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Post by janie on May 27, 2005 7:55:35 GMT -5
Of course! It's all her fault. :satan:
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Post by Brinyi on May 27, 2005 8:30:33 GMT -5
That's a great advantage of doubles, blaming the partner.
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 6, 2005 6:30:45 GMT -5
S.Mirza def. Evil C.Schaul, 2 & 0
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Post by janie on Jun 6, 2005 6:54:23 GMT -5
yeah, I saw that. Poor little Claudine! But geaux Sania!
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Post by vaiva on Jun 7, 2005 3:50:25 GMT -5
Vamos Sania but I wonder when was the last time Evil C won a match?
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 7, 2005 7:41:51 GMT -5
Claudine beat the lovely and talented Sanchez Lorenzo in Rabat last month (which shows how badly MSL was blowing, hello Nastya). But in main draws this year Evil C is 3 up and 12 down.
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Post by janie on Jun 7, 2005 14:36:06 GMT -5
Poor Claudine! Anyway Sania lost today, so she and Claudine can hang out together in the Birmingham Losers' Lounge together. Good luck to Wynny in whatever Challenger that was I saw her name in, in the Challenger forum.
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 7, 2005 14:40:23 GMT -5
Ah yes, the "Birmingham Losers' Lounge" -- I think that is also called the "loo".
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Post by janie on Jun 7, 2005 18:13:37 GMT -5
Ah yes, the "Birmingham Losers' Lounge" -- I think that is also called the "loo".
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Post by janie on Jun 8, 2005 14:24:45 GMT -5
I hope this works -- I'm eager to see if Brinyi will swoon at this new view of Our Sania:
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 8, 2005 14:42:48 GMT -5
/me swoons
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Post by janie on Jun 8, 2005 14:44:30 GMT -5
Who knew Sania wears specs? Or did you send her a pair, Brinyi? I find this very fishy!
suspicious janie
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 8, 2005 14:50:16 GMT -5
I had seen a picture of her from a few months ago with specs so it wasn't a surprise to see that photo, but I swooned anyway. ;D
And it's nice to see a player finally wearing the specs I send her! It's about time!
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Post by janie on Jun 8, 2005 19:45:09 GMT -5
I can't wait till Maria Sharapova puts on one of the pairs you sent her!
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Post by janie on Jun 11, 2005 13:40:40 GMT -5
Eastbourne Q RD 1 (What a rotten draw!!) Tanasugarn def. Mirza 1-6, 7-6, 7-5
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 12, 2005 19:13:03 GMT -5
Eastbourne Q RD 1 (What a rotten draw!!) Tanasugarn def. Mirza 1-6, 7-6, 7-5 "Sania just lost a match she just shouldn't have, after having 5 match points, 2 in the 2nd set and three more in the 3rd set " -- The Famous RJay
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 13, 2005 13:35:53 GMT -5
Shahrukh’s advice to tennis star Sania Mirza 10th June 2005 19.00 IST By Agencies
Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan , who was on Thursday voted the Youth Icon through an opinion poll conducted by leading music channel MTV, urged young tennis star Sania Mirza to focus on her game and not to get lost in 'commercialization' aspect.
Shahrukh, who beat Sania and won the maximum number of votes in the poll, said, "I think Sania is an achiever. She has played a sport that has a lot of international competition and where it is not easy dethroning someone.
"She is doing a great job and we are proud of her but my only advise to her is not to get lost in the commercialization aspect and make sport the core focus," he said.
Voting for the contest was held from March 18 to May 1. Over one lakh people cast their votes through SMS, online and telephone calls. This year's contenders for the title were Sania Mirza, Sonia Gandhi, Azim Premji, Sonu Nigam, Irfan Pathan, Manish Malhotra, besides Shahrukh Khan.
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 13, 2005 13:39:12 GMT -5
Anam Mirza, 11, sister of tennis player Sania Mirza, practices shooting at a shooting range in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, June 11, 2005. Anam has been featured in the news recently because of her shooting skills that have recently been discovered. Anam's role model is Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 13, 2005 15:33:58 GMT -5
Eastbourne Q RD 1 (What a rotten draw!!) Tanasugarn def. Mirza 1-6, 7-6, 7-5 "Sania just lost a match she just shouldn't have, after having 5 match points, 2 in the 2nd set and three more in the 3rd set " -- The Famous RJay Then, Tammy did something not as bad, but similar, in her Q2r match: "The Thai, after saving five match points against Sania Mirza of India in her first round match, blew a 6-3 and 2-0 lead and many break points to go down to American Mashona Washington 3-6 6-3 6-4."
