tennis and edberg

i have copied this article from rediff verbatim to keep it in my recods.. edberg was my favorite player when i started watching tennis during the late eighties and early nineties.. i became a huge fan of him while watching the wimbledon 1990 final against boris becker.. he was a great player of serve and volley.. in fact the logo of australian open grand slam tennis tournament is dedicated to his unique style of service.. besides being a good tennis player, he was a great sportsman and won the atp sportsmanship award 5 times !! the article follows now:

Stefan Edberg: A Champion reflects

Seventeen years ago, the US Open showcased a maestro at work as Stefan Edberg put together a flawless display of tennis to defeat Jim Courier. The legendary sportsman reflects on the win, his rivalries and the state of tennis today.

It came as a surprise to many that Stefan Edberg had gone his first eight visits to the US Open without a title. But in 1991, the stars finally aligned for the Swede.

Edberg and American Jim Courier both entered their first US Open final on a roll. Edberg, ranked No. 2 at the time, was coming off a straight-sets semifinal win over long-time rival Ivan Lendl. Courier, who did not drop a set en route to the title match, had defeated defending champion Pete Sampras in the quarterfinals and sentimental favorite Jimmy Connors in the semifinals.

With the on-court temperatures eclipsing the 90 degree mark, Edberg put on one of the best performances in a US Open final. With a perfect display of serve and volley tennis, he completed a 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 masterpiece victory to capture his first US Open title.

Afterwards, Courier said, "I remember walking off of the court knowing there was no way I could have beaten him on that day. He played a nearly flawless match in every facet."

Edberg followed it up with a repeat title performance one year later in what would turn out to be his final Grand Slam title, but the 1991 championship remains his favorite US Open memory. "Lifting the trophy after beating Courier was the best match of my life," he says.

Courier, who would finish No. 1 in 1992 after Edberg held the top spot the previous two years, said about their rivalry, "I had many a fierce battle with Stefan inside the lines and I consider him one of the all-time gentlemen of our sport. Our match-ups were interesting ones as we had contrasting styles. He knew what I was going to do and vice versa and it was simply a matter of who executed better on the day as to who won."

But theirs wasn't the only classic rivalry Edberg was involved in during his outstanding career. The Swede played long-time nemesis Boris Becker 35 times, and also battled countryman Mats Wilander, Lendl, and Michael Chang at least 20 times each. Edberg says, "Thinking back, I was lucky to play in this era of great players."

From 1983-1996 when Edberg competed on the ATP circuit, he faced nine players who were current or former No. 1s at least nine times: Jimmy Connors (6-6), John McEnroe (6-7), Lendl (14-13), Mats Wilander (9-11), Boris Becker (10-25), Courier (4-6), Pete Sampras (6-8), Andre Agassi (3-6), and Thomas Muster (10-0).

Edberg, in remembering his own rivals, is highly intrigued by the rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, which has taken center stage in the world of tennis.

"Wherever they play, they reach the final and they've had an incredible run," says Edberg, from his countryside home outside of Grimslov, Sweden.

"They have very few letdowns and I've never seen anything else like that. There hasn't been two guys dominating the game the way they've had, as much as they've done. This rivalry is great for tennis and the quality of matches are extremely high level. Now you need a new name or two, like (Novak) Djokovic, and it would be nice to see some new faces coming up."

Edberg, who won the ATP Sportsmanship Award so many times it was renamed in his honor in 1996, is impressed by the way Federer and Nadal have handled themselves during their lengthy stays at the top two ranking positions.

"What an incredible record to stay at the number one position for 237 weeks to one of the best players ever playing the game," he says of Federer's record reign at No. 1. "It's also a tribute to his sportsmanship as well.

"Nadal is a great player with incredible charisma and fighting spirit and he deserves the No. 1 ranking, especially after winning one of the greatest Wimbledon finals ever following the French Open win."

No stranger to playing in championship finals himself, Edberg won six Grand Slam singles titles twice at Wimbledon (1988, '90), the US Open (1991-92) and Australian Open (1985, '87) in addition to three Grand Slam doubles crowns.

During Edberg's run to his last Slam title at the US Open in 1992, the serve-and-volleying Swede defeated three straight opponents in five sets, including Chang in the semifinals in the longest match in US Open history at five hours and 26 minutes.

"That was by far the most difficult Slam tournament in my career," says Edberg, who capped it off with a four-set win over Pete Sampras in the final. "I beat Chang in a marathon and then had to come back the next day to play Sampras."

Edberg looks at today's game and says he's a little disappointed not to see any serve-and-volley players like from his era. "You have some bigger servers today but they don't follow-up going to the net. With Boris and Goran (Ivanisevic) you wouldn't get any rhythm and if you dropped your serve it was extremely difficult to come back and win the set.

"Being a serve-and-volleyer myself, it would be nice to have one, two or three. The guys are playing good, effective tennis today but it would be nice to have variation of styles. I played Chang and he would stay back. You look at Borg and McEnroe and they had different styles. That would be the only thing I wish to see variation."

But Edberg continues: "Tennis is in pretty good shape right now and Federer-Nadal have played some quality tennis matches. It's also nice to see (Novak) Djokovic playing well and up there."

Today, the 42-year-old Edberg is a part-owner and board member of the Swedish investment company Case Assets Management, and lives in the Swedish countryside with his wife Annette and two children, Emilie, 15, and Christopher, 11.

