The Marina

Originally uploaded by amruta_sabnis

The second longest beach in the world, the Marina beach in Chennai is one of my favourite places in the city!

For all those who watched the Australian Open men’s finals on Sunday, it will indeed be difficult to say who they were rooting for. Those who may have started off supporting world number 3 Novak Djokovic have to agree that it was incredible to see how he was reeling from each serve that came hurtling towards him at 204km/ph from the frenchman he played. Jo Wilfried Tsonga was a force to reckon with and clearly the world number 38, being the underdog, had all the crowd encouraging him to defeat the man who sent Federer packing!

The skills that were being displayed on court that day are extremely difficult to appreciate in words that will do them justice. The serves, the groundstrokes, the volleys, the agility and aggression were a delight to watch and I’m pretty certain that every individual who paid $200 got its worth.

It felt slightly strange to see neither Federer or Nadal, who were shown the door in the semis but i have to admit it did great things to break the monotony of what would have been an extremely predictable final, had the current world number 1 and 2 played each other.

Djokovic created history by being the only Serbian and youngest champion ever to have won the Australian Open Championship. And to think that the 20-year-old put an end to what had till then been Federer’s reign after having said he thought it was possible earlier in the championship, shows the immense amount of confidence Djokovic came with into the Australian Open.

His victory against Federer was no fluke. It was hard earned and comprehensive and Federer now has got to pull his socks up because with each year he faces a new challenge!