Peak of Erudition

Those of you who enjoy comments and reviews of the football game ,you can get a forum for football picks.
Log on to http://www.addictsports.com and get views and analysis from experts.

The long cherished dream of Roger Federer to gain his 15th Grand Slam Title, to go past the legendary player Pete Samparas, became reality on 5/7/2009, when he won the Wimbledon Title in a nail biting match.
The finals happened between 6th seed Andy Roddick and top seed Roger Federer, but it was not a cake walk for Roger Federer, and in fact the match went on for over four and a half hours.
Finally Roger Federer held his nerve, and took the vital service break of Andy Roddick, in the final set, after a matching 24 games each in the final set.

ESPN will be showing the English Premier Footbal League matches and not Setanta. ESPN has bought the rights to show 46 games in next season’s English Premier League that were to have been shown by struggling broadcaster Setanta.Disney-owned ESPN has won the two packages of games shown on Saturday teatimes and Monday evenings. Both will be sold to customers through BSkyB.

It has also won the 23 games per season Setanta was due to show from 2010-13.

The league took the broadcasting rights back from Setanta on Friday after it missed a payment deadline. It is not clear how much ESPN paid for the rights.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Premier League (SPL) has taken back its UK rights for 2009/10 “and beyond” from Setanta after the Irish broadcaster missed a £3m payment. The SPL said it was now “actively engaging in the process of selling our domestic broadcasting rights”.

The French Open is going to see a new king this year, irrespecitve of who is going to win. Now that Nadal is out, it is either Robin Soderling who dethroned Nadal or Roger Federer who is gunning for his first French open win.

Federer and Soderling each won their respective games in five sets. While Soderling had to stave off a late surge of challenge from Gonzaleze, Federer had to come back from behind to win his match.

If he wins, Federer would equal Pete Sampras’ record of 14 grand slams. He would also be one of those greats who have won all the four crowns of tennis.

The minnows swallowed the whale in the opening match. The completely unfancied Netherland team managed to stun the hosts England in their opening match of the T20 world cup which began yesteray. Amidst drizzle, the opening ceremony and the drama was cut short but there was enough drama in the match to compensate for it.

Chasing a target of 163, Netherlands reached the target of the last ball of the Suart Broad over of the match and scampered for a two. England now has to see whether it can get to the Super 8 stage or not.

This year is the year when Roger Federer has the best chance of winning the French Open. With Nadal out of the tournament, surprisingly defeated by Soderling, the chances have brightened for Federer who has never won this particular Gand Slam in his life.

“It’s incredible. Everybody’s telling me ‘this is your year’,” said Federer, who will face Juan Martin del Potro. Nadal’s conqueror Robin Soderling plays Fernando Gonzalez in the other semi.

Soderling, who became the first player to beat Nadal on the clay of Roland Garros, and Del Potro have never reached the semi-final stage of a Grand Slam before, while Gonzalez has only been in the last four once (when he went on to lose to Federer in the final of the 2007 Australian Open).

In contrast, Federer has made the semi-finals, at least, of the last 20 Grand Slam tournaments.

The indian premiur league has progressed into its final match, which is going to happen tomorrow. The much lower rated teams Deccan Challengers and Royal Challengers Bangalore have got into the finals beating their much fancied rivals.

The IPL tournament has become a showcase of local talent and also the perfect place to show the talents of the oldies who are still going strong such as Gilchrist from Australia and Kumble from India.

This was something attributed to Mats Wilander, the French open tennis champion of the 1980s. I am not sure how true this anectode is but this really is interesting one.

Once somebody asked Mats Wilander, where he has to improve his tennis. It was a time when he was losing every single match to the legendary Ivan Lendl.

He thought for a minute and smiled. Then he said, “I am playing really well. All I have to do is to improve my service a bit. See, if I can get more of my first serves going in, and get some of my second serves to come in as sharply, that would be good. I shoudl also get a little better with my forehand. My backhand is good but I have to get a little more force to it. Those are the areas”.

I am sure you would be left wondering what is left!!

Pakistan’s cricket board are to take legal action against the International Cricket Council for stripping them of hosting 2011 World Cup matches. Pakistan were co-hosts for the tournament with India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh but the security situation in the country prompted the ICC to act.

PCB chairman Ijaz Butt said: “The ICC didn’t consult us before this decision. We have sent them a legal notice.

“We don’t think the ICC decision is sound on legal grounds.”

Seven Sri Lanka players were injured when gunmen attacked their team bus on the way to the Gadaffi stadium on 3 March.

The security concerns over playing in Pakistan saw the country’s recent series against Australia played in Abu Dhabi.

England wrapped up an emphatic 10-wicket victory over the West Indies inside three days at Lord’s to win the opening Test of a series. Andrew Strauss’s side, seeking to make a strong start to their Ashes summer, were frustrated by an impressive 143-run stand between Brendan Nash and Denesh Ramdin, but Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad teamed up to dismiss the tourists for 256.

It was the first time in seven matches that England had taken 20 wickets in a match – the last occasion coming in the fourth Test win over South Africa in August of last year.

Absolutely emphatic victory.