The post is inspired by this brillaint piece from Sidvee
Doordarshan used to give us live Wimbledon tennis in the 90s and every kid had to choose a favorite. In the early 90s, kids my age (around 8 - 10 years) would know only 2 - 3 ladies who play tennis. Among them Monica Seles used to wear a skirt while playing and Steffi Graf used to wear shorts. It was a simple enough formula for me then, skirts > shorts implies root for Seles. Shortly after taking the decision to support her, she got stabbed by a Steffi fan and I continued to hate her for many years (until she got married to Andre). During that time I would support anyone who would challenge Steffi. So from Arantxa Sanchez to Martina Hingis, anyone who could beat Graf would be my favorite. A few years on, something happened to the women's game, first with ladies like Lindsay Davenport and Amelie Mouresmo and then the Williams sister. The finesse of the ladies game gave way to brute strength and I have lost all interest in the ladies game even till today.
In the Men's game, again the choice in early 90s was simple. Agassi with his denim shorts and flowing hair was the closest to the Bollywood heroes I used to worship then, so rooting for him came naturally. Then Sampras entered. There was something about his demeanor which captured me. By then I was slightly older (14 - 15 perhaps) and had developing my own personality. I too had started fancying myself as a calm, quiet, no-nonsense stoic (in short Deewar's Amitabh Bachhan) by then and I saw Sampras as a perfect embodiment of those values. Him breaking down in that Australian open match against Courier after someone in the crowd said, "Win it for your coach" is among my favorite moments in all of sport. Jim came up to him in all sincerity and offered to finish it the next day. Pete for whatever reason didn't like his offer and finished the game with booming aces while his eyes were filled with tears. The incident made me a lifelong Pete fan though I still liked Agassi.
When Pete's era was ending, I wasn't so sure about whom to support for some time. Safin's rage on the court, his Safinettes off the court and again probably my age and mental state at that time made him a good candidate. But then he turned out to be too erratic and refused to grow up while I had. Then Federer grabbed my attention as someone from the Martina Hingis country. After him winning the Wimbledon, it was an easy passing of the batton from Sampras to Federer which continued for some years. Until all the talk of him being the greatest player of all time started doing the rounds and for some reason it appeared to me that Federer had started thinking of himself as someone bigger than the game. They probably used to talk about Sampras also in the same way but I was too young or there wasn't any internet in those days to drive me sick of all the hype. During the same period, all the talk of Tendulkar being the greatest of all time had started drawing me away to an unassuming guy in Rahul Dravid who was consistently delivering the results. But who would be my Rahul Dravid of Tennis? Far too early in Federer's career he had started talking about the 15 grand slams landmark. His frustrations and "It's killing me" tears when he was stuck at 13 were akin to Sachin's in the recent hundred 100s hoopla where the purpose of playing every game was to get Sachin closer to that magical (and somewhat imaginary) landmark. Him putting on that shirt with the number "15" on the back after eventually getting there after beating Roddick in an epic final proved to everyone that the number meant more to him than it probably should. Federer is still the greatest exponent of his game to me just like Sachin and I love watching both Sachin and Federer in full flow to enjoy their sheer cratsmanship, their poetry in motion. Its almost as if both these men were designed by Gods to play their respective games. Anyhow, I digressed a little. Lets rewind a bit to the age when I was still searching for my Rahul Dravid of tennis. People like Roddick, Nalbandian, Hewitt had made it clear to me very early that they went into games against Federer as his fans, almost resigned to their fate of eventually losing to him. Enter Rafa. The warrior. The one who chased every ball like Hewitt but only with twice the speed. He would run half the length of court to celebrate a crucial point with a big "Vamos" cry. Tennis had not seen anything like him. Probably he was sent by Gods again just to prove to the mankind that every superman has his Kryptonite. For me Rafa is first and foremost a saviour. He saved me from an era of tennis where nothing seemed interesting as the game had stopped being competitive. Its great to look at the poetry of Federer's play but sports is not about artistry. Sports is Art meets War. You play hard, you play ugly, but you play fair and you play to win. Rafa epitomizes all of that. He like Dravid became not just my inspiration in sport, but inspiration in life. As someone who always lacked the natural talent for anything but was prepared to fight it out, these were the two individuals I look up to for inspiration when I was down.
Now the Fedtards or the Internet Sachin militia might want to have a go at me for my honest opinions above. So, in the spirit of my heroes that I just talked about, I only have this to tell you: "Bring it on".
