Wimbledon

The tennis tournament, not the movie that is...

Anyway, tennis is actually one of the few sports that i even bother about (although playing the game with even the teeniest ounce of a skill level is beyond me - as is the case with practically every other sport), so with the coming of Wimbledon over the past two weeks i have been rather glued to my computer screen, following what's been going on... (computer, not television, cos i don't have cable, and hence am mostly relegated to seeing the closing shot of the most important matches on channelnewsasia bulletins on the tv - so i just see the live updates of match scores on the Wimbledon website, instead of, say, watching it live on espn...)

So it was with some interest that i found out that Channel 5 would actually be televising a slightly delayed telecast of both the men's and ladies' singles finals. The last time i managed to watch a free-to-air match on local tv was when channel i was still around, and Anastasia Myskina beat Elena Dementieva to win Roland Garros (i believe the non-initiated are quite lost at this point - as i would be if anyone was talking about who won the *insert name of random european soccer league*) And the last time i managed to catch any real tennis action at all was when i was in the states watching, yup, espn coverage of the french open. [i am rather annoyed that local tv (in particular channelnewsasia) likes to air boring (in my opinion, at least) S League and golf tournaments, yet ignore tennis almost totally, especially when they air these silly sports in place of actual news bulletins, which totally defeats the purpose of calling themselves 'channelNEWSasia']

Oops i've digressed again... Anyway, i tuned in to the ladies' singles final just now between Venus Williams and my favoured player, Lindsay Davenport, who of course went on to lose the match, as most of the players that i favour do anyway... In any case, how the commentators manage to analyse the game by talking about stuff like the difficulty in Venus' returning Lindsay's flat forehands is beyond me. Speaking of commentators, i recall one particularly silly comment that one lady commentator made about Elena Likhovtseva (losing all the non-tennis folk again...) She said something to the tune of "she certainly knows how to play the game of tennis". I mean, what kind of a useless and pointless comment is that?

Anyway, while i am quite disappointed that Davenport lost, am at least glad that neither Maria Sharapova (grunting too loud) and Serena Williams (won too many tournaments and ungracious in defeat) [yes, i admit, i am shallow when it comes to these things...] won... And at least she's still the world number one. It would be great if she could win one more Grand Slam title before she retires, though...

Well, tomorrow will mark the first time i will watch Roger Federer play a full match. The finals versus Andy Roddick... Can't wait... (although if i do find out beforehand over the bbc that Federer actually does lose -highly unlikely, although my support of him may change matters - then i will probably not bother to watch the whole match, and just turn the tv off halfway, like i did today for the ladies final after i found out that Davenport was a goner) One thing i know, i will be looking out for his beautiful single-handed backhand (haha at least some of that tennis terminology is rubbing off on me)...