A handy question

What do Roger Federer and Nicholas Almagro have in common? Lets add Stan Wawrinka and Tommy Robredo to the club and make it two a piece for the Spanish and the Swiss. If you guessed it already, the next won't be a surprise but if you didn't, here is another trio, two former legends and  one in the making. Justine Henin, Pete Sampras and Grigor Dimitrov also make excellent additions to that list. For the befuddled, the aforementioned tennis professionals belong to the clique of one handed backhand exponents. If there is one thing that i find amiss on a tennis court, its the two handed backhand. Oh well, shrieks from a few fair maidens would top that but we shall not indulge ourselves in the dichotomy of screams and tennis. The flair of the single handed backhand has become increasingly difficult to appreciate in modern tennis. The endangered art though has made a smart come back after some of the names lined above have increased its visibility in the latter stages of major tourneys. What is it that two hands on a tennis racquet provide that one can't? Control is the first word that springs to mind and in a world that has a surfeit of baseline grinders, that is an invaluable arrow in the quiver. In an age where serve and volley ruled roost and power took a back seat to finesse and grace, there was little need to paint the lines with an accuracy we see today. With the advent of taut strings high on tension that rival guitars, an army of double handed backhands invaded the tennis scene in the new millennium and not without reason. Too many unforced errors and a pummeling on the weaker side led generation after generation of tennis comers to start using both upper limbs on the racquet. It was an obvious effort to stem the onslaught by owning the same weapon as the aggressor. What got lost in the transition was the thing of beauty that is a single handed backhand. If one were to draw an analogy, the former would be a hammer to the latter being the proverbial knife through the butter. A screaming back hand down the line from one hand is something that can be a source of pure ecstasy, not just to the one who executes the shot but to the one who watches the ball whistle past the net like a dream as well. Its a thing of joy as much as pure technique and confidence. And just the fact that the man who still owns the highest number of grand slam titles wields the racquet with just one hand is succor enough for souls who find guile and grace a better watch and a higher art than thumping ground strokes.

There is a new sensation on the swimming blocks. The Japanese youngster Kosuke Hagino bagged seven medals at the ongoing Asian games, four of which being gold. He won a stunning 200m freestyle and followed that up with the 200m individual medley, 4x200 freestyle relay and the 400m individual medley. At 20, he is one of the stars to look forward to post the Phelps era at the Rio and possibly the Tokyo Olympic games. His scraps with the Chinese star Sun in the 200m and 400m freestyle races won't be the last of a rivalry that should have a few more chapters written. An honorable mention for Sandeep Sejwal for landing a rare bronze in the 50m breaststroke. While the pool may have gone silent, the track and field events should continue to generate interest in the Asiad. Though there  may not be a Bolt or a Farah to light up the track, the marquee athletics events always throw up intriguing stories and glittering champions. There have been a few world records broken in the weightlifting arena and with the Chinese and the North Koreans doing bulk of the heavy lifting, the discipline should be a fruitful one for Asians at the world stage. The Indian performance has been tepid at best with most gold hopefuls in shooting settling for bronze or bowing out before the finals. A compound archery gold in addition to Jitu Rai's exploit are the only bright spots that the contingent can boast off till date. A top ten finish looks out of bounds at this point in time unless there are pleasant surprises in store.