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Post by janie on Jun 13, 2005 16:15:12 GMT -5
Women's tennis! Nothing like it!
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Post by vaiva on Jun 13, 2005 18:06:50 GMT -5
Woohoo! Sania and Tammy are in good company. They are definitely GS champs material. Yes, Sveta, I'm talking about you
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 16, 2005 14:01:37 GMT -5
Ditantang Taufik Pacaran
DERASNYA isu putus hubungan asmara antara Taufik Hidayat dengan Deswita Maharani menyusul adanya orang ketiga mungkin ada benarnya. Betapa tidak, peraih medali emas Olimpiade Athena tahun lalu itu ternyata diam-diam menyambung kembali hubungannya dengan petenis nasional Wynne Prakusya.
Benarkah?
Yang pasti, keakraban Taufik dan Wynne sempat kepergok oleh wartawan koran ini. Saat itu, keduanya sedang asyik mengobrol di Pusat Bulu Tangkis Indonesia (PBI) Cipayung, Jakarta Timur beberapa waktu lalu sekitar pukul 10.00 WIB. Mereka terlihat serius, terutama Wynne yang tampaknya sedang curhat kepada Taufik.
Dara ayu asal Solo itu sendiri terlihat baru saja usai menjalani latihan di pusat tenis Ragunan, Jakarta Selatan. Dia masih menenteng tas yang berisi raket tenis. Ketika wartawan koran ini menggoda dengan pertanyaan udah balikan nih? Wynne langsung menatap ke si penggoda. Dia tidak menjawab. Hanya tersenyum. Namun wajahnya seketika tampak memerah, seperti menahan malu.
Beda dengan Taufik, yang justru malah menantang balik bertanya kepada Wynne. "Gimana Wynn, kita balikan ndak. Wartawan tanya itu? Daripada digosipin, jawab dong! " katanya. Ditanggapi Taufik begitu, Wynne tetap belum mau menjawab. Sehingga pebulutangkis asal Bandung itu yang kembali menjawab pertanyaannya sendiri. "Lihat saja perkembangan nanti," tukasnya. Sesaat kemudian, keduanya langsung ngeloyor keluar dari lapangan Pusat Bulutangkis Cipayung dan pergi entah kemana.
Jalinan cinta Taufik dengan Deswita dikabarkan sedang retak. Dan, Wynne juga sudah cukup lama tidak terlihat lagi akrab dengan Suwandi. Kedua mantan sejoli itu akhir-akhir ini terlihat mulai akrab kembali. Taufik dan Wynne sering terlihat jalan bareng. Apakah ini pertanda keduanya kembali menjalin asmara? Entah lah.
Mungkin saja benih cinta mereka mulai bersemi lagi setelah terputus beberapa tahun. Dua sejoli sesama atlet nasional itu pernah menjalin asmara sekitar tahun 2000-an. Namun dua tahun kemudian terputus. Taufik menemukan kekasih barunya Deswita Maharani, dan Wynne akrab dengan rekan di tenis nasional, Suwandi. Kabar lain menyebutkan, Taufik saat ini juga sedang akrab dengan anak seorang pejabat. dio)
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Post by janie on Jun 16, 2005 19:07:40 GMT -5
And who the heck is supposed to be able to read that?? Brinyi, are you just sucking up to Wynny by pretending you know her language, in case she should drop by?
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 16, 2005 19:19:07 GMT -5
I'm hoping someone who reads Indon drops by. But it obviously has to do with Wynne and Taufik Hidayat, who is a superstar in international badminton (which makes him a mega-star in badminton-mad Indonesia. Wynne used to date Taufik. Then they split up, and Taufik looked bad because he immediately hooked up with some floozy Indonesian diva singer. Wynne found solace in the arms of Suwandi, one of the top Indon male tennis players, and there was even talk of marriage at one point (not sure if they were actually engaged). But they split up. Then, at the Athens Olympics, the Indon tabloids noticed that Wynne and Taufik were seen together, and that they attended each other's matches. And now... this! An incomprehensible article! I've asked my Indon correspondent to give me the gist of it.
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Post by janie on Jun 20, 2005 9:27:05 GMT -5
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Post by vaiva on Jun 20, 2005 13:03:46 GMT -5
And plays Kuzzy next
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 20, 2005 13:17:09 GMT -5
You know, I have Sania picked for the R16...
