Tuesday, July 14, 1998
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Tuesday, July 14, 1998 |
 Leander Paes shows his championship trophy after defeating Neville Godwin of South Africa during the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships Sunday in Newport, R.I., on Sunday. Paes defeated Godwin, 6-3, 6-2, for his first-ever ATP Tournament title. APA/PTI “Karting” comes to Chandigarh Come September and Chandigarh is all set to get a brand new motor sport, with a state-of-the-art track being set up near Chandigarh airport. Asian athletics: a chance for India INDIAN athletics is passing through an uncertain phase. The much hoped for improvement from the juniors has not really materialised while most of the tried and tested stars, are in the twilight years of their competitive life... |
Mixed
bag of fortunes for Indians WIMBLEDON 1998 proved to be a mixed bag of fortunes for India for, both Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, as a pair as well as individuals, failed to come up to expectations. Partially they failed, partially they succeeded.Barring the mixed doubles event where Leander and his partner, Larisa Neiland of Latvia, reached the quarterfinals and Mahesh Bhupathi and his partner, Mirjane Lucic of Croatia lost in the final, the Indian fare was a lukewarm affair... What is so special about Wimbledon? Wimbledon would hardly be Wimbledon without the rain, the long, plastic-shrouded queues of stoic spectators and the sea of colourful umbrellas... |
| Mixed bag of fortunes for Indians By Harbans Singh Virdi WIMBLEDON 1998 proved to be a mixed bag of fortunes for India for, both Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, as a pair as well as individuals, failed to come up to expectations. Partially they failed, partially they succeeded. Barring the mixed doubles event where Leander and his partner, Larisa Neiland of Latvia, reached the quarterfinals and Mahesh Bhupathi and his partner, Mirjane Lucic of Croatia lost in the final, the Indian fare was a lukewarm affair. Having shown wonderful performances in the men’s doubles event, much was expected from both Leander and Bhupathi in Wimbledon ‘98 for, in the last three grand slam tournaments — the Australian Open and French Open this year and the US Open last year — the Indian pair had reached the semifinals. Since both Leander and Bhupathi are serve-and-volley grasscourt players, it was expected both will further improve their performance because even when the claycourt surface of the French Open in Rolland Garros and the artificial surface of the Australian Open did not suit their style of play, they had managed to reach the last-four stage. Though on all the three occasions luck had eluded them, it was expected that the Wimbledon grass will suit their style of play. But that was not to be. Having successfully conquered Max Mirnyi and Andrei Olhovsky in the first round, their game suddenly lost the old magic touch and Leander and Bhupathi lost to unseeded Justin Gimelstob and Brian Macphie of the USA in three sets in the second round. Not many had heard of this pair and it was a clean upset. It is because of their wonderful performances in the past that the Indian pair is rated third on the ATP list but on that day luck deserted Leander and Bhupathi who made an ignominous exist from the men’s doubles event. It must, however, be said to the credit of both Leander and Bhupathi that they tried to make up in the mixed doubles event where, both with different partners, had a good run. Leander and Larisa reached the quarterfinals but lost at this stage. Bhupathi went still further when in partnership with Lucic he reached the final of the mixed doubles event. Bhupathi who already had a grand slam title — the French Open mixed doubles — to his credit seemed like wrapping up the Wimbledon’s mixed doubles title too but Bhupathi and Lucic fell at the last hurdle to Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Serena Williams of the USA — an unseeded pair. Mahesh Bhupathi’s tale of brilliance did not end here, even in the prestigious men’s singles event, where he had qualified, he crowned himself with glory. Fresh from his French Open triumph, Carlos Moya passed many monents of anxiety against Bhupathi who have Moya a run for his money in the first round. It turned out to be a titanic struggle for the two in which Moya’s better staying power and stamina took the better of Bhupathi who matched his opponent stroke for stroke in all the five sets. With a little luck, Mahesh could have created tennis history at Wimbledon. Had he done so he would have emulated Slobdan Yuvojinovic who had knocked out Sweden’s Mats Wilander in the first round after the latter won the French Open title many years ago. Full marks to Mahesh Bhupathi for putting up a wonderful show against the reigning French Open champion. However, it was a different cup of tea for India’s better known player — Leander Paes. Leander has been struggling to break into the