Monthly Sports Round-up - September 2006
September 3 - Tiger continues his dream run of winning PGA tournaments, which currently stands at 5. Though he has won 6 tournaments on the trot way back in 1999, that was split between 2 seasons - 4 in one and 2 in the subsequent one. So, this is the first time he has won 5 straight tournaments in 1 single season. The way he turned a 3 shot deficit entering the final round into a 2 shot victory was simply amazing. At times, like these, there is little folks like Vijay Singh, who was leading on entering the 3rd round, can do. It is now almost looking ominous, as Tiger keeps winning all these titles, after his dad's death and we are seeing more glimpses of the Tiger of old, winning Championships at will, leaving the rest of the field grasping for breath.
September 7 - The 2006 NFL season starts with a match-up between the defending champions, the Steelers and the Miami Dolphins. Everyone's pick to win it all, at this point, seems to be the Colts and the Panthers. Personally, I would be more interested in following if the Seahawks can follow their last season's Super Bowl run with another one this season. History is heavily loaded against them though - no Super Bowl losing team has had more than 8 wins in the season after the Super Bowl appearance. But I am sure the Seahawks, inspite of their tough schedule - road games at Chicago, Kansas City, Washington - will make it to the playoffs. The opening game once again showed what Steelers football is all about - build a lead and then grind the opposition out with the running game. The game, which appeared closer at one point with Miami having a 3 point lead, turned into a blowout after Culpepper threw 2 interceptions in 2 consecutive possessions.
September 9 - Sharapova wins her 2nd Grand slam championship, after the Wimbledon victory in 2004. There were many (including yours truly) who doubted if she will be ever able to win a second grand slam and that she will remain a one Grand Slam wonder. But she has proved otherwise in an impressive straights set victory over Justine Henin Hardinnne. Looks like it is the first time in many years that somebody has beat the world number 1 and 2 in consecutive rounds to win the Grand slam. While on Sharapova, this one is a good read, on how she has managed to balance her tennis with her off-court commitments.
September 10 - It is now getting all too routine - this Feder winning grand slams. When Nadal lost in the 4th round, my only hope of anybody challenging Federer in the tournament went down with that. Though Roddick was a vastly improved player at this Open, I always knew that he is not good enough to stop Federer. So, the Federer show continues, with 3 grand slam wins this year. The bad news is that apart from Nadal, I do not see any other upcoming player who can pose a challenge to this guy. Andy Murray from the UK is the one who looks promising. But before he can fulfill his promise and might pose a genuine challenge to Federer, he might have already broken Sampras record of 14 grand slam victories. The one thing I noticed in the matches that Federer played against Blake & Roddick (they are the only ones who were able to win a set against him) is that during a few moments of the match, both were able to match Federer in the intensity. But the problem is that they are unable to maintain their intensity during the entire duration of the match which leads to their defeat. And while talking about Federer, Ranjit Barot wonders what’s behind this man that makes him play on a level simply unthinkable by others.
September 10 - Michael Schumacher wins the Italian Open and cuts down the lead between him & Alonso to just 2 points, after Alonso pulled out of the race with about 10 laps to go in the race. After the race, as many expected the racing phenom announced his plans to retire at the end of the season. I guess it would be tough to imagine an F1 race without Schumacher, for over the years he has almost become synonymous with F1 racing.
September 14 - God returns with a bang. Apart from Thalaivar, the only other person whom I am mad about is Sachin. So, when Sachin came back to the international cricket scene with a blistering unbeaten 141 against West Indies, I was all excited & happy. This being one of his longest injury time off from the game, I was expecting a slow but sure way of him coming back to his peak form. But what happened came as a complete surprise even for an ardent Sachin fanatic like me - 141 which included 5 sixes. Ever after his back injury few years back, Sachin had resisted going for the big sixes and had almost complete removed that shot from his repertoire. So, the fact that he was able to hit 5 sixes in his first return innings only confirmed the fact that the master is back with renewed vigor. I was completely impressed by what Lara spoke about him after the 2nd match between India and WI and here I quote him: I don't know if he has any doubters in India, but there's definitely not a doubt here. It's nice to see him come back and show his class. Amen.
September 24 - After the Indians were defeated when they failed to chase a very gettable target of 214, the Aussies took control of the finals, as only they can and romped home with a 127 run victory against the Indies. It is really mind-boggling to see this team, win a tough tournament, right after coming out of a 5 month long off-season. And on top of that, they keep continuing their experimentation policy of rotating players all the time. They did not look a bit rusty and from the post-match interview that Ponting gave, it is pretty clear that the fact that they have not won the Champions Trophy even once yet is still hurting them and thus will motivate them. India, on the other hand, have to take a long hard look at themselves and start the retrospection process on what went wrong & where. After a dream season that they had last year, it has been a rough ride so far with losses to the West Indies and this now. But the reason for India's poor showing in this tournament was there for all to see : the men who made it happen last season match after match - Dravid, Yuvraj and Dhoni - failed to contribute anything substantial and that made all the difference in the end.
September 24 - The US fails again to put it beyond the Europeans in this year's Ryder's cup. Though from a very top look, it looks unreasonable that a country is playing against a continent. But a closer look at the players involved would suggest that it is indeed even competition. I kind of think the reason for the poor showing of the US golfers including Tiger Woods as the lack of motivation, bcos these victories don’t mean much, just like Davis Cup victories in tennis.
