the next big thing...

I stayed till 3 in the morning to watch India's first and, possibly, a
women tennis torch-bearer's clash with Sarena at Vodafone's court in
Melbourne. I accept that I didn't have high expectation from what Sarnia
could play, but I must say, I was astonished. She is a wounderful player.
And that from a place where no women tennis player has emerged and became
glorious. I certainly have high bets on her.

She is young and has a long way to go before she can prove her worth to the
world, but I am sure that she can do it only with a single eyed aim to
play. If she stumbles between a typical bourgeois and a players life.
Former seems obvious if she don't get a push from her parents. And I can
tell you that lots of Indians have high hopes with her - I guess we humans
see ourselves in someone else's act, which we couldn't (didn't) achieve. If
she stays firm, she can get all the support from each of the billion
people. All she need to do is 'play'.

What I think: she has a good court game; she can play wonderful on the base
lines and the service lines. No doubt, she has a nice overall tennis game,
but what she is missing is the athleticism behind the lines.
Understandably, this was her first high-profile clash and she seemed more
joyous than serious to play her natural game. Often, a smile tried to show
on her face, but she resisted. Ponderously, she has a very good back hand
control and she can leverage that to take any challenger on the court.

What I feel: she should work more on her service game - others will follow.
She doesn't variate her serves; they are kind of flat services, which even
a naive can handle, set aside Henins or Williams. She has a good pace in
the serve, which she can make count with a little variation for some easy
points. With a good fit and some dirty tricks, she can use the court like
no other Indian did.

One thing she need to understand, which I think see do, is that this game
is not all about money, it is about performace, it is all about managing
onself over the competitor, it is all about finding faults in others and
exploiting them for own good, it is a dirty business, which does lead to the
money, but counts much on the image.

hope she gets the message with an unintentional mutiny...