Sania Mirza will face fairly unknown Italian Maria Elenea Camerin in round 2 of the US Open. Mirza had a rugged start in round 1 with loads of unforced errors. Compared to that, Camerin surprised one and all by defeating 21 seed Danira Safina in round 1.

Camerin is an even match for Mirza. She is currently ranked a lowly 81 but has been as high as 41 finishing 2004 at 43. However, she has never been past round 2 in a grandslam in 13 appearences. Mirza has already bettered that in her first year at the highest level.

But Camerin is slightly more experienced at the age of 23 having been in the top 120 or near about since 2001. Mirza kept her cool against a much more experienced player in round 1.

It is an even matchup and Mirza would not mind facing Camerin instead of Safina.

After winning versus Washington, Sania Mirza has become the first Indian woman to reach round two of the US Open. She is also the first who will break into the top 40 in the rankings.

At 18, Mirza has a lot of tennis ahead of her.

I will be happy if she can reach the top 10 in 2 years.

Kudos and congratulations.

With the news coming in that Clijsters is likely to retire at the end of 2007 aged 24-25, the feeling that some thing is wrong with the way tennis is played at the highest level cannot stop from surfacing. Martina Hingis retired at a very young age and tennis lost one of its most dedicated, gifted players.

Yevgnevy Kafelnikov, who played more than any one on the tour, got the label of a player who was playing for money and not for the pasison of the game. Sport is a dramatisation of life. If it is made mechanical by having tournaments 48-52 weeks a year, 3 tournaments a week, the quality and uniqueness of tournaments is bound to be minimised.

Player burnouts will also invariably happen. Chris Evert needed time off from tennis in a day and age when tennis was not played so much. The modern demands of the sport, the travelling, the pressure of spending time away from family is some thing we cannot augur. No other professional sport demands such a tough routine.

I hope things change.

Roger Federer is a kid at heart. Aren’t we all. But this regardin Federer is out of the closet now.

Federer and all Federer fans like me are very excited that Wimbledon will host the 2012 Olympics. Will it be the fitting end to a superb career, the crowning glory when Federer wins the Olympic Gold medal at 30 at then retires in 2012? There is a lot of time to wait but it is already the possibility makes it all very exciting.

A few former players react on Baloo Gupte’s demise:

Nari Contractor under whom Baloo made his test debut:

Baloo was born at the wrong time when there were others like his own elder brother Subhas. And when he got the chance to play for India, he did not perform well.

Bapu Nadkarni:

He used to turn the ball bigger than Subhas but paled in comparison as far as flight and accuracy were concerned. Baloo was one of those cricketers who underperformed at the Test level.

In Indian Tennis, the WTA supervisor seemed satisfied with the Netaji Indoor Stadium. Telegraph Calcutta also reports Myskina, Petrova and Pierce may come to play. I will definitely have my camera and autograph book ready then!

More on Roger Federer. This blog is starting to look like The Roger Federer Blog rather than a sports blog but thats what is catching my attention more than the early stages of the Tour de France, more than the dull transfer off season with loads of newsprint consumed over speculation on where Gerrard will end up and the English media lapping up to every small player movement before the Ashes.

Sampras on Federer from BBC Sport:

I think he can dominate tennis for as long as I did. He can have an off day in a big tournament and be surprised but over the whole season, he is head and shoulders above the others.

That coming from Sampras, who does not speak as much as say McEnroe, is relevent. Not that we already knew about the fact that Federer is fighting with the history of the game as Becker put it a couple of days ago. But Federer can do one thing Sampras could not - win the French.

And it seems Sampras is not over that fact yet:

I regret that I never tried out a racquet with a bigger head at Roland Garros. “My racquet was almost like one of the old wooden ones - it was heavy and stiff. It took a lot of effort to make the ball move on clay. But I was really used to it and I never dared (change). I was too stubborn. I was scared of losing control, that it would take me too long to master it.

Come one Pete. You were a great player, the greatest since Laver without a shadow of a doubt. Your place is tennis history is assured.

When Roger Federer cried after sitting on his courtside chair after having won Wimbledon, that for me was the moment of the Championships this year.

Boris Becker on BBC Sport:

It was clear to everyone how much overhauling Roddick, and the championship, meant to him when he cried as he took the title for a third time.

He cried like a little child winning his first big tournament and it was so nice to see.

Federer is calm, Federer is composed while on court. It shows how much he has disciplined himself to play on court. He is composed because he has a game plan. He is calm because he has to relax and play if he wants to execute his game plan as perfectly as possible.

To me one point was very revealing in the match. Federer had not hit a particularly strong shot. So a possible winner from Roddick was on the offing. What does Roger do? He takes a calculated risk and approaches the net and hits the volley while on the move to get the point.

Pure brilliance.

Bhupathi and Pierce winning the mixed doubles title has been a fair reward for Mary Pierce for he improvement she has shown. One cannot but feel joy for Pierce. Bhupathi is such a solid doubles player which shows in the fact that he keeps winning grand slam doubles titles.

