky high as the match progressed and doubts took centre stage as both players took two sets each.It was a competition between two players who are regarded to be the best in the world today.It was a match that certainly made them live up to their reputations.After the Spanish bull took a two set to nothing lead over Federer,the rain came pouring down and the players had to leave.After the two resumed with the rain vanishing Federer looked more confident and won the third set in the tie-break.The fourth set also went to the tie-break and Nadal squandered a match point and Federer took the fourth one as well.The fifth set was at two games all with Federer serving when rain interrupted play once again.The two behemoths resumed after a twentyeight minute delay.It almost looked as if Federer would have lost the match in the third set itself had it not been for his superior serve.He showed the world why he was the five time champion at Wimbledon.The young Spaniard who was looking better than the last two Wimbledons had improved his serve and was only broken once in the match.He was magnificient and always had an upper hand in a rally.Federer kept on rolling ace after ace until he was broken atlast and after saving another match point Nadal picked up the intensity once again and it proved to be too much for the great champion as he hit a fore hand into the net and saw Rafa fall to the ground in joy as he was crowned Wimbledon champion for the first time in his life.Federer felt the same thing that Andy Roddick,Mark Phillipousis and Rafael Nadal Perriera must have felt for the last five years.Nadal could not consume his emotions as he has done something that nobody could ever do for the past five years.The match concluded after playing for over four hours and it was the longest men's singles final in Wimbledon history.Nadal has broken a record that stood for twenty eight years as he went on to win both Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same year and the only Spaniard to win the Wimbledon after Santana in 1966.It was ultimate joy for Nadal and agony for Federer.Federer's number one spot is threatened with Nadal's win and Roger needs to be at his best to win again as he has won just one title this year and three out of the four grand slam titles went to Djokovic and Nadal.Only time will tell whether Federer's time at number one is over or will the great champ come back,because if he doesn't,it will be the end of an era.Finally,I would like to congratulate Nadal and vamos.

War of the keepers.

The stage was set for two great sides to face off on a grand stage and unleash a legendary rivalry.It was the last match of the quarter-finals in the Euro 2008 and it was between Italy and Spain.There was a lot of expectation about Italy winning Euro 2008 with them being the world champions.But,Spain had other things in mind.It was a perfect match that a goal keeper could have for Iker Casillas of Spain who was the hero of the day.This tournament had many things to talk about even before it started with a team like England not even qualifying.A team like Netherlands who were expected to win it from the start after thrashing Italy to a 3-0 win early in the tournament failed to go through and the quarter-final stage ending with some heroics by Casillas.He had a great day right from an amazing save of Luca Toni's header in the second half to those all important two saves in the penalties.He kept his cool and didn't let his emotions get the better of him in the penalty shootout although he had a more than an imtidating opponent who goes by the name Buffon and carries the name tag of the best goal keeper in the world today.After yesterday I am pretty sure that Buffon might have realised that he has a major rival.

The big three of Indian cricket.

Sachin Tendulkar,Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid are perhaps India's finest batsmen of all time.Having come to the international stage at the same time and playing alongside each other for many years is an achievement in itself.All three of them are known for different reasons.Saurav is known to be one of the finest one-day batsman having the ability to attack at will regardless of the opposition.Rahul Dravid on the other hand is a technical genius and plays the ball completely by its merit and is known to be second to the great Sunil Gavaskar when it comes to technicality.Sachin Tendulkar,regarded as the world's greatest batsman has shown the world time in and time out what he was capable off even after playing the game for 18 years continuosly.All three of them have captained India with sachin Tendulkar doing it twice and Ganguly being the longest serving captain out of the three and India's most succesful captain on an overall basis in both formats of the game.He is the third most successful captain in the world in the longer version of the game.Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly have made their test debut in the same match at Lord's in 1996.Ganguly scored a century on debut and Rahul Dravid missed one by five runs.They started their dominance over indian cricket from that day forth.Sourav and Rahul have both been dropped from the one day side off-late because the selectors went in favour of a young side.Both of them have been exceptional performers in both forms of the game with Ganguly scoring over 11000 runs and Rahul Dravid scoring over 10000 runs in the 50 over format.Whatever the situation might be,these three individuals are responsible for the position that India is enjoying in world Cricket today.These three men have proved themselves on the greatest stage and so,deserve the title the big three.

Rafa.....wimbledon 2008?

Rafael Nadal or Rafa as fans call him is due for another grang slam other than the french open that he has been winning so consistently for the past four years.The recently concluded tournament saw some one sided tennis from Rafa.You would'nt really associate this word with any tennis player when he plays against Roger Federer.The great Swiss lost a set 6-0 for the first time in nine years.Whatever court it might be it certainly is an achievment to beat Federer like that and especially in grand slam final.I surely think that Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt would be very happy to see that result.They were dominated and embarassed in a way by Federer on many occasions.I surely think that this year's wimbledon would be very interesting since Rafa was able to make it to the final of tennis's leading tournament twice in the last two years.Federer displayed poor form in the french open because he was making too many mistakes.If its not going to be Nadal it might be Djokovic who is amazing on the faster courts.He is the current Australian champion right?The bottomline is that Federer needs to be at his best to win his sixth consecutive wimbledon and enter the record books,but Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have a great part to play in this year's ultimate tournament.

India-next generation.

India is a coutry of many cricket crazy fans or should I call them fanatics.I can't help but accept the fact that I am one of them.If it wasn't for them the IPL would'nt have been this big a hit.There wasn't any such thing as Yuvraj Singh hitting six sixes in an over or even a classic final between two arch rivals India and Pakistan.There wasn't any drama as big as this.The only thing big was the amount of money the players were getting.The opening few matches saw some big scores and some big hits but things started to settle down after that.I feel that the IPL was this big a success because of the fans and only the fans.I surely think that the format wouldn't have been this big a success had it been in Austrlalia or England.I even think that none of these boards can even afford the IPL.They can do nothing but succumb to the might of Indian cricket.Now since this is my first post I would like to congratulate the young group of cricketers of India.Their recent performances in the limted overs formats were more than just praiseworthy.I am sure that every indian in the country is proud of them today.Coming to the point I think India has been on an all time high since that worldcup in West indies that has left painful memories to the hearts of milions in India.The Indian team went to Bangladesh first to exact revenge on the Tigers and they did exactly what was expected of them.After leaving Bangladesh they left for England and won the test series 1-0 under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid.It was all thanks to the efforts of the trio of Sachin,Saurav and Rahul and of course Laxman,Kumble and even Zaheer Khan.R.P.Singh chipped in as well.The one-day series was over and India lost by just one match.Then it was that infamous first edition of the T20 world cup.India then lost to Australia in the home series but dominated Pakistan completely in both formats of the game.Then its the Australian series.Everyone has remembered the test series for all the wrong reasons.Then it was the triangular which scooped up the contraversy by dropping Ganguly and Dravid in favour of a young side.Dravid was out of form but Ganguly was performing very well.The point is that this new generation of Indian cricketers has been amazing but the fact remains that the great Ganguly and Dravid who have performed very consistently for India for many years should not be disrespected and the IPL is proof enough that they have a lot to show in limited overs cricket as well.Since this is my first post,its fitting that it should be about cricket.I am an Indian afterall.