Rafa in Roland Garros: Invincible or Vulnerable?

Why invincible?

Though there is no point discussing his skills, his ability and his dominance over clay we can just blindly come to the conclusion that he is the one who will own Roland Garros (henceforth RG) this year also. But when we analyse critically, we can also prove the same logically. Below factors supporting the fact:

1. Never lost in RG
2. Never stretched match to five set in Roland Garros
3. Has the win-loss record of 150-5 since 2005
4. Has the perfect record of 45-0 best of five set encounters in clay
5. Mental toughness, never give up attitude.
6. Focus on the point rather than the set\match\championship
7. Supreme physical fitness

Why vulnerable?

1. Only vulnerable factor is due to long matches he will get tired and run out of gas.

Given these entire scenario, after all in sports no one can judge what will happen in next minute. Odds are pointing to the King of clay to win his 5th consecutive RG but only King of Kings (God) will know the result & he reveal the result on June 7.Lets wait and watch this artist at work.

Vamos Rafa…

UEFA Champions league final: Image tells the story

After survived the initial threat for 10 minutes from Christiano Ronaldo, FC Barcelona throttled and outlast the Manchester United. Christiana Ronaldo gave United a great start. It looks like United will score at any moment, but the momentum changed once Samuel Eto 'o, whose tenth minute goal put the United on chasing and the United continuous attempt on disturbing the Barca's rhythm was failed. Guardiola executed a great strategy by playing Messi lower in the middle; thereby putting more pressure on United's defence.

A superb pass from Xavi to Messi resulted in 2-0 on 80th minute. 5ft 7inch Argentine completed the goal with miraculous header to give United a knock out punch. Xavi and Andres Iniesta displayed high quality midfield chemistry with some incisive passing and the movement. It seems Sir Alex Ferguson's side is clueless in the middle - unable to play the ball to the box. Arguably Xavi earned man-of-the-match for his splendid performance.
This was Barca's 3rd Champions league victory, congratulations to them.

Oh Maria

What a way to comeback by former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova; she battled out to win the French Open 2nd round encounter with her Russian mate Nadia Petrova in 3 sets 6-2, 6-1, 8-6 and eventually advanced through to 3rd round. Arguably, this match is best of the tournament in women's draw in terms of quality.

Maria is featuring in French open after a long lay off period of 10 months due to shoulder injury. Her last match before injury was Wimbledon 2nd round. Definitely this victory will give her enough confidence to go forward to the high level. Wish her all the best to go and win another slam.

Few 'Bananas' to see

Rafa has flurry of shots in his arsenal;often he will excite the crowd with some amazing shots.Recently Rafa has played the tennis latest innovation called 'Banana shot'... have a look:

My 11

We had seen some amazing performance from some of the individuals from each team in the IPL II. Herewith I am presenting the dream 11 in the context of IPL 2009. I am stick with the combination of 7 Indian players + 4 foreign players. Here we go…

1. Mathew Hayden – Gave solid start for CSK and orange cap holder of the tournament. He can give a great start and upset any plans of the opposite side.
2. Adam Gilchrist (Capt. & WK) – His age is 37, but behind the stumps he is just 19 years old. He will fit into world XI of all era. He is a perfect opening patner for Haydos as both of them played for Aus and devastated the opponents for many years. Surely this combo is a scary one for any opposite side.
3. Suresh Raina – This lad is a great No. 3 player and Dhoni found an off spinner in him, which proved very handy in some crunch situations.
4. AB De Villiers – He is a top 5 run getters in this tournament, with his reliable batting performance and great fielding skills (leading catch taker with 13 scalp) he won the race for No. 4 by passing JP Duminy & T. Dilshan
5. Yuvraj Singh – Whole world knows about his batting skills, but he surprised everyone with couple of hat-tricks. So, he is a leading all-rounder in our XI.
6. Rohit Sharma – This IPL is a limelight to this elegant batsman. He proved himself with great batting, fielding and more importantly in bowling; who will forget his match winning bowling performance against Mumbai Indians. One of the great finishers we found in this version.
7. Irfan Pathan – He is in top 5 wicket takers of the tournament and also he will be handy with his bat. He is a clean striker of the ball and can clear the boundaries with ease.
8. Pragyan Ojha – What a bowler he is turning out to be, he is already found his place in India T20 team. Took wickets in crucial junctures to place his team (DC) in winning ways.
9. Anil Kumble – Great bowler India have ever produced; with his vast experience, he will do magic for you in any given moment. Nobody can forget his match winning bowling performance against DC in the final, which gave him man-of-the-match of the final.
10. Lasith Malinga – No one can bowl a perfect Yorker than this man. I would rate this bowler next to Wasim Akram in troubling any batsmen in the world.
11. RP Singh – Purple cap holder of the tournament. We can rely on his death bowling skills. With his penetrating line and length he is a good bowler to have in any side. As T20 world cup is on the way, he can fill the spot of strike bowler incase Zakeer is not recover from injury.
12. Asish Nehra / Yusuf Pathan - Though Yusuf is not in his best of touch in this tournament. He can be devastating, in his day. And these either of this two will be my twelfth man.
Note: When I turn into news channels and sport channels, everyone sit and talk about their dream 11. I too thought and tried here to pick my 11 based on some limited cricket knowledge I posses.

Too busy

IPL II extravaganza just got over; Attention will be shifted to tennis for-a-while as French open began just last Sunday, next to that ICC world T20 is waiting in the queue once it got over again the focus will be back to tennis when Wimbledon begins in the June end., in-between UEFA champions league final tonight. I will be busy watching all these great sporting events. May-July is great period of sporting action. I can forget of watching movies and tune in before Television set following all these actions.

I could feel the adrenalin rush when Man Utd takes on Barcelona FC tonight at Rome; eagerly waiting for the contest between C.Ronaldo vs. L.Messi.

Yes, I am too busy for next couple of months.

Police: Image tells the story

Unites States Policemen


England Policemen


Scotland Policemen



German Policemen

And finally...


our great Indian Policemen

a fwd:

A lovely forward I received today

History beckons

Clay court season is back and Rafael Nadal, the King of clay was on a roll already winning 3 titles (Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Rome Masters) out of four tournaments eventually lost the Madrid masters to his all time rival Roger Federer. He has already made clear inroads for record 5th French open title in consecutive years, winning his first round match against Daniel in straight sets 7-5, 6-4, 6-3.

Rafa created history by winning first round match thereby holding a perfect 29-0 record in Roland Garros only the first men to do so since Chris Evert. He is popular figure in Paris and started the tournament as clear favourite. Already Rafa sharing the legacy with legendary Bjorn Borg of winning French Open for four consecutive years; If he manages to win the title in 2009 means, he would became the first men ever in the tennis history to win French Open for five consecutive years (2005-2009)., we will know that by June 7.

Vamos Rafa

A new experience

Indeed it was a new experience to interview couple of personnel to recruit them as a part of our project team. I had vast experience of attending technical interviews and often enjoyed to face the challenge of answering tricky questions. In fact this one was a new to me as it is a vice-versa. To be candid, I was bit nervous to hear that I am going to take technical interview for those who are having more professional experience than me; I had geared up mentally and gone through a few technical materials and noted down some key questions to put.

And finally the moment came and lasted for over two hours; when I looking back to that, I was bit surprised to imagine that jiffy? I have to feel sorry for the person who is in receiving end, because I unleashed flurry of questions and put him under embarrassment more often; can't compromise given that it’s a job given to me.