- rajesh@cricketbakchod.com
Doordarshan used to give us live Wimbledon tennis in the 90s and every kid had to choose a favorite. In the early 90s, kids my age (around 8 - 10 years) would know only 2 - 3 ladies who play tennis. Among them Monica Seles used to wear a skirt while playing and Steffi Graf used to wear shorts. It was a simple enough formula for me then, skirts > shorts implies root for Seles. Shortly after taking the decision to support her, she got stabbed by a Steffi fan and I continued to hate her for many years (until she got married to Andre). During that time I would support anyone who would challenge Steffi. So from Arantxa Sanchez to Martina Hingis, anyone who could beat Graf would be my favorite. A few years on, something happened to the women's game, first with ladies like Lindsay Davenport and Amelie Mouresmo and then the Williams sister. The finesse of the ladies game gave way to brute strength and I have lost all interest in the ladies game even till today.
In the Men's game, again the choice in early 90s was simple. Agassi with his denim shorts and flowing hair was the closest to the Bollywood heroes I used to worship then, so rooting for him came naturally. Then Sampras entered. There was something about his demeanor which captured me. By then I was slightly older (14 - 15 perhaps) and had developing my own personality. I too had started fancying myself as a calm, quiet, no-nonsense stoic (in short Deewar's Amitabh Bachhan) by then and I saw Sampras as a perfect embodiment of those values. Him breaking down in that Australian open match against Courier after someone in the crowd said, "Win it for your coach" is among my favorite moments in all of sport. Jim came up to him in all sincerity and offered to finish it the next day. Pete for whatever reason didn't like his offer and finished the game with booming aces while his eyes were filled with tears. The incident made me a lifelong Pete fan though I still liked Agassi.
When Pete's era was ending, I wasn't so sure about whom to support for some time. Safin's rage on the court, his Safinettes off the court and again probably my age and mental state at that time made him a good candidate. But then he turned out to be too erratic and refused to grow up while I had. Then Federer grabbed my attention as someone from the Martina Hingis country. After him winning the Wimbledon, it was an easy passing of the batton from Sampras to Federer which continued for some years. Until all the talk of him being the greatest player of all time started doing the rounds and for some reason it appeared to me that Federer had started thinking of himself as someone bigger than the game. They probably used to talk about Sampras also in the same way but I was too young or there wasn't any internet in those days to drive me sick of all the hype. During the same period, all the talk of Tendulkar being the greatest of all time had started drawing me away to an unassuming guy in Rahul Dravid who was consistently delivering the results. But who would be my Rahul Dravid of Tennis? Far too early in Federer's career he had started talking about the 15 grand slams landmark. His frustrations and "It's killing me" tears when he was stuck at 13 were akin to Sachin's in the recent hundred 100s hoopla where the purpose of playing every game was to get Sachin closer to that magical (and somewhat imaginary) landmark. Him putting on that shirt with the number "15" on the back after eventually getting there after beating Roddick in an epic final proved to everyone that the number meant more to him than it probably should. Federer is still the greatest exponent of his game to me just like Sachin and I love watching both Sachin and Federer in full flow to enjoy their sheer cratsmanship, their poetry in motion. Its almost as if both these men were designed by Gods to play their respective games. Anyhow, I digressed a little. Lets rewind a bit to the age when I was still searching for my Rahul Dravid of tennis. People like Roddick, Nalbandian, Hewitt had made it clear to me very early that they went into games against Federer as his fans, almost resigned to their fate of eventually losing to him. Enter Rafa. The warrior. The one who chased every ball like Hewitt but only with twice the speed. He would run half the length of court to celebrate a crucial point with a big "Vamos" cry. Tennis had not seen anything like him. Probably he was sent by Gods again just to prove to the mankind that every superman has his Kryptonite. For me Rafa is first and foremost a saviour. He saved me from an era of tennis where nothing seemed interesting as the game had stopped being competitive. Its great to look at the poetry of Federer's play but sports is not about artistry. Sports is Art meets War. You play hard, you play ugly, but you play fair and you play to win. Rafa epitomizes all of that. He like Dravid became not just my inspiration in sport, but inspiration in life. As someone who always lacked the natural talent for anything but was prepared to fight it out, these were the two individuals I look up to for inspiration when I was down.
Now the Fedtards or the Internet Sachin militia might want to have a go at me for my honest opinions above. So, in the spirit of my heroes that I just talked about, I only have this to tell you: "Bring it on".
- rajesh@cricketbakchod.com
13 comments:
so your hatred of steffi is originally based on a falsehood.
She never wore shorts in the 90's that was navratilova!! And its not Steffi's fault that she had a nutjob as a fan! Blaming Graf for the stabbing is ridiculous
Cricket Bakchods1 July 2012 05:37
Dear Anon, thanks for piling it on. Well blame that on my black and white tv or hazy doordarshan in those days, but here is what I find on google http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/299/steffimonica3b.jpg/sr=1
Surely they look like shorts to me.
