ಕ್ಷಣಪ್ರಭಾ - Kshanaprabhaa

Six years ago, in 2007, when she reached her first grand slam final at the very same grass heaven, people were wondering how Marion Bartoli even made it all the way through to the finals. She did not look like the fittest person around given the normal standards, she did not move that great in the court, she had a strange stance while serving and played both her forehand and backhand shots with both hands most of the times. Comments ranged from "bizarre" to "outrageous" to "crazy". She faced Venus Williams in top form in the final, let the occasion get to her, and capitulated in straight sets. People went back saying she robbed them off a great Wimbledon final by virtue of having reached it. Anyone else on the planet, it seems, would have made a match of it. Many even went onto predict that she would not last long in the game, lamenting the depths to which the women's game had sunk since the glory days of Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis. Not many wa...

Some photos from the morning Tennis action with colleague Ravi Kumar Yadav. Or, should I say, an attempt at playing Tennis? Enjoying it quite a bit. Also, thanks to the gifted Tennis balls from former colleague Madhura...

Last weekend was a special one for a few of us, who went and watched a Davis Cup Tennis tie live at the KSLTA (Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Associations) Tennis Courts at Cubbon Park, Bangalore. This tie was between India and Indonesia in the Asia-Oceania play-offs, and India thumped Indonesia convincingly (5-0) to progress. We were there on Saturday, the doubles match day, and Leander Paes teamed up with young Sanam Singh to clinch an unassailable 3-0 lead in the rubber and won it for India with ease, with a straight sets victory of 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.  We got to witness many of the greats of Indian Tennis that day, thanks to KSLTA which had organized a felicitation for them. Ramanathan Krishnan, Ramesh Krishnan, Anand Amritraj, S. P. Mishra, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes were all felicitated, and Rohan Bopanna and Jaideep Mukherjee were in town too. Singles players Somdev Devverman and Yuki Bhambri had the day off, having won their respective ties in singles the previous day, ...