Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Good news for a change

It's been a while since I my favorite athletes and sports teams all had positive results in the same weekend.


First, Jenson Button finds his way back to the top of the Formula 1 podium with a great win in the Australian Grand Prix. He had the 4th fastest qualifying time, dropped to 7th after the first corner, then was bumped a notch down to 8th after his teammate Lewis Hamilton passed him early in the race. But Jenson made a judgment call to change his tires early, which turned out to be the single most crucial decision made in the race. This tire change turned out to be the right move since he ended up driving faster than anyone else at that point and he moved up the ranks quickly to 2nd. The brake problem that caused Sebastian Vettel - who had been leading the pack halfway through the race - to drop out led JB to take over and he never looked back.


(I feel really bad for Vettel though. This was the 2nd time that he had pole position and was ahead for most of the race but lost out due to issues with his car.)

Second, Liverpool win! This season, my favorite football team have been struggling horribly, and are now in great danger of being out of the top 4 and thus lose a slot in next season's Champions League. But they kept their very slim hopes of a top 4 finish alive by beating Sunderland 3-0 last Sunday. Their fate is out of their hands are Tottenham have a good lead over them as well as a game in hand, and Man City have two games in hand. But given that Liverpool wins this season haven't come as frequently as they have in the past, a 3-0 victory is very welcome.

Finally, Rafa Nadal makes it past his opening match in Key Biscayne. While this was an opening match which Rafa should easily win, it was against David Nalbandian, an ex-top 5 player who has won 2 out of the 3 matches he's played against Rafa and has won 8 times against the mighty Federer. When David won the first set of their match 7-6, I thought Nadal was in deep trouble. As it turns out, Rafa managed to lose only 4 games the rest of the match for a good win, allowing him to even his head-to-head against the Argentine and move through to the round of 16. (And now that he's beaten his countryman David Ferrer, he is through to the quarterfinals where he will be playing against Jo-Wilfred Tsonga).

Here's hoping Easter weekend will be filled with good news as well. Who knows, it could bring Nadal have another title, JB another trophy in Malaysia, and Liverpool another win. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :)

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