Spoiling for a Fight
PARIS—We got our first glimpse of Novak Djokovic Friday in the hallway leading out to Court Philippe Chatrier. He was shaking his legs manically, frantically, like a boxer trying to get loose. You could understand why. The world’s hottest tennis player had waited five days to play tennis, and then he had waited some more as Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray took three hours to get through three sets in Friday’s first semifinal. As Djokovic walked over for his pre-match interview with a French television reporter, it seemed like he had parachuted in from another tournament. Right, this was the guy who was so unbeatable in Madrid and Rome. Where has he been?
Djokovic listened to the first question. He looked up. He inhaled through his nose. He began to tilt his head back a little. He inhaled some more. Where had I seen this before? Uh oh, I thought, breathing problems, before the match has even started? It didn’t get any better when Djokovic walked on the court. An afternoon that had been bright and hot had suddenly gone cloudy. There was a bleak pale light over Chatrier as Djokovic came on to a tepid mix of applause and a scattering of boos. He gave his non-supporters an uncertain wave. After all the glory, all the wins and celebrations and titles and chatter of the last five months, he must have thought he would get a little more fanfare than that.
But he wasn’t going to get anything from a Parisian audience today, not with Roger Federer, an underdog Roger Federer at that, on the other side of the net. With a French crowd, there’s no distance between the proceedings on the court and their reaction to it—they want to be involved, and they were a big factor in this match. There was a full-on Davis Cup atmosphere in Chatrier. Highly civilized French people stood and threw their hands in the air and pumped their fists, screaming for “Ro-ger!”
A few feet in front of me there was a pretty, mild-looking young woman, in a beige sweater, with a collegiate-looking white collar over top of it, her blond hair pulled up conservatively. For most of the match, she leaned forward and clapped politely for Federer. But after he hit one screaming winner late in the fourth set, she couldn’t hold back. She jumped to her feet and threw her right arm in the air with the violently passionate derangement of your average deranged football fan. Her boyfriend, slightly stunned, got up and gave her a kiss. His look said, “Wow, what got into you? I like it!” Two rows behind them, a group of French men intentionally yelled their cheers for Federer straight into the microphone above them. I guess this is the essence of the Federer appeal—making the highly civilized into maniacal sports fans.
Over the previous week, Federer had said that he felt no particular pressure at this tournament, especially compared to Djokovic, who had, according to him, “a lot on the line.” Those words had sounded partly like a bluff or a head game and maybe they were, but as the afternoon went on, they also proved to be true. Federer came on simply to play a match, not to keep a streak going, not to become No. 1, not to win his first French Open, not to keep a shot at the Grand Slam alive.
Federer had also said, somewhat touchingly I thought, that this would be a big match for Djokovic not just because of all of the above, but because it would be a match against him, Roger Federer. There was a part of Federer that, whatever he said about the lack of pressure, wanted to remind people of . . . well, of who he was.
He did. He did it in three ways. He did it by serving brilliantly first of all. This match was reminiscent of Federer’s wins in the 2007 and 2009 Wimbledon finals, where his serve made the difference. He did it, as Djokovic, said afterward, with clutch serving. The biggest moment came with Federer serving at 4-5, 15-40 in the first set. He had lost the first set in all of his losses to Djokovic this year, and this one would have been even tougher to take, because it had been Djokovic who had been the tighter player at the start. This time Federer’s serve rescued him. He made four straight first balls, won four straight points, and eventually won the set.
More impressively, Federer did it by doing what Djokovic has been doing to an unparalleled degree all season: by defending. Federer was all over the back of the court, tracking down seeming winners and making Djokovic hit that old warhorse of tennis pros everywhere: the extra shot. If nothing else, this match should put to rest any talk about Federer’s one-hander, or anyone’s one-hander, being outdated. He used it to reach out and return seemingly unreturnable Djokovic serves and inside-out forehands. He also used it to win two of key points. At 6-5, set point, in the first, Federer went away from the attacking game he had been using and settled back with an off-pace slice backhand. Djokovic, leaning down and trying to create his own pace, netted it; that slice is only natural for a player with a one-hander. Later, down 4-5 in the fourth with Djokovic serving for the set, Federer ran to his left to catch up to a well-hit forehand from the Serb and flipped a topspin backhand up the line for a winner. The crowd went berserk.
Federer also won with uncharacteristically overt passion. I had said before the match that in previous go-rounds with Djokovic this year, he had carried a defeatist look as the games went on. This time he fought with an open determination from the start, and the attitude made a difference. In the middle of the first-set tiebreaker, he shanked three balls in a row to go down 4-5. In past matches, this might have been the beginning of the end for Federer. Not so today. There was no sense of uncertainty, tactically or emotionally, from him. He sounded that same note of certitude in his press conference afterward.