top 100 bracket, but has not succeeded so far despite his epic efforts in this regard. A win here and a defeat there, he has not been consistent — not even in defeat and so his ranking hovers around 120 or so. But Wimbledon is a place where heroes are born or buried, that is why players go to the extent of getting crazy to win at Wimbledon. It is the most prestigious competition in tennis, just as the All-England Championship is in badminton. It is this reason that the performance at Wimbledon is so closely watched. So it must be heart-breaking for Leander who lost to Wayne Black in the first round. But let us be fair. Surprises were not only reserved for the Indians, others too had their share. Croatia’s Goran Ivanisevic desperately wanted to win the title, may be just to match his performance with that of his country in World Cup soccer. He had twice reached the Wimbledon final losing on both occasions to Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. This time he was again pitted against Sampras in the men’s singles final. Sampras too wanted to end the draught of victories and desperately wanted to add the 11th grand slam title to his tennis treasure. The result was a titanic battle between the two great servers of their time, both capable of hitting successive aces. And as it turned out, the battle spilled over to the last set where Sampras showed better nerves and control to win the 11th grand slam title of his careerpushing poor Ivanisevic in the valley of despair to ponder what is wrong with his style, serve and stamina. Why he has been so near and yet so far! On the other hand on the women’s front, Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic was more fortunate. She too was in the final for the third time, having failed on the first two occasions. But she carried the day against N. Tauziat of France to win the women’s singles title at Wimbledon. Till Novotna had reached the final, the storm of teenage invasion had subsided then, with Martina Hingis, Anna Kornikova and the Williams sisters — Venus and Serena-falling in the earlier rouds.  What is so special about Wimbledon? By Sanjay Manchanda Wimbledon would hardly be Wimbledon without the rain, the long, plastic-shrouded queues of stoic spectators and the sea of colourful umbrellas. The year again, the first week was very wet and play was constantly interrupted. However, as usual, the matches that were running behind schedule following five of the first seven days getting wet, quickly fell into place due to rain-free second week. So, all that talk of bringing Sunday into play in diversion of strong Wimbledon tradition ultimately became redundant. But one fallout of this year’s rain at the All-England Club that clearly emerged was that the British have turned talking about the weather into a national obession. Wimbledon statistician Alan Little panders to their passion. In his masterly guide to everything one could possibly need to know about Wimbledon, he even lists all the way back to 1877 the days comletely lost to rain at the world’s most famous tennis tournament. For those eager to dazzle their friends with their meteorological expertise, 1888 was the worst year with three whole days rained off. Alan Little also looks after the Wimbledon library which houses his masterworks, “Wimbledon Compendium”, a 344-page book that chronicles not only the winners since 1927 but such milestones as the first wearing of shorts by a gentleman (1930) and the first lady to play without stockings (1927). Little’s latest challenge is to identify the racket used by the winner and runner-up in every singles final. This involves a great deal of correspondence, the close study of many pictures, and even some placing of advertisements. Attendances every year at this most prestigious grass court championships continues to pick up, the whopping cost of tickets notwithstanding. On last Sunday this year, around a quarter of a million people applied for tickets in Wimbledon’s famous ballot. Television screens in 174 countries, from Afghanistan to Vietnam, showed the men’s final between the world’s top player, Pete Sampras of the USA and now three-time runner-up Goran Ivansevic of Croatia to the largest total audience for any tennis tournament in the world. One thing that these large audiences missed this year was the presence of the German superstar, Boris Becker, on the lush green centre court. Becker quit playing grand slams last year after losing to Pete Sampras in the Wimbledon quarter-final. But he was back at the All-England Club, covering the matches for British television and making rare appearance on the American network NBC with commentator and fellow three-time Wimbledon champion, John McEnroe. Becker had become synonymous with Wimbledon and always remained a great crowd-puller, but the crowds continued to pour in this year too, even without him on the court. And they will return at Wimbledon in June, 1999 irrespective of the circumstances. “It’s the air of