Australian open 2019

[IndiaSports]

What a revelation Astra Sharma has been
Into her first GS finals in the Mixed.
Hopefully many more finals to come soon.

Ram Vs Astra in the finals on Sunday.

[knarayen]

This will be a very good Mixed Doubles final. Most likely will be played Saturday Australia time during the day.

Prof

[PKBasu]

Rajeev Ram made the US Open MxD final in 2016, soon after he won the MxD silver at the 2016 Olympics. He has also been runner-up at the ATP year-end Doubles
Championship. Time for him to win one.

Tennis Australia is playing up Astra Sharma’s Indian heritage to garner our interest in her (interestingly not
playing up her Simgaporean-Chinese heritage).

Interesting match-up between a veteran NRI male and a neophyte NRI female in the 2019 AO MxD final!

[Rajiv]

Tomorrow 2 Indian origin players aim for their maiden GS titles “Rajeev Ram” & “Astra Sharma” , Hope the B RamAstra weapon deals a lethal blow on their opponents.

Combining of names reminds me of funny incident which happened couple of months ago in Shenzen , Myself , Ram & Rajeev Ram were travelling from the Hotel to the courts which were 1.5 hrs away from the hotel, and when arranging for the official transport , the Chinese asked our name’s and I told him this is Rajeev Ram and we are Rajiv Ram , it took a long while for the confused Chinese to figure out ,amidst uncontrollable laughter amongst us.

[prasen9]

All three of you named Rajiv Ram (phonetically speaking)? Wow!

[knarayen]

Tomorrow 2 Indian origin players aim for their maiden GS titles “Rajeev Ram” & “Astra Sharma” , Hope the B RamAstra weapon deals a lethal blow on their opponents.

Combining of names reminds me of funny incident which happened couple of months ago in Shenzen , Myself , Ram & Rajeev Ram were travelling from the Hotel to the courts which were 1.5 hrs away from the hotel, and when arranging for the official transport , the Chinese asked our name’s and I told him this is Rajeev Ram and we are Rajiv Ram , it took a long while for the confused Chinese to figure out ,amidst uncontrollable laughter amongst us.

Wow amazing....3 Rajiv Rams together - that has to be a record of some kind.

the problem is that the Astra weapon and the Ram weapon in this match are on opposite sides of the net.

Prof

[IndiaSports]

Gosh this Osaka girl is so good.
The game she has and then the interviews and speech, its like two different person.
She is inspiring

[Sin Hombre]

All three of you named Rajiv Ram (phonetically speaking)? Wow!

I don't think that's what he meant.

I read it as Rajiv (him), Rajeev Ram and Ram(kumar) Ramanathan together.

[jayakris]

That is how I read it too, Sin Hombre. If Andy Ram was also there, it could have been even more fun- but he is retired...

[Rajiv]

Sin and Jai , Prasen is correct about 3 individuals sounding same phonetically and that was precisely I was implying about this rarity , And it was all about the Chinese getting confused  due to these similar sounding names inspite different spellings

[knarayen]

Gosh this Osaka girl is so good.
The game she has and then the interviews and speech, its like two different person.
She is inspiring

My feelings too. She has very high expectations of her own performance level, and if she starts making errors she begins to get down on herself, as we watched her run of 6 errors starting with the 3 match points at the end of set 2 which effectively lost her the set. I was impressed ny her poise - coming back from that situation and winning in the 3rd. The basic Zen approach in full display - very impressive.

Prof

[gbelday]

That was a master class by Djoker. As much as I wanted Rafa to win, Djoker was too good today. He made everything look so easy. I don’t think there’s anyone currently that moves better. He’s got flexibility, speed and so tough mentally.

I wish Rafa stayed a bit closer to the baseline when he returned serve (at least tried that in the second or third set). Djoker wasn’t bothered much by Rafa’s top spin (took everything early) and was able to put away with some amazing angles and inside out forehands.

How does Djoker manage to stay so low? Must have a rock hard core..

[prasen9]

It is now the Djokovic era. Again. Hope he retains his sanity this time. And, looks like Serena has passed the torch to Osaka. Who will be the Venus and Sharapova to Osaka? Kerber, Muguruza?

[sameerph]

Incredible that since 2004, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic among them have won 52 of the 61 slams singles titles ( Fed with 20, Nadal 17 and Djoker 15). Other than that only Murray and Wawrinka have won more than 1 title during this 15 year period.

Looks very difficult for Federer to add anything now to his tally. Will Djoker surpass both Fed and Nadal when they end up their careers ? That will be point of interest in next few years.

[Prashant]

Incredible that since 2004, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic among them have won 52 of the 61 slams singles titles ( Fed with 20, Nadal 17 and Djoker 15). Other than that only Murray and Wawrinka have won more than 1 title during this 15 year period.

It truly is incredible. But for injuries, I think del Potro would have won a few, but that's really the only other name I can come up with in the era...