It was a relatively busy sporting day for me today, starting with an early morning DVR-ed version of the French Open finals, mid-morning DVR-ed Canadian GP (on Fox, thanks a lot!) and then the Game 2 of the NBA finals in the evening.
I watched the first one almost completely. I could not resist the “30-second skip” on the DVR for some of the boring points in the match, though there were not too many. Nadal is too strong and Federer has only himself to blame for not winning this one. He (Fed) had so many break chances, and if he had converted even a fraction of the chances he had, the story would have been completely different.
But he did not, and Nadal continues his mastery of the French Open. Can’t believe he has not lost a single match at the French Open!!
And then it was on to the F-1 race. Frankly, I am not surprised why I have not missed F-1 so far this year. There is no real “hero”. Excluding the new kid Hamilton, there is really no positive storyline this season. Maybe it is the transition season from Schumy to the next generation, and I certainly hope that is the case, but frankly, Alonso and Massa are just too boring. Kimi has some color and a wild background to make things interesting but after the first race, he has steadily disintegrated and has shown that the last couple of years may not have been McLaren’s fault but actually his.
Of course this Canadian GP was quite eventful and Kubica’s crash was simply unbelievable. With that big a crash, for him to survive and be quite ok in the hospital, shows how far the technology and protection mechanism has come to in the past many years.
In the end it was the new hero in F-1 who won a convincing race – Lewis Hamilton. Congratulations to him, and all the best for the rest of the season!
And finally, the NBA finals. The Spurs are looking just too good and too methodical to create too many problems for themselves this year. Horry is going to get another ring in his collection and the Spurs are going to be the true dynasty in the NBA today.
At least one difference I am seeing between Federer and other greats who never won the French (Becker, McEnroe, Edberg, Connors, Samparas) is that Federer seems to have overcome the surface challenge. At least his march to the finals on last two occasions shows that. He has just not been able to overcome the king of clay. Which means that in time, he may still be able to snatch one over for himself, even if that happens in the year that Nadal is injured π
@spm: Yes, Federer has a better chance of winning the French than Nadal has of winning the Wimbledon.But watch – just as I make this statement, Nadal may surprise us the next weekend at Wimbledon π
Yeah, it can happen. Nadal winning Wimbledon. He has nothing to lose any everything to gain. And the pressure may be on Federer. And if Nadal catches Federer on one of his very rare off days.. ?! Roddick could have given Nadal a worry in the semis, but Roddick and Federer are in the same half.. and from Roddick’s comments, he seems to have already ‘lost’. Very disheartening comments.. π