the place,” as Becker himself reflects. “It’s good for the soul.” Asian athletics: a chance for India By Ramu Sharma INDIAN athletics is passing through an uncertain phase. The much hoped for improvement from the juniors has not really materialised while most of the tried and tested stars, are in the twilight years of their competitive life. But ironically they are still the most likely ones to grab some medals in the coming months, first in the Asian Championships in Fukuoko in Japan, followed by the high profile Asian Games in Bangkok in December. For India in particular the Asian Championships have been very fruitful with quite a few athletes using it as a take-off point for bigger meets, in particular the Asian Games. For athletes like Sriram Singh, Shivnath and Hari Chand, the Asian Championships contributed to their doing well in the Montreal Olympics. One remembers the very first such meet in Manila in 1973 where India sent a strong team including Sriram, Shivnath, Mohinder Singh Gill and V.S. Chauhan among others. The team finished with 16 medals, four of them gold. The notable thing about this championship was the rare sight of three Indians on the medal podium in the shot put event. Jagraj, Gundeep and Bahadur took the top three spots and it is quite likely that had the organisers allowed a fourth athlete from India, that spot too would have been gobbled up. The other three gold medals came in the triple jump, decathlon and hammer throw and two of the winners here, M.S. Gill and V.C. Chauhan (decathlon), still have their named etched in the record books. The next AAC (then known as Asian Track and Field) in Seoul had the Indians increase their medals tally to 18 with eight of them made of gold. Sriram Singh took the top spots in the 800 and the 400 metres and this was the performance that helped him for the build-up to the memorable showing in Montreal Games where he finished seventh in the final of the 800 metres. The next two championships, both in Tokyo, saw women athletes in action with Rita Sen winning a silver in the 400 metres and the relay team ending up with a bronze. The gold medal tally increased from two to five in the 1981 meet in Tokyo with Geeta Zutshi winning the 800 metres gold and Rajan, Gopal Saini, then one of the most brilliant athletes on the scene, Chand Ram and Sabir Ali adding to the tally. Saini’s was particularly heartening performance, his 13:52.22 for the 5,000 being the fastest ever for the event by an Indian. Kuwait in 1983 saw the emergence of P.T. Usha on the Asian athletics scene. Following her international debut in the Moscow Olympics in 1980 followed by the success in the New Delhi Asian Games, this great athlete won a gold in the 400 metres and a silver in the 200. In the overall medals tally, India ended up with 13, three of them made of gold. A notable feature of the Kuwait Meet was the continuing hold on the gold by walker Chand Ram. Jakarta two years later in 1985 was a meet dominated to a great extent by P.T. Usha, still basking in the euphoria of her Los Angeles Olympics performance in the 400 hurdles. Usha was involved in four events and finished at the head of the field in each one of them, including the short sprint where her poor start was to be a major handicap in later years. And for the first time in Asian Meet Usha had the company of Shiny Abraham who duly won the 800 metres. Another woman athlete to make a mark was Asha Aggarwal whose tiny frame contained abundance of energy to fulfill the demanding requirement of the marathon race. Asha won the gold, her first medal in an international event. The men contributed three golds in a total of ten from an overall medals tally of an all-time high of 21. Two years later India hosted the championships at the Nehru Stadium in Delhi and picked up 19 medals with the women once again dominating the show. P.T. Usha was everywhere, winning the gold in 200, 400, 400 hurdles and the 1600 relay. She was slipped to the second spot in the 100 metres, beaten by Lydia de Vega, and the sprint relay had to be satisfied with a silver. Shiny Wilson, however, kept her date with the gold in the 800 metres while Rosa Kutty, making her first appearance, was second. Bahadur Prasad was also in the making at this time and won the gold in the 1,500 metres while placing second in the 5000 metres. Dina Ram (steeplechase) and Balwinder Singh in the shot put added to the team’s gold medals. P.T. Usha contributed to the three gold medals won by India in the Singapore edition of the Asian Championships in 1987, winner of the 200 metres, 400 metres and the 400 hurdles while leading the field in the final lap of the 4x400 relay. In addition she won a silver in the 100 metres while the sprint relay combination was placed second. India’s medal tally of seven included one bronze from Balwinder Singh in the shot put event. This was also the last time that P.T. Usha took part in the Asian Championships.
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