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Post by vaiva on Jun 20, 2005 13:19:34 GMT -5
Good, I heard you do quite a lousy job in slam predictions, Brainy
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 20, 2005 13:25:35 GMT -5
I blow!
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Post by Brinyi on Jun 21, 2005 6:09:00 GMT -5
Sania advances
Nirmal Shekar
A FIRST: Sania Mirza had a memorable debut in women's singles at Wimbledon on Monday by beating Japan's Akiko Morigami over three sets. The Indian won 6-3, 3-6, 8-6.
London: There are times, these days, when Sania Mirza sounds a touch world-weary. A girl-woman who's had to grow up in a hurry in full public gaze in a nation starved of sporting heroes apart from the megastars of a billion dollar industry called cricket, the teenager from Hyderabad has struggled to come to terms with the expectations fuelled by fans' passion, something that has soared to stratospheric levels.
A dollop of anxiety crossed her face the other day when she spoke about how much was expected of her back home each time she played a tennis match. It was obvious that Sania, still very young and largely inexperienced in the sporting jungle, has not realised that the coveted package of celebrity and endorsements and public adoration is nothing but a trade-off. There is a price to pay for it — often quite a heavy price.
Seasoned stars wake up every morning fully aware of the price that needs to be paid. Men like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid do it without so much as a murmer and get on with the business of runs and wins, almost oblivious to the pressures. Sania, too, will perhaps learn to develop quite such a business-like attitude one day.
Then again, Indian sport's fastest rising phenomenon of 2005 avariciously feeds on pressure on the court as much as she seems fazed by it off the court. This is precisely what makes her special, and it is what helped her past her opening round opponent, Akiko Morigami of Japan, at the Wimbledon tennis championships on Monday.
Making her debut on court No.17, where passers-by unacquainted with the peculiar dynamics of sports following in India and by Indians overseas might have assumed that an English player was in action, Sania played her best tennis with her back to the wall for a 6-3, 3-6, 8-6 victory in a little over two hours.
On a sun-splashed court hugged tightly by rows of Indian fans, Sania started confidently and twice came from behind in the decider before breaking Morigami's serve in the 14th game. Sania's backhand sailed over the baseline on her first matchpoint but she used her lethal forehand to close out the match on the second matchpoint.
"I expected a close match and that is what it turned out to be,'' said Sania who, at No.72, is ranked eight places behind Morigami . "I am happy with the way I played. Maybe a bit patchy but I was physically and mentally strong in the end when it mattered.''
It was obvious that the injury cloud has clearly lifted for the 18-year old Indian. The ankle injury which kept her out of action for a few weeks following the Hyderabad Open is now history and this was evident from the way she moved on court today, especially from side to side on the baseline, although she did venture up on the odd occasion.
Spectacular winners
Then again, when she did go for broke, Sania brought off spectacular winners on both flanks. She opened up a 5-1 first set lead with two service breaks but lost serve in the seventh game before winning the first set on her second chance on serve.
In the second, Morigami raised her game a bit and stayed close with Sania till midway before breaking to 5-3 and then serving out the set.
The momentum appeared to have swung all the way to one side when Morigami raced to 2-0 in the decider. But Sania fought back to 2-2 and then, again, came back from a break down to make it 4-4. The next six games were fiercely contested as fans moved to seat-edge and the cheers from Sania's supporters drowned out the chair umpire's calls.
Sania, of course, will need to carry all that improvement, and bring to the court a bit more, when she takes on the fifth seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetzova in the second round.
Surely, fans back home will be even more excited and expectations will continue to skyrocket. How was she going to deal with that?
"I can't control that. I can only go out and give my best each time,'' said Sania. "They probably expect a lot more than what I can do.''
Maybe, at 18, Sania herself is not quite sure of what she can do, how far she can go. That is the beauty of sport. As for expectations...well, they expect only when you start delivering, which a good thing. In a way, expectations act like a performance gauge, although the searing heat of fans's passion often produces a glitch in the meter's circuitry.
Smooth sailing
Meanwhile, the defending men's champion Roger Federer raced past Paul-Henri Mathieu of France, winning 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 on the Centre Court to stretch his grass court-winning streak to 30 matches. Also a facile winner was the Australian third seed Lleyton Hewitt who beat Christophe Rochus of Belgium 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.
We'll leave the last word to Federer, talking about pressure. "I think in the beginning it is the pressure which you feel more. And then once you get underway it is the confidence which totally dominates.''
That's true of all champions, good and great — they simply ride the pressure, shut it out, and then dominate with their awesome confidence.
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