It was the last match in Wimbledon this year and Allan Mills just retires after 23 years, finally hangs up his boots. Well done Mr. Mills and a well deserved rest too.

This has indeed been a memorable Wimbledon. Venus Williams’ triumph, Sharapova’s performance and her golden shoes, Federer adding further pages to his story, the wheel chair tennis coming to Wimbledon, McEnroe and Navratilova still slogging it out and many more moments to cherish.

So we wait 50 weeks for strawberry, cream, the green grass and England All Tennis and Croquet Club and the magic of Wimbledon.

Federer disposed off the number 2 ranked Hewitt in the semis with comfort and the final, if any thing, looked a much more of a comfortable win for Federer. Now Roddick has not lost a single match in the past two and half years on grass except the 3 times on grass including today. So he is the indisputable no. 2 on grass.

What is astonishing is how much of a gap there is between the number 2 and number 1. Roddick certainly reckons the same :

He’s become such a complete player, even since he beat me in the semi-finals two years ago. He’s improved so much since then.

Federer is calm, he is relaxed and has all the strokes. There are already murmurs of comparison between Sampras and Federer. Sampras had to deal with great tennis players on grass – Becker, Ivanisevic, Agassi (no muck on grass), Rafter, Krajicek and others I might have left out.

Federer has had Hewitt, Roddick and no one really. Safin hasn’t ever been comfortable on grass but he showed some comfort level this time around atleast. Maybe he can improve. Ancic is a better hope but till he or any one else does show the required mettle, every thing is speculation.

McEnroe rightly says that the two may be compared after Federer wins as many Wimbledon titles as Sampras. Amritraj is more generous and says that he should win atleast half the titles. So we lay the comparisons to rest.

Coming back to this year’s Wimbledon, BBC Sport has an article on wheel chair tennis in Wimbledon this year. Certainly a positive addition.

From BBC Sport:

Although there have been exhibition games at Wimbledon over the past couple of years, this is the first competitive wheelchair tournament at the venue and the first grass-court tournament in the world

And the rules are the same except a slight alteration the ball can bounce twice - although the first bounce must be within the court confines.

The roof will be set in Wimbledon finally in 2009. Amritraj points out that the roof should be allowed on all courts or to all matches in a specific round. Else it is different conditions for different people which easily isn’t the way to go.

Wimbledon is not over yet as Bhupathi and Pierce have won their mixed doubles match and are playing the final in a center court far more empty obviously. So if you have not managed to get a seat in center court all fortnight and still wish to do so, now is probably the easiest opportunity. It is also one of the last times you will be able to see proper doubles rule scoring in a tennis match. The scoring system changing to reduced games in sets and reduced matches is madness.

So we are all set now for the finals. Roddick versus Federer. Second year in a row.

From the Wimbledon official site:

Should he fulfill his personal pledge, Federer will join an elite group of m`n to have won teree Wimbledon titles in a row. Both Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras(have scored the hat-trick; Borg in fact won the Gentlemen’s Singles five times in a row (1976-80) while Sampras managed the feat twice (1993-95 and 1997-2000). Prior to the open era, the great Fred Perry won three on the trot from 1934-36.

Federer is on the brink of history and the question on every one’s minds is can Roddick stop the man who has looked invincible on grass for the past three years to create his most memorable moment in tennis yet or will he be just be another road in Federer’s path to greatness.

BBC Sport gives some relevent stats. Federer has a 8-1 record against Roddick, has 29 career titles to Roddick’s 18 and has won 4 slams compared to Roddicks lone US Open triumph. Roddick has been eliminated the last two times in Wimbledon by the eventual champion, Federer himself.

Federer has won, hold your breath, 20 consecutive finals he has appeared in. Surely dwarfs the recent run of the Australian one day cricket team in finals, put to an end by a tie yesterday. Federer is also chasing Bjorg’s record of consecutive wins on grass and no one would be surprised if he beats that mark eventually.

In this Wimbledon itself, Federer has lost just 1 set (7-6) to Nicolas Kiefer. Roddick on the other hand has had a rough road, stretched to 5 versus unfancied Bracialli in round 2, Sebastian Grosjean in the quarters and 4 sets against Thomas Johansson.

The match to watch first will be the mixed doubles semi finals on court 1. Jonas Bjorkman and Lisa Raymond versus Mahesh Bhupathi and Mary Pierce. An Indian winning grandslam ‘doubles’ title would be a happy thing but why I have keener interest in this is as it can lead to a delightful win for Mary Pierce and even though a mixed doubles victory is nothing compared to a singles victory it will be sweet if she does manage to win the mixed doubles this year in Wimbledon.

On another note, Todd Woodbridge, one of the most prolific doubles players and very much under rate singles player retires. ATPtennis has a nice interview and a PDF stats file on the man. It was great to see him play but I would have liked him to concentrate more on the singles but you cant have the best of both worlds in tennis I guess.