Dear Roger, Wish You Many More!



He 20'ed it! 

Congratulations to all those who were hopefully waiting for him to achieve the feat.
Yes I am talking about the brilliance and perseverance incarnated the one and only Roger Federer.

 In my childhood I failed to appreciate this sport however as I grew and watched some legends playing occasionally I got attracted to it. The credit goes to Steffi Graf, Martina Navaratilova, Pete Sampras Andre Agassi to name a few.

 I would be frank in agreeing that my age was to get attracted to beauty and glamour more than the playing prowess and the elegance and beautiful personalities helped me develop the initial interest and thanks a ton to them that I got attached to this game since then.

 My special regards to Gabriela Sabatini, I was die-hard fan of hers. I still remember how I stole the coupons from my school's SportStar magazine to order a poster of hers. That poster was my inspiration during my graduation years.

I have been following Roger right from when he participated in his first gland slam tournament in 2003. Andre and Pete had ruled the courts till then and times were demanding new champion. It was a flat time for men's tennis after year 2000. Many names were floating into grand slams. Every year every tournament was giving a different winner.

 And then came this superb Swiss winning his first slam at Wimbledon 2003 and ruled the court for next 7 years.

 Roger holds the record to bag highest (15) grand slams in a decade in 2000-2010. However he is yet to achieve the rare feat of winning all slams in a year missing it by whiskers on clay court 3 times (2004, 2006, 2007). Rafael Nadal was the guy denying him the glory. Roger has mastery on all court types except clay court. They haunt him a lot and you can imagine that he only has 1 French open slam out of 20 and that too because Rafael Nadal was ousted in fourth round upset.
His journey is a good learning for aspiring sportsmen. If you remember his early days on the court, he was an aggressive, impatient and volatile guy. Screaming in anger, throwing racquets, kicking balls he was lacked the sporting attitude. That reflected on his career as he failed to make a mark. His juniors coach Peter Carter had a significant influence on Roger's career. He took him back under his wings again in 1997. He taught him that only talent is not sufficient to be successful in sports career. You need to have the patience and perseverance and that you only get what you deserve. After Peter's accidental death, Roger was devastated however that became the turning point in his life. He decided to pay tribute to his coach by religiously following his coach's suggestions. And then the whole world witnessed a magnificent career in tennis.

Cool, calm and composed, Roger is the most sought after sports person in the world today. He is quite an elegant player to watch. I especially like his stretching posture while returning a back-hand. I have used his posters during some of my team talks and presentations to explain stretching and what it means to get out of your comfort zone where lies the success.

 Roger was out of luck, glory and game from 2010 to 2016 winning only 2 slams although he did well on other ATP events. Struggling with injuries and age factor against him, many people considered his career as over. However with the never say die attitude he came back strong winning 2 slams in 2017 and started 2018 on terrific note by winning his 20th grand slam.

I wish him all the best!
About Me
Life must be need driven and not greed driven!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do Stretch Yourselves

Image
A quote says, All man’s troubles arise from the fact that we do not know what we are and do not agree on what we want to be. Your life is not only yours. It belongs to the entire human race. Whatever body structure, features and powers you are enjoying today are the outcome of making and doing of the human race until your birth. All that got used more and often, went on becoming better and better. All that was not put to use was ultimately shed away. Shedding the tail was not a necessity, it was an outcome of the choices made by our ancestors.  A choice as insignificant as rolling your eyeballs in all directions and trying to stretch and extend your eyesight is going to decide the actual vision span for human race in future. You can stretch the angles now to maintain what was gifted to you. Or you can be ignorant and/or selfish not to do that because you do not need it in your life. But the future generations won't have this choice. They will be born with reduced vision span and ma...
Read more

Ego Self-Treatment

Image
(Disclaimer: The article is an outcome of my exploration and experience about dealing with the ego.  I frankly admit that it is easier said than done and I am still struggling. Results vary person to person, depending on sincerity of actions in the process.)   Ego is an abundant material, we can easily see ego in others but we are somehow blind towards self-ego. Some of us admit to themselves being egotist.  Now the question is, how bad is your ego? Your close ones can answer it better than anyone else in world. We are pretty good in pretending to be a good human being at our workplaces or in distant relations. But our near and dear ones face our ego bursts almost everyday. It takes courage and conviction to take this self-assessment, but sooner the better. Be forthcoming, frank and open on this activity. Ask your close friends and family to assess you on ego scale 1 to 10. If they bypass your questions and/or are reluctant to share their opinion about you being an e...
Read more

Making Provision or Earning Fortune?

Image
Let me ask one hackneyed question, that we keep hearing, reading but don't really bother to ponder upon. What is the meaning of our existence in this world? Of course there cannot be single answer to it and I am definitely not going into spiritual aspect of it. For a common man, what is the purpose of existence. To live a successful life - right? Whatever maybe the definition of success but everyone wants to be successful in life. In different roles, we assess out success based on relevant criteria. A successful businessman, artist, player. A successful family man, parent, husband\wife. As parents, your responsibility is to make provisions for your children till they become independent. However most people mistake making provisions as earning fortunes. Struggle is necessary in life. Struggle is what prepare one for life. Struggle makes an individual mentally strong and help develop the surviving skills required in future. A life without struggle also robs one of invalua...
Read more

We Failed Our Children

Image
Smothering education in masks  16 months is not a short period. We have seen enormous amount of work getting done in this Corona pandemic. Healthcare upgrade was phenomenal even if far from sufficient. IT industry flourished a lot in this period because they have accepted the new normal and adapted to the demands. Work from home turned out to be a win-win situation for both employees and employers. One sector however got completely overlooked by the govt. of Bharat that is Education .  Government never appeared to be determined to solve the problems faced by education sector. There was never a point in time when govt. had clear strategy on how to conduct activities in this sector. They took the procrastinating approach of crossing the bridge when we reach there. And what they did then? They kept cancelling and postponing various exams - The only actions taken by the government because there was no time left to take any action. And they took pride in cancelling exams too which ...
Read more

Good Bye 2020

Image
  Let's keep aside the different religious faiths and beliefs about incarnation and all and keep it simple. We have been gifted with this one LIFE And the life consists of uncountable presents - the NOW moments. We have been getting advice from all human cultures to live in present as past is dead and dark and future is imaginary. The only thing we should carry with us from past in learning. Of course there is no harm to carry on memories from past life and of your loved ones, with the condition that those give you positivity and power. And still you should hardly waste your time dwelling in them. Same is the case for future. It's an unknown time and space terrain where the rays of the Sun of our Life haven't reached yet. Hence it is definitely not wise to waste your time too much in contemplations and imaginations. If you dwell in your past or dream about your future, you are doing that in present which is your LIFE and in the process you are stealing the moments from your...
Read more