Different ball game
The Indian showing at the Australian Open did not live up to the expectations created by the CWG and Asian Games’ success
K. Datta

Teaming up again after long years of separation, Leander Paes (front) and Mahesh Bhupathy showed they were still a force to reckon with Photo: AFP

The euphoria that was brought about in Indian tennis by the harvest of medals in the Commonwealth and Asian Games a couple of months ago came to an end, with top singles players Somdev Devvarman and Sania Mirza suffering first-round defeats in the Australian Open. Tennis in Grand Slam tournaments like the Australian Open is an altogether different world. To make an impact in it, players have to be world class, which our players are not. Hard as he fought, Somdev, placed at 106 in the ATP rankings, went down to Spain’s Tommy Robredo in straight sets, 6-7 (4-7), 3-6, 4-6. Sania, once among the 30s in the ATP rankings but now in the 150s, created a stir when she took the first set in her match against Justine Henin, before the Belgian lady, with about half a dozen Grand Slam crowns under her belt, came into her own to win 5-7, 6-3, 6-3. Sania, 24, acknowledged her opponent’s superiority. Clearly, the Indian was not in the same class as Henin, understandably a bit rusty on her return to big tennis after a couple of seasons out of competition. Based in Dubai after marriage to Pakistani Test cricketer Shoaib Malik, Sania is no longer the player she used to be. No longer as swift as before on court, the sharpness of her strokes has visibly blunted. She has been overtaken by a fresh bevy of talented girls, all of them out to make a place for themselves on the international stage. Devvarman, who became the toast of Indian tennis when he defeated the internationally much higher-ranked Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan (44) in straight sets 6-1, 6-2 to win the Asian Games gold in November, has disappointed his fans by failing to surmount the challenge of Robredo, ranked 51. It was not his day when he met the Spaniard at Melbourne in the Australian Open. Not given to making excuses, Somdev is determined to move on. His immediate aim is to break into the first hundred in the rankings. If he does so in the coming months, it will be some achievement.

He is 25. The sooner he moves up the better. He has the right attitude. For some tennis players, there’s life beyond singles, as guys like Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathy and Rohan Bopanna have proved. Joining forces again after long years of separation, Paes and Bhupathy showed they were still a force to reckon with. There was a new aggressive spirit, which drove the third seed pair as they defeated the Spanish combination of Juan Monaco and Feliciano Lopez 7-6, 6-4 in their second-round match.

The beaten Spanish pair were incensed that Paes used the Spanish word vamos. Things came to a stage when the angry Spaniards started serving straight at them and refused to shake the hands of both their Indian opponents. "Bodyline" play, to borrow a term once used in cricket in the England-Australia Test series in the 1930s, which created bad blood between the two countries. Match officials had to intervene at one point to restore peace on the courts of the Australian Open. But in the end, the veteran Indian pair gained from the gamesmanship. It was they who won. Bhupathy said the ugly row was good for the game, for the spectators enjoyed the angry exchanges at the net. Paes, 37, a veteran of 20 years of international competitive tennis, saw little wrong in the use of the word vamos. It only showed that he loved the Spanish language, he said in his defence. Both Paes and Bhupathy also had quite successful opening round matches with their respective partners in the mixed doubles, but not Bopanna. With Cara Black of Zimbabwe as partner, Paes warded off a stiff challenge from the Alisa Kleybanova of Russia and Max Mirnyi of Belarus 7-6, 4-6, 12-10. Bhupathy and Anastasia Rodionova defeated German Andrea Petkovic and Mariusz Fyrstenberg of Poland, 6-2, 6-2.

Bopanna, partnering with Chinese Zi Yan, who ran into third seeds Maria Kirilenko of Russia and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia, tasted 6-7, 1-6. In spite of the singles defeats of Devvarman and Sania, the Indian presence at the Australian Open has been noticeably decent, thanks to our veteran doubles specialists.

Discipline does it
For the success of your fitness plans in the New Year, stick to a schedule
Dorene Internicola

The Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), a common side-effect of plunging into a fresh workout, can sidetrack a new routine Thinkstockphotos/ Getty Images

Before January's determination to shape up in 2011 fades into February's remorse, fitness experts warn about the most common mistakes than can impede success. Without a plan, they say, many a New Year's fitness resolution is lost.

