Start of the 2010 Tennis Season

Hello,

The season is just started but Indian tennis fans have already heard some bad news.

Sania Mirza said that she will stop playing once she gets married.

So are we ready for the swan song from her.

Highly unlikely. Her performance in the beginning of the season does not appear promising.

This season the ladies event is likely to be dominated by the performance of the three stars who are on the comeback trail. Justin Henin, just started playing, Kim Clijsters, already into winning mode after making a comeback last year and Maria Sharapova, ready for the big guns again after a quiet last year.

These three are obviously going to be challenged in their quest for glory by the reigning queens, Serena and Venus Williams and Safina.

But for me the player who will reign supreme in 2010 is Elena Dementieva.

In the Mens wing the focus is already on four players. Roger Federer - for his ability to go beyond catching distance, Rafal Nadal - his ability to come back and get over the effect of the injury that has now made him a beatable player, Andy Roddick - his ability to get over the final chokes, especially as this time he may not meet Federer in the finals and Andy Murray - the perinnial England favorite. But it is 'Mr. Invisible' Nikolay Davydenko, who has the ability to upset the applecart.

All in all an appetizing feast for Tennis lovers.

Best regards,

Manoj

Start of the new season

Hello,

Two sports events - Cycling and Tennis are about to start their new season from Australia.

Cycling is starting with Tour Down Under, which starts tomorrow with the standalone Cancer Council Classic street race at Adelaide's East End. This is a six day tour and has a lot of sprint sections. This makes it tough for Lance, who had ended up 29th in his visit here last year but that was his comeback race and since then he has done enough for the world of cycling and sportslovers to stand up and take notice.

The confidence of Lance is such that a few days back talking of his thrid place finish in the Tour de France he said that when people were congratulating him on his performance and expressing surprise at his thrid place finish he was surprised. He was surprised because he was thinking that he would win.

The re-emergence of Lance has made the sport exciting again as not only has he brought the required glamour (5000 cyclist followed him at the trial run on the Adelaide roads this morning) but he also brings in a new team 'Radioshack'.

At 37, he is still a force to reckon with and gives joy to all of us who get inpiration from him to continue our active involvement with sports.

Best regards,

Manoj