September 7 - The 2006 NFL season starts with a match-up between the defending champions, the Steelers and the Miami Dolphins. Everyone's pick to win it all, at this point, seems to be the Colts and the Panthers. Personally, I would be more interested in following if the Seahawks can follow their last season's Super Bowl run with another one this season. History is heavily loaded against them though - no Super Bowl losing team has had more than 8 wins in the season after the Super Bowl appearance. But I am sure the Seahawks, inspite of their tough schedule - road games at Chicago, Kansas City, Washington - will make it to the playoffs. The opening game once again showed what Steelers football is all about - build a lead and then grind the opposition out with the running game. The game, which appeared closer at one point with Miami having a 3 point lead, turned into a blowout after Culpepper threw 2 interceptions in 2 consecutive possessions.
September 9 - Sharapova wins her 2nd Grand slam championship, after the Wimbledon victory in 2004. There were many (including yours truly) who doubted if she will be ever able to win a second grand slam and that she will remain a one Grand Slam wonder. But she has proved otherwise in an impressive straights set victory over Justine Henin Hardinnne. Looks like it is the first time in many years that somebody has beat the world number 1 and 2 in consecutive rounds to win the Grand slam. While on Sharapova, this one is a good read, on how she has managed to balance her tennis with her off-court commitments.
September 10 - It is now getting all too routine - this Feder winning grand slams. When Nadal lost in the 4th round, my only hope of anybody challenging Federer in the tournament went down with that. Though Roddick was a vastly improved player at this Open, I always knew that he is not good enough to stop Federer. So, the Federer show continues, with 3 grand slam wins this year. The bad news is that apart from Nadal, I do not see any other upcoming player who can pose a challenge to this guy. Andy Murray from the UK is the one who looks promising. But before he can fulfill his promise and might pose a genuine challenge to Federer, he might have already broken Sampras record of 14 grand slam victories. The one thing I noticed in the matches that Federer played against Blake & Roddick (they are the only ones who were able to win a set against him) is that during a few moments of the match, both were able to match Federer in the intensity. But the problem is that they are unable to maintain their intensity during the entire duration of the match which leads to their defeat. And while talking about Federer, Ranjit Barot wonders what’s behind this man that makes him play on a level simply unthinkable by others.
September 10 - Michael Schumacher wins the Italian Open and cuts down the lead between him & Alonso to just 2 points, after Alonso pulled out of the race with about 10 laps to go in the race. After the race, as many expected the racing phenom announced his plans to retire at the end of the season. I guess it would be tough to imagine an F1 race without Schumacher, for over the years he has almost become synonymous with F1 racing.
September 14 - God returns with a bang. Apart from Thalaivar, the only other person whom I am mad about is Sachin. So, when Sachin came back to the international cricket scene with a blistering unbeaten 141 against West Indies, I was all excited & happy. This being one of his longest injury time off from the game, I was expecting a slow but sure way of him coming back to his peak form. But what happened came as a complete surprise even for an ardent Sachin fanatic like me - 141 which included 5 sixes. Ever after his back injury few years back, Sachin had resisted going for the big sixes and had almost complete removed that shot from his repertoire. So, the fact that he was able to hit 5 sixes in his first return innings only confirmed the fact that the master is back with renewed vigor. I was completely impressed by what Lara spoke about him after the 2nd match between India and WI and here I quote him: I don't know if he has any doubters in India, but there's definitely not a doubt here. It's nice to see him come back and show his class. Amen.
September 24 - After the Indians were defeated when they failed to chase a very gettable target of 214, the Aussies took control of the finals, as only they can and romped home with a 127 run victory against the Indies. It is really mind-boggling to see this team, win a tough tournament, right after coming out of a 5 month long off-season. And on top of that, they keep continuing their experimentation policy of rotating players all the time. They did not look a bit rusty and from the post-match interview that Ponting gave, it is pretty clear that the fact that they have not won the Champions Trophy even once yet is still hurting them and thus will motivate them. India, on the other hand, have to take a long hard look at themselves and start the retrospection process on what went wrong & where. After a dream season that they had last year, it has been a rough ride so far with losses to the West Indies and this now. But the reason for India's poor showing in this tournament was there for all to see : the men who made it happen last season match after match - Dravid, Yuvraj and Dhoni - failed to contribute anything substantial and that made all the difference in the end.
September 24 - The US fails again to put it beyond the Europeans in this year's Ryder's cup. Though from a very top look, it looks unreasonable that a country is playing against a continent. But a closer look at the players involved would suggest that it is indeed even competition. I kind of think the reason for the poor showing of the US golfers including Tiger Woods as the lack of motivation, bcos these victories don’t mean much, just like Davis Cup victories in tennis.
posted by Filbert at 3:17 PM
2 Comments:
Wish Schumi wins this season and retires with a bang....I started knowing that there is a sport called F1 because of Schumi only :)
And Sachin's return...nothing else needed for India than this...and Lara's quote is really increaing my feel good factor abt sachin :)
Schumacher winning this season would be the perfect farewell to an amazing sportsman. Like you said, even here (where F1 racing is not so popular) many dont know about the sport but they have heard his name.
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