But then you hear his speech and realize things weren’t always smooth sailing for him. It was that speech which made me a SUPER fan. What he said made sense to me in my personal life as well. There were a lot of times when dots weren’t connecting but I knew they eventually would and now looking back they do! That it was OK to make mistakes and fail. And that life would be fulfilling if you spend doing it what you love. Maybe these are things that all wise men say, but he was a living example of his preaching and it sure was going to leave an impression. I had saved that speech in my pc, email and would read/listen to it whenever life wouldn’t make sense. For me, it was the best piece of motivational, inspirational therapy that anyone could provide. Add to it, that many of my friends and acquaintances would quote from it was an example how his words had touched us and our lives.

It wasn’t just the Stanford speech but his simple take on life, work, loving what you do and think differently that had filled my life with inspirations. Truth be told, I may not be following my heart in all matters and living the way he prescribed but knowing that he did and was successful is such a motivational booster.

Skeptics can’t understand our emotional involvement with a billionaire who just made expensive products and was no in part involved in changing the world! Maybe their world didn’t get changed but anybody who uses a pc, mouse, smart phone, mp3 player their lives have been impacted by the change he has brought to the industry. And as he said, it was never about the money but knowing that you created something wonderful when you went to sleep. He has brought sleekness and class to our gadgets and has been the in the forefront of bringing innovations to our lives.  He introduced the intuitive use of technology and it’s because of him that my niece knew how to use touch phone and iPad much better then the adults even before she started school! It’s because of him that now when we see a product we also see the detail that has been put into his manufacturing. In his limited time, he has brought major changes and made us want what he made because we know that what he made will surely be awesome.

Thank you Steve for all the wonderful, insanely great inspirations and creativity:) We’ll miss you! And hoping to learn something from your life

So all those who don’t want to miss any tennis action during the upcoming Grand Slams, Sports Eye – Tennis is a must! And to add to the delight of all you tennis fans, the developers have announced a special discount on the paid app during the French Open season. Yayyy !!

The Sports Eye Tennis Special comes with loads of bundled feature for a true Tennis fan. It has the ability to gather News from various news sources related to tennis such as Australian Open, ATP, WTA, BBC, CNN, ESPN and allows me to select the source from which I want to keep up with. Same option goes for following Tennis Blogs and remaining in touch with what the experts’ opinions are. But what I loved about the app is their option to view the Player activities by getting their updates from Twitter and Facebook accounts (and yes, Federer is in the list of players:) )! The Players list consists of top 20 ATP and WTA tennis players and being up to date with their activities on and off the court in Melbourne is truly awesome!!! Tweets from official tennis sources such as Australian Open, ATP, WTA, Tennis Channel are available and in that too you have the option to select the source from which to remain updated.

And any AO app won’t be complete without Live Scores so Tennis Special also has the facility to show live scores, draws and schedule of play! And if filtering down sources wasn’t enough, the app also gives me the power to turn off the whole feature so that I don’t get distracted by extra information. From this I mean that if I don’t want to view news, I can de-select it from settings and viola the news tab won’t show in the main screen. Also, I like the fact that all information is available in one view and with a single tap I can browse through different categories of News, Blogs, Players, Scores etc. A widget for home screen is also available.

It has the option of Background Sync of information when you get connected to the internet, notification about new information and offline viewing of the news so that you don’t need to be on the net all the time just to read updates.

With the AO starting in just two days time, Tennis Special is going to be my source of information about the happenings in Melbourne and especially in Rod Laver Arena. And if you have an Android phone, do download the app from the Market and watch AO right from your cell.

Aisam ul Haq Qureshi at Men's Double Final at US Open

The final was very well played; Rohan and u, gave the Bryans tough competition. Even in your loss, the Indo-Pak Express has won the hearts of people of Pakistan-India and world over. I believe it must have been the first time Indian and Pakistanis both must have hoping and praying for player of across the border to win a match!! Looking forward to seeing you lift the trophy next time inshAllah:)

Aisamm ul Haq and Kveta Peschke, Semi Final US Open 2010

Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) and  Kveta Peschke (CZE) have reached the finals of the US Open Mixed Doubles. It’s a proud moment for Pakistan as it’s the first time any Pakistani has qualified for the final of a Grand Slams event. They’ll face either number 1 seeded Liezel Huber(USA)-Bob Bryan (USA) or the 4^th seeded Bethanir Mattek-Sansds (USA)-Daniel Netsor(CAN).

