A special wedding gift

Here's a neat pic of Monami and I flanked by my best buddies from school at our reception (L to R - NP, Anand, and Rahul). Sumant, who made it to the wedding is not in the pic.



Their gifts to us were very thoughtful - a book on graphic art for Monami and the DVD of the classic Sampras-Federer game at Wimbledon 2001 for me. Rahul had actually read my post last year, and was sweet enough to buy it online and bring it all the way from Boston.

My in-laws visited us a few weeks back and had brought along various gifts from the wedding which we had left behind since we were travelling right after. After our in-laws left, we finally had time to sit down and watch the DVD.

It's really hard, and doesnt make sense to compare across eras, and Sampras was past his prime at the time of this game and Federer was still young - nevertheless, this is easily one of the most best displays of tennis I've seen.

In the first three sets, Federer has the clear upper hand, although he loses the second set to Sampras due to some unforced errors on his serve at a critical stage.

In the last two sets of the game, Sampras plays like the champion of old, serving and volleying beautifully, executing crisp drop volleys, and cracking passing shots on the run. But young Federer, appearing on Center Court for the first time ever keeps his cool and hits brilliant service returns (a remarkable feat when Sampras serves consistently at 136 mph), mixes up his serves well, strikes rocket speed passing shots on both his backhand and forehand, and comes up with some brilliant angles.

When Federer emerges the winner after 3 hours and 53 minutes of play and five hard fought sets (7-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7, 7-5), he is so overwhelmed by the moment that he forgets the customary bow at the end of the game!

While we received many lovely gifts, this one has been particularly special!