You are a hero, Andy!

I promised in my 1st blog that I would write in my 2nd blog about my beautiful trip to east, but there is something inside me which compels me to write before that about the spectacular final that happened last Sunday b/w Federer & Roddick.

A lot of stuff has already been written about Federer all over the world, about his charisma, about his record 15 grand slams & about his greatness............Federer truly is gr8( No second thoughts ab8 that)...........but this blog is about the phoenix, not the bird , the man- ANDY RODDICK!

After playing in Wimbledon Final in 2005, he almost vanished off the scene.At one point, he almost quit. But as destiny operates in its own way...the man who got inspired by watching the epic Wimbledon final between Nadal & Federer was playing the final the very next year at the center court of Wimbledon. He worked a lot on himself, lost almost 15 pounds in weight. With his will power & support of his girlfriend and now wife, Brooklyn Dekker, he bounced back .......& in a gr8 fashion.

He was written off by everyone.Nobody gave him an iota of a chance, but A-Rod change that all in just half an hour - he played the game of his life. After the first set only he had made many new fans and tilted the loyalties of many Federer fans towards his side. His first serves were unplayable.....It was a classic game of serve & volleys reminiscent of the olden era of Tennis.Bhuwan told me that the match would be over in one and a half hour.How could he had known that the final set itself would last for 90 minutes. His serve was not broken till the very last game, & when it was broken: A-Rod lost.

The true greatness of a man can be gauged at the time of his defeat. Roddick's post match conference says it all,He quipped "Sorry Pete, I tried to hold him off. & added " It was a pleasure playing in front of great champions like Pete, Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg and I still hope one day my name will be up on that list of Wimbledon Winners". Only a man with great character & spirit can manage such words of humor and strength at the time of defeat.

I don' t know when your name would be written on that list, Andy...but you surely have written your name on our minds.

You are a hero, Andy!