In the men’s double, Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopana have reached the semi finals stage. Their opponents in that stage will be Eduardo Schwank(ARG) and Horacio Zeballos (ARG) (match scheduled today).  In their path to the SF they have beaten the 2^nd seeded Daniel Nestor-Nenand Zimonjic in a shocking defeat in straight sets (3^rd Round) and 10^th seeded Wesley Moodie (RSA) and Dick Norman (BEL).

Rohan Bopanna and Aisam ul Haq, Quarter Final US Open 2010

Aisam is proving that age is just a number and perseverance can bear fruits. Coming from a country where tennis is followed by a few and there’s no support and even media coverage, it’s a commendable effort by Aisam to reach high levels at such auspicious events. In the time where sports and sports men from Pakistan are in the lime light for all the wrong reasons, Aisam is the ray of hope and given us something to be cheerful about.

Hoping to see him win both doubles titles inshAllah

Update: Aisam ul Haq and Rohan Bopana have reached the finals of the Men’s Doubles at US Open. They’ll play against top seeded Bryan brothers in the finals. The finals of the Mixed Doubles between Aisam ul Haq(PAK)/Rohan Bopanna(IND) and Liezel Huber(USA)-Bob Bryan(USA) is scheduled today and will start after noon (US Time) and after 9PM PST.

Also, Aisam is in the Quarter Finals round of Mixed Doubles where he has paired with Kveta Peschke(CZE). They’ll face Gisela Dulko (ARG ) and Pablo Cuevas (URU) in that match.

Is this goodbye?

First, it seemed Federer would be eliminated from the first round by
Alejandro Falla. Man, was that some match for Federer fans and it was in the 5^th set, that we finally glimpsed a bit of his real charisma. And we all breathed a sigh of relief just to be in the verge of our seats his second round match against Illija Bozoljac. That was another awesome match and Federer just got lucky in winning that. Otherwise, Bozo had used all he had to entertain us and maybe cause a shocking upset. The interesting part was when the match ended, the crowd applauded the loser most and instead of the tradition that the losing party leaves the court before the winner, they both left together as if it was a doubles match! And yes they both had won.

The first two matches indicated that Federer needed to play his game and he did in the next two. But eventually we saw him leave in quarter finals and with it my interest in Wimbledon has diminished except for the part that I don’t want Nadal, Murray or Djokovic to win the title. So that leaves us with one obvious choice of Berdych to go on and surprise/shock us more by winning the title.

Aisam and Bopana with Stop war, Start tennis jackets

The other highlight for me was to see Aisam and Bopana reach Quarter finals and beyond. I followed their progress from first round and wanted them to go the whole distance but alas that didn’t happen as well. However, it was a good effort for them and their jackets with ‘Stop War, Start Tennis’ did really put them in the headlines. It wasn’t India and Pakistan playing across but Pakistan-India playing side by side! Awesome effort guys in reaching top 8. A great round of applause especially for Aisam for trying and portraying a better image of his country to the world.

Isner and Mahut pose with the score baord

And now how can I miss the never ending match which finally did end after three days and took 11 hours five minutes to finish. Watching it was a treat with both Isner and Mahut as winners for me. The mental strength for Mahut who always had to serve to remain in the match, both of their perseverance, physical strength and will to keep playing is too amazing for words.

But recently, I got to know about Themes Village which is providing an amazing collection of themes under popular categories. And the best part that set them apart from others is the “Featured Themes” which does have new themes!!….a big yayyyy for the finding exclusive content!!

Themes Village

I hope ThemeVillage can continue to offer new quality content so we WordPress users don’t have to go back to our searching days!

Roger Federer after losing to Thomas Berdych

Exactly what I feel like right now!