Indian doubles

I am now on the southwest coast of India in Kerala staying at a seaside resort. I had expected this part of the country to be quieter because it is far from the city, but India is in the middle of the Temple Celebration, as far as I can tell there is a religious festival every week in India, and the small town where I am staying is celebrating by blasting music in the village center from 6am to 11pm. I can hardly complain, I came here to study yoga because India is exceptional for its knowledge of the inner sciences – meditation practices and the search for the inner self.

It might take four days to get a train reservation and you might not have hot water for two days running in your hotel, but India focuses on its spiritual life and responsibility to family, not making sure that I have hot water. Surely this is an appropriate way to live your life.

Since Sania Mirza is out of the Australian Open singles and I now have a television that gives me a clear picture of the tennis court instead of a fuzzy, dayglo green psychedelic image, I hoped I would be able to watch Andy Roddick or Federer or even Lindsay Davenport play a match or two. Instead, I woke up early this morning to see Mahesh Bhupathi and Wesley Moodie play Leander Paes and Martin Damm in a doubles match. After that ended, I was sure that I would now see a match without an Indian player but it was not to be. Sania Mirza is still in the tournament. She and Stephen Huss played Bob Bryan and Vera Zvonareva.

Again, I cannot really complain. You can be sure that the U.S. Open would schedule a semifinal between two American men in prime time over two foreign players even if they have much higher rankings.

Interestingly, the doubles matches here are not following the new ATP format – no ad scoring and best of three sets with a third set supertiebreak. They are playing best of three sets. Paes and Damm won their match two sets to one. The only curious thing in the second match was Bryan’s curious decision to play the deuce court. He is left-handed so this means that righthanders are spinning the ball wide to his backhand in the deuce court. Usually the woman plays the deuce court, unless it’s Martina Navratilova, goddess of doubles tennis.

Bryan and Zvonareva hit 90% of the balls at Mirza to win easily, 6-3, 6-3.

Starting Thursday, I will be on a backwater tour for two days. By the time I return, one of two things will happen. Either I’ll see a tennis match without an Indian player or India will be through the roof because one of their players is in the semifinals of the Australian Open.