PRG's Thoughts

It's the end of the year, that was twenty-eighteen, So what happened in sports, with your favourite team? There was the World Cup, and then regular seasons, 'Twas a great year for fans, here are my reasons. Lets start with the Cup, that comes every four years, As usual it ended, with England in tears. Croatia played well, and was the runner up, But in the end, the French won the cup. Neymar won an Oscar, Messi won nothing, Poor England prepared too early for homecoming. We've watched this next flick, since 2003, I'm talking about tennis, and the same old big three. Roger won Aus, Novak Wimb & New York, Rafa won the French, oh, what a shock! The time for new blood, is long overdue, Zverev, Thiem or anyone please come through. Four different winners, in four different slams, Women's tennis, is capturing the fans. Of course, the greatest had the greatest melt down, Oh Serena, you behaved like a clown. The Return of the Kings, is not a movi...

The Wimbledon finals no one predicted Sports What a great Wimbledon. As usual the lawns of SW19 kept us riveted for two weeks. The Rafa injury scare, the Williams sisters' early exit and of course the hope that the top four men's seeds would be in the semi finals again. The Men's Final- It was one of the most shocking things I have seen in sports in a long time. Not that Djokovic won, he has beaten Nadal enough times this year for that to be a surprise. But I never thought I would see Rafa Nadal outclassed on a tennis court. The tennis that Novak Djokovic played was simply sublime. No one has dominated Nadal as Novak did on Sunday. He did to Nadal what Nadal does to everyone else. Chasing down every ball he forced Rafa to play two extra shots a point. That is Nadal's thing, it's what makes Nadal so hard to beat. Well Rafa's patent on that skill expired and Djokovic executed like a man on a mission. Sure, in the third set we saw signs of the Rafa we know and lo...

I hate Roger Federer. He raises my blood pressure, causes stress, the occasional sleepless night and makes Sunday evenings horrible. I’m just recovering from the French Open and here comes Wimbledon. Just before the final at Roland Garros started I said, “I can’t hack a 5 set match. I hope it doesn’t go there.” I got berated by a friend, “What do you mean you can’t hack it? If you don’t want to watch it, don’t.” Then there were others who said, “I hope it’s a close one. Will be fun.” Will be fun ? Getting an ulcer is fun ? Heart skipping beats is fun ? There were those who before the tournament even started said another Roger-Rafa final “would be amazing.” I felt like knocking them on the head with a club. Sorry, I can’t take it anymore. The surgeon general needs to show a warning to Roger fans that watching his matches will cut a couple of months off your life expectancy. Roger is a tease and an emotional roller coaster that few can handle. He goes up 5-2 and then loses the set. He wi...

Wimbledon is just another tournament,” said a friend, as we debated the best sporting events of the year. Just another tournament? Really? The game at the Championships is not what it used to be, there’s no question about it; and the authorities at SW19 have made some dramatic changes in the past few years. In the late Eighties and Nineties, the Wimbledon game was dominated by serve and volley. Baseliners weren’t thought to have a shot at victory – barring the random win by Agassi in 1992. A big serve and a decent game were what you needed to be a contender. It was in complete contrast to the games on the clay courts of the French Open, which concludes just two weeks prior to Wimbledon. At the French, the sluggers from the baseline continued to win titles, then struggled in England a fortnight later. The complaints started in the late Nineties and early Noughties. There were very few rallies. Players like Ivaniševic would bang out 200 aces in the tournament, keeping average points on h...

The Greatest of All Time (GOAT) debate is part of every sport. It is senseless in a lot of ways because you can never reach a conclusion. Yet every sport has lists, rankings and articles on who is the GOAT. Tennis has a new member in this debate, welcome to the party Rafael Nadal. When debating the GOAT in tennis here are the criterion that I looked at. 1) Has the player won a number of major tournaments (grand slams and ATP Masters) 2) Test of Time- has the player won consistently and dominated the competition over a significant period of time 3) Has the player won against top competition 4) Has the player won under different conditions Nadal has won 9 grand slam titles on all surfaces and holds the record for the most ATP Masters titles. He has beaten the best and holds a comfortable win-loss ratio against Roger Federer, his biggest rival. Finally, he is the greatest clay court player of all time. He has a check mark next to all the criteria. Well all, except for num...

So, Nadal is out of the French Open in the 4th round. I think we all are shocked to say the least. You have to hand it to Soderling, he played phenomenally. Anyway, this post is not about the match, I hardly have the qualifications to analyze what went wrong with the world # 1. This post is about the chatter of the tennis world for the last year on how Roger Federer has "lost it" and the maddening analysis of Roger's demise from # 1 all the way down to # 2, a huge drop. I have had my views on this for some time now but never written about it. Something about Rafa's loss (on clay) today inspired me to sit and type it out. Firstly, let me say that this is probably the only great rivalry where I have not hated one of people involved. I am a die hard Roger Federer fan but can't help liking Nadal as well. His game, movement on the court and some of the shots he hits leave you stunned in amazement. The best part about him is his attitude and the respect he shows every p...