“I kinda felt like this match is not gonna slip out of my hands,” he said about being up a set and 4-1. “I just felt like you don’t give me such a lead and then think you can crawl back into the match. I knew I was probably gonna close this out.”
Who is this swaggering man, Jimmy Connors? OK, he started with “I kinda felt …” But still, a strong statement of belief from Federer.
Djokovic, meanwhile, went in the opposite direction, to a place of no belief at all. When he lost the first set, he flipped his racquet in the air and looked back at his team unhappily. The crowd stood and bellowed for Federer—it felt like the Serb might be rolled out of Roland Garros on a tumbrel. Which is sort of what happened.
In the second set, Djokovic looked physically punctured, smaller, less puffed up than he has been all year. He said afterward that he knew a loss was coming eventually, and there appeared to be a sense of fatalism about him in the second set. He threw his hands in the air after every winning Federer serve. He jawed with his family in the stands. He shook his head as he sat during changeovers. He trudged slowly, glumly, with no energy. Five months worth of confidence had evaporated after one tiebreaker. Even when he held serve for 2-4 after saving multiple break points, Djokovic cast his team a forlorn look. The streak, the French, the ranking, the opponent: It was a match that Djokovic must have felt, after all of the preliminary wins, that he couldn’t afford to lose; those are always the toughest not to lose.
In the end, Djokovic returned to earth, nothing more, nothing less. He missed backhands that he hadn’t missed in months. He sent crucial returns long. Instead of taking the opening that Federer gave him in the first-set tiebreaker at 5-4, he made tentative errors to give the lead back. Djokovic played that moment, that tiebreaker, and that set not to lose; Federer played it to win.
Federer told Djokovic at the net afterward that “his streak speaks for itself.” And it does. He showed, after some years of ups and downs, what he’s capable of, and gave us an idea of what the next great tennis player might look like. Djokovic was relaxed and level-headed in his press conference, but he had to be gutted. He said he thought it was a great match and that he was proud to be part of it.
“I congratulate him for a great performance,” Djokovic said, sounding all the appropriate notes. “He played really well. We were, I think, part of a very good match . . . “
Then Djokovic’s tone changed. He began to shake his head. He said, “It feels bad losing.” He flashed a wide smile, but he looked and sounded to me like a man who had just been overwhelmed by a burst of emotion, one that could have led to tears in a different person.
There was a burst of emotion from Federer as well, when he saw his final serve clip the line and slide past Djokovic for one last ace. Federer looked at his box, smiled and nodded his head, and wagged his index finger—No. 1. Then he let out a titanic scream. The smile and the scream were filled with the bottled-up cockiness and unapologetic triumph of a champion returned to his rightful place. It was cathartic, and it was uncharacteristically visceral for Federer. It also looked a little like the scream that Djokovic has been letting out after his big wins this spring. Federer, back where he wanted to be, had taken a page from the younger star’s playbook. He had run like Djokovic today, and he had celebrated like him, too.
The last time I can remember Federer wagging his index finger, he had just beaten Rafael Nadal in Madrid before going on to win in Paris, in 2009. Now Federer gets another chance at Nadal, for another French title. Federer says that after beating Djokovic, it “almost feels somewhat like I’ve won the tournament.” The French crowd will be there for him on Sunday as well—except, perhaps, for one fan who was in the arena for his semi.
Late in the fourth set today, a man in the row ahead of me took off the baseball cap he had been wearing. He had been cheering vociferously for Federer all day; he’d been one of the men who had yelled “Ro-ger!” into the microphone above him. I had assumed all along that he was French. Now, though, he took out another hat and put it on his head. It was red and yellow. Across the top it read: “España.”
T20: Depleted India favourites to beat WI
Port of Spain: A second string Indian team – led by Suresh Raina – will kick off the West Indies tour here at the Queen’s Park Oval on Saturday, when they take on an equally young home team in the only Twenty20 international.
Harbhajan Singh will deputise for Raina as most senior members of the ODI champions – including regular skipper MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan – are either recuperating or taking rest back home.
Believe it or not, the young Indian side also has a chance to create history as they have never ended on the right side against the West Indies in a Twenty20 match. But in the absence of Chris Gayle, India have the best chance to put the record straight.
The all important wicket at the Queen’s Park Oval is expected to be low and slow, which is against the strength of the hosts, who rely on pace and bounce.
The hosts have two of the most economical and frugal medium-paceers in skipper Darren Sammy and Ravi Rampaul but the Oval pitch appears to have been made more for the visitors’ liking.
India has three first-rate spinners in Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin and Amit Mishra to take advantage of the surface while West Indies have only young leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo who could do likewise.
Indians are known to have a weakness against short-pitched deliveries yet they are unlikely to face any such threat on the bland Queen’s Park surface or from the composition of the West Indies side.
Though Ravi Rampaul is in prime form, neither Andre Russel nor Krishmar Santokie can be said to have the same effect as the missign trio of Fidel Edwards, Jerome Taylor and Khemar Roach have on the opponents.
The other issues, which Gibson outlined, are the inability of his batsmen to rotate strike and their fallings against spin, particularly off-spin.
The tourists would be buoyed by the admission for they have two very potent off-spinners in Harbhajan Singh and R Ashwin in the ranks.
Given the state of the Oval pitch, India would be tempted to play both Harbhajan and Ashwin in tomorrow’s game even though skipper Raina himself and Rohit Sharma can also turn their arms over.
Indians would have a few anxieties about their openers as left-handers Shikhar Dhawan and Parthiv Patel haven’t quite set the stadium on fire in recent times.
Their middle order though is strong and Kohli, Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma and Badrinath are all capable performers.
Indian pace bowling too is in the capable hands with Munaf Patel, a model of fitness and efficiency over the last few months.
Visitors have a reasonable batting line-up on paper with Darren Bravo being the pick of the lot yet it hasn’t quite translated into enough runs on the board in recent times.
Indeed, Gibson has openly admitted that it is time his batsmen pull their weight and support bowlers who have been doing more than an adequate job.
India have twice faced West Indies in Twenty20 internationals and come a cropper on both occasions.
India first met the West Indies during the 2009 Twenty20 World Championships and lost by seven wickets at Lord’s.
West Indies repeated the dose in the second encounter, again during the Twenty20 World Cup but this time in Caribbean, beating India by 14 runs at the Kensington Oval.
SQUADS:
West Indies: Darren Sammy (c), Christopher Barnewell, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Andre Fletcher, Danza Hyatt, Ashley Nurse, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Krishmar Santokie and Lendl Simmons.
India: Suresh Raina (c), Harbhajan Singh (vC), S Badrinath, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Vinay Kumar, Ishant Sharma, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Munaf Patel.
England reach 342/6 at stumps on Day 1
London: Alastair Cook and Eoin Morgan led an England recovery to 342-6 against Sri Lanka on Friday, giving the home side a slight edge at the close on day one of the second Test.
Cook struck 96 and Morgan added 79 after England had stumbled to 22-3 in eight overs, having been put in to bat by Sri Lanka at Lord’s. Matt Prior weighed in late on with 73 not out.
Playing each ball on its merits, Morgan struck 10 fours and two sixes off 128 deliveries at No. 6 to further advance his claims to replace the retired Paul Collingwood. He fell lbw half an hour before the close to Suranga Lakmal, who finished with 3-79.
Tillakaratne Dilshan’s seemingly defensive choice to bowl first under mostly clear skies paid off early but looked less wise as England improved on a good batting surface.
With Sri Lanka’s attack tiring, Prior plundered his runs from 83 balls and Stuart Broad made it to 17 not out.
But Morgan’s dismissal, given by the TV umpire after Billy Doctrove originally ruled it not out, at least means Sri Lanka has hope of an early breakthrough Saturday with England’s tail exposed.
Morgan had looked well set to carry England to a strong position but Dilshan tossed the new ball to Lakmal, who trapped the batsman with a ball that was hitting leg stump.
England might have expected to keep more wickets in hand on a true surface, but Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen all fell to indifferent batting rather than noteworthy bowling.
Things could have been even worse for the home side but, with Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga both retired, Sri Lanka’s bowling deteriorated from unremarkable before lunch to occasionally mediocre as Dilhara Fernando leaked runs and struggled with his length.
With momentum swinging back and forth, Ian Bell scratched out 52 to steady the innings in a fourth-wicket stand of 108 with Cook, who had looked sure to become the sixth Englishman to hit a century in three consecutive test innings but mis-timed a pull shot off Fernando and skied it to the fielder mid on.
Bell was caught at slip by Tharanga Paranavitana off Chanaka Welegedara before Cook made a mistake that was oddly uncharacteristic for a man who scored a total of 766 against Australia in England’s most recent test series.
Morgan showed his intent against Welegedara with a sweet drive back past the bowler for four. Morgan helped himself to another boundary in the next over, hitting Rangana Herath over the top, and soon stepped forward to smash the spinner for a huge six to mid on — taking England to 150 from 272 balls.
