On the cards

The final tennis grand slam of the year - the US Open - is underway. And the men's singles event is going to be the cynosure of all tennis fans. While Roger Federer is the firm favorite, one cannot write off the chances of Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Andy Roddick. The Federer-Nadal saga has taken a complete u-turn since last year, with the hunter now being the hunted. Nadal should now be feeling the shoe pinch, in addition to his troublesome knees, as the shoe is on the foot now. Last year Federer arrived at Flushing Meadows after having been mauled by Nadal in the French Open and robbed of his Wimbledon crown and the chance to go past Borg's five consecutive wins by the same nemesis, this time is a five-set classic though. And losing his #1 ranking - to who else - must have been salt in his wounds. However, he went on to put all the doubting Thomases in their place by making it 5-in-a-row at New York, with a truly majestic performance. And today, Nadal is in the same boat that Federer abandanoed at the Arthur Ashe stadium last year. In fact, he is facing a bigger mountain than Federer did on a cuple of more counts - in addition to the loss of his Wimbledon crown and the #1 ranking, he has lost his French Open title, which was unchallenged for 4 years and with it his aura of invincibility on clay. And he faces the question whether his knees can support his "chase-down-every-ball" game style. It really looks like his bulging arms muscles used to intimidate his opponents, for his record is more mortal-like once he stopped wearing his sleeveless T-shirts. Watch this space for the coverage of the US Open.

In September, we also have the ICC Champions Trophy coming up in South Africa. Here, again, the undisputed champions in the 50-over format, Australia, have lost their invincibility, and the other teams - South Africa, India and Sri Lanka - have turned in impressive performances, leaving a more levelled playing field. Interesting fare in the offing and one hopes for some close matches with nail-biting finishes, to get the charm back into this format of the game.

And I hope to do some writing on the Premier League and other football matches, at least to please The dream Chaser, if not for anything else. This will mean hard work for me, but anything for you, my friend.

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