Super Saturday
Its been a day full of great sports events. I am glad to have watched them [ on TV ] . First there was the US Open 2004, Women's Semifinal match between Jennifer Capriati and Elena Dementieva. It was one hell of a fight back match. Dementieva made a mockery of Capriati by beating here 6-0 in the first set in just about 15 minutes, and Capriati had to wait till the eighth game to win her first game of the match. But then, she fought back well and won the second set 6-2. The second set lasted for about 25 minutes. The third set was when the match started picking up pace. Every game was going to the wire and the first 8 games in the third set went to deuce. Both the players got breakpoints in all the 8 games. Dementieva was struggling with her serve. There was hardly any pace in her serves. They barely touched 60mph, and it was more of a spinning serve than a fast paced serve. It was very funny to see her serve that way. Capriati actually didnt take much advantage of her opponents weak serve. The main attraction of the match, apart from the straight nosed Russian, were the long hard hitting rallies from both the players. Dementieva's cross court baseline shots were just amazing. It was but, very heartening to see Dementieva struggle and limp sometimes on the court [ she had a bandaged left thigh ]. The match went into a tie breaker, and Dementieva got some crucial points and finally beat Capriati in this 2 hours 15 minutes match. The final set actually lasted for more than one and half hour !!!
The next sport event of the day was India playing against Kenya, in the ICC Champions Trophy. It wasnt that big a match, but India had to gain some momentum here and get some good batting practice. Sehwag showed some good signs of getting back into form, but again played a very careless shot and gifted away his wicket. Ganguly and Laxman played sensibly and steadied the ship. But, it was Dravid and Kaif who finally played some real good cricket, with some quick singles and doubles to get the India to a respectable total of 290. Kaif was unlucky to remain unbeaten on 49, when he faced the last ball, but couldnt score a single run. Pathan and Bajji bowled very good and put the breaks on Kenya. The worst part for India was that they just couldnt cleanup Kenya and they managed to take only 7 Kenyan wickets. This is only place where India needs to improve. They somehow find it very difficult to cut off the tail.
Arsenal carried on their winning streak beating Fulham today 3-0. Reyes, kept his record of scoring in all the 6 matches of Arsenal. It was once again some great and unselfish passes that helped Arsenal win today. Arsenal are now leading the Primiership table.
There was one more tennis match going on between Hewitt and Johansson [ who happened to be Hewitt's sister's boyfriend ], in the semifinals of the US Open. But this match turned out to be a piece of cake for Hewitt and he won it in 3 straight sets. Tomorrow is the finals. Hewitt will be playing the winner of Henman and Federer.
The next sport event of the day was India playing against Kenya, in the ICC Champions Trophy. It wasnt that big a match, but India had to gain some momentum here and get some good batting practice. Sehwag showed some good signs of getting back into form, but again played a very careless shot and gifted away his wicket. Ganguly and Laxman played sensibly and steadied the ship. But, it was Dravid and Kaif who finally played some real good cricket, with some quick singles and doubles to get the India to a respectable total of 290. Kaif was unlucky to remain unbeaten on 49, when he faced the last ball, but couldnt score a single run. Pathan and Bajji bowled very good and put the breaks on Kenya. The worst part for India was that they just couldnt cleanup Kenya and they managed to take only 7 Kenyan wickets. This is only place where India needs to improve. They somehow find it very difficult to cut off the tail.
Arsenal carried on their winning streak beating Fulham today 3-0. Reyes, kept his record of scoring in all the 6 matches of Arsenal. It was once again some great and unselfish passes that helped Arsenal win today. Arsenal are now leading the Primiership table.
There was one more tennis match going on between Hewitt and Johansson [ who happened to be Hewitt's sister's boyfriend ], in the semifinals of the US Open. But this match turned out to be a piece of cake for Hewitt and he won it in 3 straight sets. Tomorrow is the finals. Hewitt will be playing the winner of Henman and Federer.
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