Morgan escaped on 35 when an inside edge off Fernando narrowly missed his stumps and went for four. He refocussed to hit his next runs from a six, standing his ground to smash the ball back over the head of bowler Dilshan.
Cook was next out but Morgan reached an 86-ball half century that included seven fours and two sixes, and Prior hit a pair of backward leaning offside cuts off Farveez Maharoof in the 75th over to keep the scoreboard rolling.
England looked set to go in with only five wickets down, but Dilshan’s bowling change paid off.
Dilshan had opted to field first. possibly in reaction to Sri Lanka’s heavy defeat in the first test, when it scored 400 after choosing to bat but lost by an innings and 14 runs.
Welegedara ended the day with 2-65, but, while Sri Lanka has bowling concerns, England has problems of its own.
Strauss scored just a single boundary from 12 deliveries before he fell lbw to Welegedara, leaning across a delivery that was on course to clip the top of leg stump. Trott, whose 203 in the first test meant he averaged a remarkable 66.77 going into the match, went the same way to Lakmal for just 2.
Pietersen’s poor form continued as he drove at a swinging delivery from Lakmal and was caught by Dilshan, also for 2.
Chance for India to set WI stats straight
New Delhi: Recent form would indicate that the world champions will be firm favourites on their Caribbean tour even though the statistics cut a sorry figure as far as India’s one day international record in the West Indies is concerned.
Under the leadership of Suresh Raina and the guidance of Duncan Fletcher the new look Team India actually have a lot to make up for thanks to the hammerings received at the hands of the Windies in the years gone by.
The venue for the one-off T20 clash on Saturday and the first two one-dayers which follow is the Queen’s Park Oval at Trinidad where India have have been on the wrong end of the result on nine out of 12 occasions.
The ignominy of going down to Bangladesh in the 2007 ICC World Cup is right up there along with some of India’s most forgettable losses at that ground.
It all began in the three match ODI series of 1983 which West Indies went on to win 2-1.
Legendary opener Desmond Haynes struck 97 off 104 balls as the hosts won by 52 runs in a contest that was reduced to 39 overs per side.
Queen’s Park Oval was where the Windies clinched the 1989 ODI series by cruising to back to back victories in the second and third matches.
Worse was to follow as India went down in the final two fixtures which led to a 5-0 whitewash.
After being caught on the wrong foot at that very venue in the first match of the 1997 series, the Indians crushed the home team by 10 wickets in the second ODI to finally get the hoodoo off their back.
Off-spinner Noel David took 3/21 as the Windies were bowled out for a mere 121 in 43.5 overs. Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly knocked off the required runs as India levelled the series.
However, India lost the final two games and it was the West Indies who once again ended up with the spoils.
The West Indies levelled the 2002 ODI series against India at Trinidad but it was India who won their maiden limited overs series in the Caribbean which was brought about by their 56 run win in the fifth and final ODI.
Tendulkar scored 65 and skipper Ganguly made 56 as India’s total of 260 turned out to be well beyond the reach of the hosts who were all out for 191.
The Windies won both their fixtures at the Queen’s Park Oval against India during the 2006 series which went in favour of the hosts 4-1.
But it was during the 2007 World Cup that the venue really turned out to be the undoing of Team India.
The Bangla Tigers’ giant killing act went a long way in India’s ouster from the competition.
India did manage a consolation win against Bermuda at Trinidad but their defeat against Sri Lanka meant that it was the end of the road for Rahul Dravid’s men.
The Indian cricket team however has fared much better at Sabina Park, Kingston, the venue for the fifth ODI of the 2011 series.
The two teams split their two encounters during the 2009 series. While India won the first match by 20 runs, West Indies came back strongly to win the second ODI comprehensively by eight wickets.
India will take on the West Indies at the Sir Vivian Richards stadium, Antigua for the first time in an ODI during the fourth and fifth matches of the upcoming series.
The June 4 Twenty20 clash between the two sides will be their first in the Caribbean in the slam bang format of the game.
The stage is well and truly set for India setting their record right in the West Indies.
2nd Test: SL look to square series vs Eng
London: Cricket is still reeling from the shock of Sri Lanka being bowled out by England for 82 in 148 balls at Cardiff on Monday.
Sri Lanka lost its last eight wickets for 49 in 72 balls in less than an hour. No one expected England would win the first Test by an innings in a game that Graeme Swann said had a “club feel.”
With James Anderson injured and out of the squad, England may consider playing a fifth bowler on what is usually a benign Lord’s pitch.
England has won five of its last seven Tests by an innings, but was probably lucky to get away with its strategy of playing four bowlers at Cardiff. Yet, it is a method that has served it well. England last went into a Test with five frontline bowlers against Bangladesh at Mirpur 15 months ago. Since then it has won nine out of 12 Tests, with two losses and a draw.
