Monday, July 04, 2011

Of Rafa, Google+ and Transformers

Thanks to the July 4 weekend in the US workload the last week was pretty light. 92% of my e-mails to colleagues came right back with an out of office response. But I was for once not complaining. I have been busy spending some of my free time playing around with my new iPad and downloading all kinds of applications on it. 

I also fooled around with Google+ and it seems to be a really neat and the UI is clean and nice as well. But I wonder if Google for some reason is too late into the Web 2.0 party. Even more surprising to me was the fact that Google did not go all out to get hold of those Nortel patents when they could have done very well with some of those telecom related patents from Nortel (like LTE etc) and instead chose to make bids denoting mathematical constants like Pi..strange fellows I say.

Meanwhile we entered the final week at The Championships and the biggest news mid-week was Roger Federer's loss in the quarters against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Tsonga played some unbelievable tennis in the last three sets and it left me with some evil satisfaction as I thought to myself that Tsonga in that kind of form would destroy the Djoker. The one man that I am beginning to hate as a hardcore Rafa fan. Rafa is the meantime thrashed Murray much to the dismay of the English press (Poor souls the British. They've invented most of the games and yet have very few world beaters in those sports and the only good thing to come out of it was it gives employment opportunities for hundreds of journalists). The Djoker meanwhile dismantled Tsonga who later told the press that his opponent for everywhere on the court only for the Rafa fan in me to snigger and say, well Rafa's like that as well. Of course I was hurting inside as a Rafa fan because Djokovic had just usurped the No 1 ranking from Nadal. I had to sneer at something! We were now looking at a Djokovic-Nadal final.

I din't get to watch the final as I spend Sunday evening with the missus at the movies watching Transformers 3 - Dark of the Moon. I did check the scores now and then during the movie and the first time I stared at my phone browser the score read 6-4, 6-1 in favor of Djokovic. WTF! What was Nadal up to? Was this real? Crap (background music from the movie was all bullets and canon's firing from the Transformers...apt description for my state of mind then). 10 mins later the score read 6-4, 6-1, 1-6. Muhuahahhahahhahah..that villainous laughter was back. Rafa was kicking the Djoker's butt. My attention was fully back to the Autobot-Decepticon flight. The restless mind got the better of me 10 or 15 mins later and a glace at my score brought me back to earth with a huge thud, just as Cybertron was entering the Earths atmosphere. 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 5-3..I was as helpless as the humans watching the Decepticons annihilate everyone...Sigh!

15 mins later, the good guys in the movie were kicking butt and for me nothing mattered for the score was now 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. The Djoker was the new Champ! Nadal had lost at Wimbledon for the first time since 2007. The missus was probably amused when I told her in a sad tone that Nadal had lost. Watch the frigging movie and forget the score she seemed to say.

Anyways, the movie had all the masala for a dishum-dishum fan like me. Wifey liked it as well and that bode well. After all Harry Potter was releasing shortly as well and I definitely had to take her for that.

Coming back home, a gleeful looking mom (she is a forever Nadal hater) greeted me along with my grinning cousin and told me that Nadal has lost..was thrashed...was walloped by Djokovic. Had to change the topic..fast..had to keep this conversation short.....

So here we are on a Monday afternoon and I have gotten off the Nadal loss. But I am left thinking like many other Nadal fans as to whether Djokovic has gotten into Nadal's head just like Nadal had gotten into the mighty Federer's. The facts seem to speak for themselves. 5 finals and 5 losses (2 hard court, 2 clay and 1 grass). The writing seems to be on the wall but having watched Nadal play the last 8 years, I would be foolish to the bet against the Matador for Manacor and whilst my loyalties still remain with Nadal, I will go into every Nadal-Djoker match henceforth with a slightly skeptical frame of mind.

That said, I think tennis is discovering a new great rivalry in the making so it is good for the sport and like all good sports, I can only salute Novak Djokovic and say terrific job sir! (that of course doesn't meant that I will be praying for Rafa to kick his ass whenever they meet again)..




No comments: