From Rahul Dravid to Roger Federer

There was a time in the early and mid-nineties when I used to watch cricket with a passion and used to hate tennis with almost the same amount of passion.

This was mainly due to the fact that cricket has always been and still is the major sport for every Indian.

The other fact was that when the Grand Slams used to be aired on TV [it was the time when we didn't have set top boxes or dish TVs; the Government channel used to air them] the soaps and the programs which otherwise used to feature in that channel used to get cancelled.

Moreover, I used to find the concepts of "Deuce" and "Unforced Errors" very confusing and weird. My father was the only person who understood the game in my family and when I used to ask him to explain the rules, it was a disaster for both him and me.

I could rattle off the names of the Indian Cricketers, but when it came to tennis, I was completely lost.

Dravid, Ganguly, Sachin, Lara, and all these players I knew, but Sampras and Agassi were aliens to me, and I never felt any inclination to watch Tennis. I was very happy supporting the Indian Cricket team.

I vividly remember this incident where I had gone for this quiz competition, and one of the questions asked was "Name the four Grand Slams?' and I remember answering as "Davis Cup, French Open, Wimbledon and I don't know the fourth."

He told me, "Never mind; you are anyway wrong;" but he didn't tell me the right answer, which I didn't find out till the year before last.

But suddenly everything changed in 2007; the year Roger Federer had set about on his conquest to equal Bjorn Borg's record of five Wimbledons.

The media channels reported nothing but Federer and his list of grandslams...That year, by accident I happened to watch a match between Federer and Youznhy and I didn't actually know who Federer was!

Somehow I found out who was Federer and who was Youznhy; but I still didn't understand the game, so couldn't tell who was the better player [now you may differ, saying that obviously Federer was the better player; but I had no idea about the game].

I couldn't say Federer because it would have been hearsay [from the newschannel] and I couldn't say he was not because he was the world No. 1 [again input from the newschannel].

The game was interesting; it was a five-setter and a tough one with both the players not breaking their serve until the very end...it was nerve-breaking even for a layman like me, and somehow subconsciously I started supporting Federer. Ultimately, he won.

So I was intrigued and decided that I would follow tennis so as to at least understand it. So I watched the French Open that year, understood the game, and supported Federer not subconsciously, but with my whole heart.

Now I watch Tennis and not Cricket, because Tennis is spellbinding; it's one-to-one; fast [as compared to cricket]; it keeps you hooked to it and on your toes all the time!

Now, I root for Federer because if it were not for him, I would have not bothered to watch the game and come to love it....swear by his name; drive my friends mad with my incessant Federer talks.

I even wrote a poem for him. For me now, the only sportsperson who exists is Roger Federer...he simply Rulzz!!!!!