Also this is a clearer picture perhaps.
http://www.fabsugar.co.uk/Classic-Wimbledon-Photos-3372112?slide=5
So yes those were like shorts. And who cares, the whole point (which is perhaps lost on you) was that as a 9 year old then, I had a totally ridiculous reasons for choosing my favorites
Just hope you are not so harsh on your 9 year old kids that way. Cheers.
I landed here from Sidvee's fine post and don't regret it at all. I have the same ambivalent attitude towards Federer and Sachin, so that bit resonated with me big time. Two of my all-time favs are (you guessed it) Rafa and Rahul. There is way too much similarity in their approach to the sport than most Tennis-Cricket fans/bloggers have made time for. Pete, Federer and Sachin are tremendous undoubtedly, but the guys who I will take with me in my sundown years are Andre, Rafa and Rahul.
The Wimbledon courts have become slower now and somehow I have this feeling that Pete's serve would not have been half as big a bazooka as it was in that time. I am slightly older than you and remember a lot of those matches very clearly (started following on DD with Becker's '85 Wimbledon epic) and yes you can't imagine how many times I have seen Pete 15-40 down and staring into a break of serve only to pull himself out with three cracking aces or near-aces. Funnily that's the biggest memory I have of Pete (even more than his graceful economy of movement which Fedex epitomises equally well).
I am willing to hazard a guess here. Without that killer serve on those ultra fast courts, Pete's tally would not have been as impressive. This is also why I was a life long fan of Andre, even more so after his comeback as world No 1. If that man hadn't wasted those immensely talented formative years, he would have added a few more to his tally. But after we get past his incredibly beautiful autobiography "Open", you know why he was what he was and did what he did.
But this is an endless debate I guess, where we all find a way to exaggerate and justify the game of our favs by providing separate contexts and 'memory' does play an equally potent role in our evaluations. I am just thankful for Rafa to burst forth on the scene when he did. After Andre, this sport was getting a bit lonely for me to follow.
Thanks and good to meet a more experienced fan with similar inclinations. And yes even as I mention in the blog, I always liked Agassi too, much more after his fairy tale French open win, something that Pete could never achieve. As a kid in the 90s, I was probably too naive in tennis and was just gravitated to Pete's booming serves, volleys and his slam dunks. Probably if another Pete emerges today, I may not like him so much, or may be I will find some strange reason to like him even more. A fan-star relationship can be as weird and complicated as any human relationship :).
May be a stupid question, but was Monica Seles, first women tennis player who grunted? (Made her seem invincible, *I was 8 years old, I guess*)
Not sure about the history of grunting brother (given that you loved the grunt I am assuming that u r a guy). But yes I do remember the epic grunt which sounded more like a high pitch cry of reaching the orgasmic climax (okay may be the sound was exaggerated by the stupid old tv and my kid ears but that's how I want to remember it). Needless to say it endeared me to her.
ROFL. Believe it or not, Wikipedia has come to our rescue! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunting_%28tennis%29
"Monica Seles and Jimmy Connors are often credited with starting the "grunt" in tennis in the female and male games respectively." Not sure how credible though
Haha. cool. Grunting FTW.
True, True! I took a couple of years warming up to Agassi too. Frankly, I have never seen any single player evolve in the manner in which Andre did. It's like the Andre who finished with the game barely even knew the kid who started out hating tennis. What a phenomenal guy he was! Still miss him fondly.
Those are skirts just tight short ones! (Even if the comment on fab sugar claims them to be shorts. have seen them on video and they are skirts). Only time she used to wear shorts when playing was when she was a junior with short hair in the 80's.
Anyway I'll cut you some slack as if I have to explain my hatred of Pete you'd have plenty of ammunition on the ridiculous reasons for picking your fave players!!
Agree with Vispy on the slower courts at wimbledon now meaning that Pete's serve wouldn't have been anywhere near as effective. I think he'd struggle to win on the current courts
Yep can't think of another player who evolved so much not as a player but purely as a person.
Not a big fan using time travel to rate players. Nature of the game changes with different opponents, different playing surface, modern equipments, etc. So, one can easily argue that all the baseliners of today might not have been successful if they had played with wooden frame rackets. I believe that a great player develops his game with these factors in mind rather than in isolation to them. Also as a global rule, one needs to be born in the right place and right time to be successful anywhere, I wouldn't discredit any achievement using time travel fan bashing techniques :).
End of the day you love someone, not because he/she is undeniably the best in his/her field but for some mysterious resonance you feel for them inside you.
Never knew that you were a Monika Seles fan till I read it. On the contrary I started watching tennis just because of Steffi Graf. Though I m weak with the facts, however as for as I remember Steffi used to loose most of the matches against Sales and that always saddened me. I developed a hatred towards her.
As you rightly said -
"End of the day you love someone, not because he/she is undeniably the best in his/her field but for some mysterious resonance you feel for them inside you"
I always felt that romance for Steffi and believe me I was happy the day Seles was stabbed.
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