Sigh! another French Open has passed by. French open is a sign. Its a sign that half the year has gone by. That summer is over. That the earth is no longer parched. Its time for green fecundity. For wimbledon. for my 24th birthday. time to get seriously wiser
I like the French Open. Its my 2nd favourite open after wimbledon. I like the glamour of paris, the chanel suits, the snooty noses and ofcourse the slide type tennis. My first ever tennis memory was of Seles winning the French Open. My dad really liked her. I loved her. she was my tennis idol and as my bro loved Steffi Graf, we were bitter rivals. I hated graf back then, and any encounter between the two of them turned in to a heated (sometimes abusive) battle at home. Remember the Graf-Seles French Open Final, that Seles won 10-8 (in think) in the final? oh that was glorious. But sadly that rivalry came to an end thanks to a deranged graf fan. I hated graf all the more. Damn tennis was a saga back then.
Ofcourse after the french open came wimbledon and somehow it seemed so right.. to move from the starved clay to green luscious grass. I love it when its wimbledon. In the past, school would have begun by then. It was new class, freshly bound notebooks with that virgin notebook smell, neat first page handwriting, new uniforms and then on coming home there would be wimbledon on DD with some BBC guy giving some stolid commentary. The world felt so right then.
I've sat up late into the night to see some awesome tennis with my dad and bro and those are some of my most cherished memories. I remember becker's last wimbledon match against sampras. I remember watching McEnroe in his twilight years and every time he'd get disgusted, someone in the crowd would hold up a poster that said , "You Can't Be Serious!!". oooh remember goran invanisevic? I remember him in his first wimbledon final aginst agassi which he lost and that was particularly painful because I loved him in my 9 year old heart and then came his redemption in 2001 where he beat Pat rafter. I seriously wept that day, seeing him win, seeing some one get what they most covet. And then there was that Graf -novotna final. It's still so vivid for me. Novotna leading in the final set, a break ahead and I was doing a jig around my brother. No effing way Graf was going to win and then good old DD dramatically lost tranmission. I was so confident that graf was going to lose and when DD finally got live feed, Graf was ahead and was serving for the match!!!. It's still the biggest WHAT DA...moment of my life. oh I loved DD's coverage of wimbledon. It was so quaint, I still prefer it over any of your star sports-ESPN jazzy digital coverage.
And then in this season of tennis there would be tennis fantasies. Yes, that I was world number one champion tennis player that had never EVER lost. In fact I had even achieved a double golden slam, I was that dominant. In my dreams I was a legend. I used to even sign on magazine covers with a felt pen and that would really annoy mom. I loved my interviews, which I gave in the bathroom to an imaginary interviewer. I was so awesome, modest and humble and oh so poised...
And watching Federer lose to Nadal this sunday, I felt that I lost a special moment. of missing being part of history. But still, there'll always be more tennis. Here's to more special moments.
I like the French Open. Its my 2nd favourite open after wimbledon. I like the glamour of paris, the chanel suits, the snooty noses and ofcourse the slide type tennis. My first ever tennis memory was of Seles winning the French Open. My dad really liked her. I loved her. she was my tennis idol and as my bro loved Steffi Graf, we were bitter rivals. I hated graf back then, and any encounter between the two of them turned in to a heated (sometimes abusive) battle at home. Remember the Graf-Seles French Open Final, that Seles won 10-8 (in think) in the final? oh that was glorious. But sadly that rivalry came to an end thanks to a deranged graf fan. I hated graf all the more. Damn tennis was a saga back then.
Ofcourse after the french open came wimbledon and somehow it seemed so right.. to move from the starved clay to green luscious grass. I love it when its wimbledon. In the past, school would have begun by then. It was new class, freshly bound notebooks with that virgin notebook smell, neat first page handwriting, new uniforms and then on coming home there would be wimbledon on DD with some BBC guy giving some stolid commentary. The world felt so right then.
I've sat up late into the night to see some awesome tennis with my dad and bro and those are some of my most cherished memories. I remember becker's last wimbledon match against sampras. I remember watching McEnroe in his twilight years and every time he'd get disgusted, someone in the crowd would hold up a poster that said , "You Can't Be Serious!!". oooh remember goran invanisevic? I remember him in his first wimbledon final aginst agassi which he lost and that was particularly painful because I loved him in my 9 year old heart and then came his redemption in 2001 where he beat Pat rafter. I seriously wept that day, seeing him win, seeing some one get what they most covet. And then there was that Graf -novotna final. It's still so vivid for me. Novotna leading in the final set, a break ahead and I was doing a jig around my brother. No effing way Graf was going to win and then good old DD dramatically lost tranmission. I was so confident that graf was going to lose and when DD finally got live feed, Graf was ahead and was serving for the match!!!. It's still the biggest WHAT DA...moment of my life. oh I loved DD's coverage of wimbledon. It was so quaint, I still prefer it over any of your star sports-ESPN jazzy digital coverage.
And then in this season of tennis there would be tennis fantasies. Yes, that I was world number one champion tennis player that had never EVER lost. In fact I had even achieved a double golden slam, I was that dominant. In my dreams I was a legend. I used to even sign on magazine covers with a felt pen and that would really annoy mom. I loved my interviews, which I gave in the bathroom to an imaginary interviewer. I was so awesome, modest and humble and oh so poised...
And watching Federer lose to Nadal this sunday, I felt that I lost a special moment. of missing being part of history. But still, there'll always be more tennis. Here's to more special moments.
Now Fed go get that wimbledon now!
4 comments:
Hey, that bit about associating the French Open with a sign, and Wimbledon with the first month of school really touched a nerve! My favourite early memory of Wimbledon is that of a young Andre Agassi, with the outrageous hairstyle and the earrings, playing along with the crowd's comments and wooing them in the process. The interviews those days were really entertaining to...makes today's press conferences seem mundane.
FEMALE REPORTER: Andre, are you aware your shorts are slightly transparent?
AGASSI: Am I aware of that? No, apparently you are.
Hehehe, Yeah those were fun. Didn't like agassi much tho, was a firm sampy fan
Awesome! Exactly like i remember it :)
Hey...great post...I really vividly remember the Ivansevic game. And also another nice guy Rafter and its a pity that one had to lose.
Sorry about not responding to your comment about Hyd. I haven't checked my blog for a while. Its been great going so far here.
Post a Comment