Yet, the workload takes a huge toll on bowlers. In Australia, Anderson looked mentally exhausted, and in the last six years five England pace bowlers have broken down in mid-Test.
In 2005, Simon Jones injured his right ankle and played his last Test at Trent Bridge. In 2007, Matthew Hoggard suffered a thigh strain in a Lord’s Test and played just four more Tests for England. In Antigua in 2009, Andrew Flintoff sustained a hip injury and played only four Tests after that match. Last December in the Adelaide Test, Stuart Broad tore an abdominal muscle so severely that he missed the rest of the tour of Australia. Now Anderson will miss the Lord’s Test with a side strain.
If Steven Finn plays England could field the tallest ever bowling combination in the history of the game. According to The Cricketers’ Who’s Who Finn is 6-foot-7 (2.01 meters), Stuart Broad 6-6 (1.98) and Chris Tremlett 6-7 (2.01), so they have a combined height of 19-8 (6).
Andrew Strauss has the opportunity to become the first captain to win five Tests at Lord’s. Currently, Strauss, Peter May and Nasser Hussain have won four each at the home of cricket.
Strauss made his Test debut at Lord’s in 2004 against New Zealand, scoring 112 and 83. He has 1,360 runs with four centuries and six 50s in 14 Tests there at an average of 61.81.
This is Alastair Cook’s 65th consecutive Test, equalling the record held by Alan Knott and Ian Botham for the most consecutive Tests played for England. It is his 67th Test in all and at age 26 he has already scored 17 Test hundreds. Sachin Tendulkar scored 22 hundreds before the age of 27. Cook has two hundreds at Lords: Against Pakistan in 2006 and West Indies in 2007. His batting average has never dropped below 40.
At Cardiff, Kevin Pietersen was out to slow left-armer Rangana Herath. It was the 19th time in his career he had been dismissed by that style of bowler. All 19 have come in the most recent part of his career, his last 58 completed innings, beginning in March 2008 when New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori had him caught and bowled at Hamilton. Pietersen has been dismissed 43 times in international cricket including 17 times in ODIs and seven times in Twenty20s. Geoff Boycott says that, like an alcoholic, in order to deal with the problem he first has to acknowledge that he has a problem.
The last time England played Sri Lanka at Lord’s was in May 2006. The match ended unexpectedly in a draw after Sri Lanka, 359 behind on the first innings, batted 199 overs to secure the draw. Sri Lanka was 381-6 going into the final day, but England managed to take three wickets, with Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Kulasekara adding 105 for the ninth wicket.
Big Bash teams want Afridi despite NOC issue
Melbourne: Despite PCB revoking Shahid Afridi’s NOC barring him from playing in the foreign leagues, Cricket Australia officials have expressed their desire to rope in the flamboyant all-rounder for this year’s Big Bash Twenty20 tournament.
After the former Pakistan captain announced his retirement from international cricket following his stand-off with PCB chairman Ijaz Butt, several of the eight teams featuring in the Big Bash have shown their interest in signing Afridi, who had a successful stint in the event two years ago.
A number of other states also indicated their interest in explosive West Indian opener Chris Gayle, whose ongoing tussle with the country’s cricket board following a radio interview resulted in his omission from the one-off T20 international and first two ODIs against India starting on Saturday.
Stuart Clark, general manager of the Sydney Sixers, said he would be interested in speaking to these players for his side, which is based at the SCG.
“I hadn’t thought about Afridi until I heard on the radio that he had quit,” Clark was quoted as saying by The Australian.
“We would be interested depending on what he wants. If he wants to come here, I am willing to talk to him,” Clark added.
Afridi suffered a setback on Wednesday when English county Hampshire said it would not be playing the all-rounder in their Twenty20 league after the PCB revoked the requisite NOC.
The NOC’s were issued to Afridi to play for Hampshire and in the inaugural Sri Lankan Premier League next month.
Afridi, one of the most explosive batsmen in the world, played for South Australia in the Big Bash two years ago and impressed all.
“He was excellent and all the reports were that he was brilliant among the team,” Clark said.
Afridi’s fall-out with the PCB enables him to play in the Sri Lankan, English county and Australian Twenty20 competitions.
The eight sides in this season’s Big Bash are likely to be allowed four contracted Australian players and four internationals, but with only two of the latter in the team at any time.
Afridi, Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Lasith Malinga are all understood to be on the minds of the eight city-based teams. All have played in the Big Bash before.
Big Bash sides qualify for the lucrative Twenty20 Champions League
The imagination imitates it is the critical spirit 