"It's bigger than saying 'every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I'm going to work out,' " says Kerri O'Brien of Life Fitness, an exercise equipment company. Without an overarching strategy, O'Brien contends, good intentions won't go far. "There's no plan for the goals, there's no plan for the schedule, there's no plan for the nutrition, there's no plan for the reward system," she says, "and there's no plan for when you fall off the wagon."

A personal trainer can help you create and adhere to a programme, according to O'Brien, so can websites and books. Accountability is a big umbrella," she says. Success is a matter of selecting one thing, sticking to it nd not overdoing it.

Joy Bauer, a nutritionist, thinks too many beginners bite off more itness than they can comfortably chew. Especially during New Year's resolution season, I see people jump into a rigorous, intense fitness programme from the get-go," she said. "If the workouts are so challenging that you start to dread them like the plague, you'll probably jump ship."

O'Brien says the Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), a common side-effect of plunging into a new workout, can sidetrack a beginner's routine for days. Warm-up exercises can help avoid, or ease, the aches.

"DOMS is a good thing. It means you have broken down some muscles," she adds. "But you have to give yourself enough rest time to repair it." Another common mistake, she says, is thinking that if you can't give fitness the full hour that many guidelines recommend, it's no use working out at all.
"We'll take 20 minutes," O'Brien says. "Twenty minutes of high-intensity training will help you lose weight and impact your heart muscle. She says some research has shown that 20 minutes at high intensity could be even better than a steady hour-long run. Perhaps the cruelest side-effect of exercising is the increased appetite experienced afterwards. O'Brien says many a calorie-burning workout is undone by post-exercise overindulgence. "We do tend to overeat after we exercise," O'Brien says. "Your body says 'she burned a lot of calories, I need to replace them."And hectic schedules notwithstanding, don't steal workout time from sleep time. "We need to repair the body with a normal sleep cycle," O'Brien says. "If the body hasn't gotten enough sleep it sends signals to eat more because it's in stress."

Bauer believes if your effort is half-hearted, your resolve is fated to melt with the winter snow. "If you're not truly ready to make a full-time commitment, chances of long-term success are pretty slim. You must get your head in the game."

O'Brien says there are many ways to keep from falling off the wagon. "If you choose a personal trainer, or group exercise, you may go a bit longer," she says. "On your own you might not be that successful." But take heart. It's nearly February. "We know from the health club side of things that the second workout is the hardest," O'Brien adds.

Fat fright
Thinking about a workout can make one eat 50 per cent more, says a study

Thinking about a workout? It can make you eat 50 per cent more, say researchers. A new study has revealed that just thinking about physical exercise makes people eat more — in fact, those who read and think about exercising eat 50 per cent more food, the Daily Mail reported. According to the researchers, it is due to a subconscious reward theory which suggests that when physical or mental effort is spent on exercising, people reward ourselves by eating more. "This shows that exercise does not have to be performed to lead to compensation. Just imagining exercising leads participants to serve themselves more food," says lead researcher Dr Brian Wansink of Cornell University.

For their study, the researchers asked two groups to read a scenario describing a 30-minute walk during which they were listening to music or focussed on exercising and how tired they felt. The third, a control group, did neither. Afterwards, the men and women, who did not know the study's purpose, were offered food from bowls of sweet or salty snacks as a reward for their time. Those who read about exercising ate 58.9 per cent more sweet snacks and 51.9 cent more salty snacks than the control group. Those asked to focus on the reading ate the most — 701 calories each compared with 361 for the control group. Those who listened to music as they "walked" consumed 616 calories, the findings revealed.

The researchers say while exercising and a balanced diet are the basis of most obesity-prevention campaigns, very little research has been done on how physical exercise may increase food consumption.

They believe one way to tackle the problem is to change attitudes to exercise, so that it is not associated with food and weight. "Instead of describing it as a way to lose weight, it can be presented as a crucial way to tone, strengthen bones and improve posture," said Wansink. — PTI