The Beauty of Tennis

I have been watching the final rounds of the Australian Open with pleasure. What a beautiful great sport! Well, any sport and any tournament is likely to be beautiful and pleasant. It's just that every time you watch a particular game, and marvel at its particular beauty and outcomes, you appreciate it with renewed passion.

I was somewhat behind in tennis news in recent months. So, here I discovered Ana Ivanovic for myself; she was #4 in the world, and has now become #2 as a result of her plays in Australian Open. I had not known her at all. Anyway, what amazed me was her strength to persever and to come back. She horribly lost her first set to Daniela Hantuchova, and started with losses in the second set... and then, she turned the tide around. Against Ana's charming, naive-looking, almost child-like face, you would immediately notice Daniela's demeanor - aggressive, somewhat bitter, tense, almost angry. A couple of times she did show her impatience with Ana's squeaking shoes... And as Daniela started to lose, her bitterness got bitterer and less pleasant. Ana, on the other hand, was totally amazing. What a great game it was.

Maria Sharapova won the championship. She was great throughout the tournament in her game. The little bit of antidote to amazement was her somewhat unsporting demeanor, too, like Daniela. (I was amazed those two looked alike, too!). Her father's stupid gesture exacerbated it, none of her fault of cause. And then, at her prize receiving speech, she said something about Serbian fans being louder than Russian fans... Come on, you are in Australia, and playing an individual sport, not national teams sport. The fact that cheers for Ana's were louder is simply about the crowd's liking of Ana - a charming, personable, and strong young lady... Oh well, 20 year-olds, young.

And in the men's final, we have a complete surprise game with Djokovich and Tsonga. Wow, I await a very interesting game, and I don't care who of the two wins. They both are just amazing. A grand slam without Federer and/or Nadal, that's something new. Any sport is so much more interesting when it is indeed competitive, not dominated and predictable. I love tennis.

Viva Tennis!