And, while he'll be watching the action at Flushing Meadows closely, Edberg predicts that this year's US Open will come down to the Big 3 of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, with "Federer winning once again!"

east or west, olympics and ice-cream

i had successfully avoided getting addicted to nicotine and ethanol, but i think i am failing against caffein.. surprisingly, it is not in the form of liquid coffee that most people resort to for avoiding sleep during boring office hours or exam preparations.. i don't mean to say that i don't drink coffee at all, i go for my daily dose of medium latte or mocha depending upon whether i am feeling more sleepy or hungry :) sadly, the caffein addiction has come in form of something to which i can never say no, "ice-cream".. yes, i have been eating loads and loads of this coffee flavor ice-cream, even if i eat a heavy dinner i need to have my daily 95gm of "espresso croquant" unless it is out-of-stock at all the nearby seven-eleven, park-n-shop or wellcome stores.. and just like people have their favorite brand of sutta or daaru, i am loyal to movenpick when it comes to coffee icecream.. i don't like compromising on quality and so prefer to wait for the movenpick stock to get replenished rather than falling for the lowly hagan-das :P the other problem that i face is logistics, earlier a few times i had purchased the 500gm pack at a cost of approx 85 hkd but now for months i had not been able to find the 500gm pack at any of the stores.. so i have to regularly purchase this 95gm cup now which comes for around 26 hkd and is roughly 1.5 times costlier than the 500gm pack:( also while the 500gm pack used to last for roughly a week, it is difficult not to eat the entire 95gm cup once opened and leave something for the next day.. so in a way now i am eating roughly 500gms in 5 days :( i hope this excess of caffein doesn't cause much harm to my body..

at the beijing olympics, indians have given their best performance till date winning 3 medals (1 gold and 2 bronze).. in the past, we had won 2 silvers in 1900 and 1 gold & 1 bronze in 1952.. i was hoping (for a change) that federer would continue his bad form in doubles also and lose against our team in QFs but he seemed determined to win an olympic gold, if not in singles then in doubles, and so our team of paes and bhupathi couldn't win a medal in tennis.. anyways hoping that the medal count will only increase at london in 2012 :) on a lighter note, i am wondering what was going through vijender singh's mind during the boxing semi-final match yesterday.. he was assured of a medal irrespective of the result, a bronze if he lost and a silver or a gold depending on the result of final if he advanced.. but he must have been under a lot of pressure during the match not because the whole nation was praying for his win but because bipasha basu had promised to go on a date with him if he wins a gold.. think of poor vijender, first he had to win the semi-final, then the final and then eventually to date bips "usse john abraham ki laash ke upar se gujarna padta" !! looks like vijender also heard about the change of guard in bollywood with aishwarya, preity and rani getting replaced by katrina, deepika and genelia as the brand ambassadors of nakshatra, bsnl and munch respectively :) so he took it easy and decided not to get involved in too much fighting over bips, guess his decision if the proposal had come from kareena.. would he have played it "saif" even then ?

talking of olympics, the two week long tournament held in beijing is coming to an end on sunday.. to the surprise of many, china had overthrown america as the winner of maximum golds even though america still managed to hold the numro uno spot when it comes to total number of medals.. but going by their performance in this tournament, one just thinks that china mightn't have to wait for too long and may end up winning the most medals in london.. though there has been much criticism of the way china had prepared its athletes for the olympics.. at a very young age, many chinese kids are sent to these sports camps where they are groomed for years in the various sports, they have to follow a very strict and dedicated schedule in which they are cut-off from their families.. at the end of this training period, only a select few are chosen to represent the country at the olympics while the rest are more or less discarded.. now the ones who get discarded are likely to face a very tough life going ahead since due to the sports training program, they also miss on the schooling part.. since all the people who stay at these sports camps are cut-off from the rest of the world, they have no option but to marry someone from the camp itself.. but even then the husband and the wife have to stay in different wards.. all in the name of "focus" for games and avoiding any trace of "personal life".. china had tried to use this tournament to project a good image especially after the worldwide criticism over its actions againts the monks in tibet.. it had used "one world one dream" as the theme of this olympics to convey a message that it is more open-minded and accepting nation than what the world thinks of it.. but in my view, using these kinds of dedicated sports camps is a curtailment of human rights in itself..

critic or no critic, america will have to do something to stop the chinese dragon from breathing fire in london olympics.. else they will lose their stronghold on the arena of global sports.. their position as the powerhouse in global politics is already getting a threat by the resurgence of russia.. since the breakdown of ussr, america had consolidated its position as the powerhouse for the last 15 years or so.. but as they say, nothing is permanent accept change.. the conflict between russia and georgia over occupancy of south ossetia gave russia a chance to make incursions in georgia.. and though they have finally accepted to withdraw their troops from georgia after numerous demands of ceasefire from america and france, tension still persists in the region with claims that russians are not fully complying with the terms of ceasefire.. in fact, the western powers (america and europe) had to accept almost all the terms put forth by russia for bringing ceasefire in the region.. many are taking this as a re-emergence of eastern powers with china also keeping a mum over this whole matter since it plays to their advantage only (with their crackdown on monks in tibet being severely criticised by the west).. with the white house elections due in next three months, rest assured the new president (be it obama or mccain) will surely be a busy man from day one..

ps: i ate 2 cups of coffee icecream yesterday..

pps: no offence meant to vijender or any other resident from bhiwani..

ppps: waiting for "rock on" to hit theatres next week, more on it later..