Remember Igor Andreev, the Russian who stretched Roger Federer for - TopicsExpress



          

Remember Igor Andreev, the Russian who stretched Roger Federer for five sets in the fourth round of the US Open in 2008? You may not, but he did. That was a real bad year by Rogers standards. Not winning a single grand slam till then, despite playing two finals and a semi. But he persisted, Roger in red. And I saw him lifting his 13th Major in the depth of a night a few days later defeating Scottish challenger Murray. Roger wept at around 2.40 am IST, and I got some parental advices on the ideal timings of watching and not watching tv. Then came 2009, the year of lilacs in my life. But blooms arent perennial, and probably not even Del Potro, who overcame Roger in five sets to lift his first Major. How long a match that was, how intense. I have never before seen Roger arguing for points, and as a matter of fact, never seen anybody going for high-fives with the front row audience after each remarkable forehand winner. There was a quiz that a you know, I had to move early out of station, and was almost getting late. Ok, let us skip 2010, 2011 and 2012 here, and jump directly to 2013. 7th of September, 2013: a motivational speech later to the Gramin Dak Sevaks under my jurisdiction, I boarded the Saturday train to Dibrugarh. Next day was the interview for a new (my current) job. Since I had to wake up early, which was nonetheless tough, I decided not to go for a full blooded sleep, and got myself stuck to the hotel room tv screen which was at its pathetic best in terms of display quality. That night, Wawrinka went down to Djokovic in five sets in the semis, just like the Oz Open story. Those who watched live the Chennai Open once upon a time know well that Marin Cilic is a Tamil Hero. January, 2009: he defeated Somdev to lift the Chennai trophy, and I was watching. In September, 2014: he defeated Kei Nishikori to lift the US, and I could never even watch. After so many years, I had to miss for the first time the best exploits of the Flushing Meadows, and that probably marks the beginning of yet another phase in my life!
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 18:33:32 +0000

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