From unsung heroes to unstrung heroes

When Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathy got together on a tennis court, they became the instant hit in the world of tennis and more so in the cricket crazed nation of India. They gave more joy to tennis followers than anybody else could with their fantastic partnership, with those high flying chest-bumps each time they won the point and with those numerous slams they won together. Those days, apart from Cricket, in India, any other sport story to hit the front page of national dailies was as difficult as trying to find a Cricket story on New York Times front page. But these guys not only managed to get plastered on every front page of the newspapers, they got discussed by TV pundits on Prime Time News too.

They were unsung heroes then. Today, they are unstrung heroes. Separated and facing off each other in the doubles section of the-singles-minded-tennis world.

One can always enjoy watching John Travolta and Nicolas Cage face each other off in that movie “Face Off” but it certainly hurts even an ordinary tennis fan like me to see these wonderful players face each other. Aren’t they both made to play doubles together and not against each other?

At the time of writing this piece, thankfully, the rain god in the New York sky is postponing their match at the US Open 2009 Men’s Doubles Finals and lets all hope for the sake of their fans who loved to see them play together, this match never commences and they both get declared as joint winners. Who would want only one of them to win and the other to lose? But then, I know this will remain a wish and also know that all their fans are left with no choice but to see the inevitable happen in just a few hours from now.

Very soon, the Arthur Ashe stadium will witness everything except that famous partnership of Leander and Mahesh.

Quite a masterpiece it will be and doubtless, it will be breathtaking hard court doubles match we have not seen for a long time. There sure will be a touch of magic, a speck of inevitability, a plethora of class and a glimmer of hope from both Leander and Mahesh that we all will enjoy. But can we enjoy the veneer of sadness and the joy of victory from the vanquished and the victor? Yours truly certainly cannot.

The reason behind their separation is well known but I certainly want them to re-unite again quickly in what could be their last days of their careers and bring back that joy, that smile on millions of their fans’ faces who are craving to see them play together.

It was never a Vendetta for Pennetta against Sania

In Tennis, there are only three ways to end a point - with a winner, forced error or unforced error.

Today, we need to concentrate on Unforced Error. An Unforced Error is when the player has time to prepare and position himself or herself to get the ball back in play and makes an error. This is a shot that the player would normally get back into play. The real keys here are time and position.

Sania Mirza had neither the time nor got into position today in her second round match in US Open against the Italian No.10 seed Flavia Pennetta and ended up committing 28 unforced errors that forced Sania Mirza out of the US Open Singles campaign. The match ended as it started as Pennetta blew away the Indian Star out of the court in straight sets with the final result that read 6-0, 6-0. Flavia Pennetta completely destroyed Sania Mirza during the less-than-an-hour domination that belonged entirely to the Italian.

Those Sania fans who couldn’t arrive at the stadium to cheer their star for whatever reasons didn’t miss much. They sure would have regretted for having made it instead. The match got over in just 50 minutes and they would have hated to see their star getting beaten like this.

For a newbie watching tennis, this match sure would have looked like a practice session for Flavia Pennetta. There was nothing positive that Sania Mirza could take home from this match. The only positive she could possibly look at is “how not to play like this match” in her future matches. Flavia gave Sania a good tennis lesson. She reminded Sania how to play those famous forehand winners, passing shots and those perfect volleys that once made Sania Mirza a sensational tennis star in India years ago.

It was never a vendetta for Pennetta as this match was completely one-sided and a cake walk for the Italian player. She now moves on to the 3rd round as Sania Mirza looks forward to her doubles and mixed doubles matches. The sooner Sania Mirza forgets this match, the better it is for her matches in other categories. By the way, is there anything worthwhile for Sania Mirza to remember anything about this match?