On the 1st of February, Men’s Singles Finals for the Australian Open Tennis Championship was supposed to be played. As many had expected and wished, the match was between the world no. 1, Rafael Nadal and world no. 2, Roger Federrer.
The match started at 2.30 PM (IST) amidst all the pre-match speculations. It was predicted to be a cliffhanger and one that would test both the champions. Federrer has in the past has won the Australian Open, the Wimbledon and the US Open and has a tally of 13 grand slams. A win here would have equaled his tally with Pete Sampras, the one with the highest titles under his belt. Nadal on his part, arguably the best men’s tennis player has won the French Open and last year, broke into Federrer’s home (court) and stole the Wimbledon in an epic final. A win here would have extended his dominance over Fedderrer and given him his maiden slam on synthetic courts. The buildup was too feisty for me to miss the match even at the cost of a Sunday evening.
The match started with Nadal breaking Fedrrer’s serve and the later returned the favor soon. After close to 4.5 hours of seesaw battle Nadal triumphed in a match which can be easily termed as a legend. Very difficult to compare this with the one they played in June last year on grass.
I am not writing this ‘piece’, to describe the win. I am writing this just because I am enthralled at the quality of the match that was played in Melbourne today. There was a Nadal who had spent 5.5 hours on court on Friday in a country that is suffering heat-wave of magnitude that it has never seen before. And a Roger Federrer who had played almost perfect tennis in the last 2 rounds on his way to the finals. The result was just a formality, someone had to win. But the way the match was played was like Beethoven composing a masterpiece.
Nadal and Federrer were not playing for a win. They were playing to dominate the other. None of them wanted the Australian Open, they had their ego’s to please. At the end, the difference was small. Federrer played to regina his dominance where as Nadal played not to lose. Such was the relentlessness of Nadal that he chased down everything that Federrer had to offer. He scampered through every point and in the process forced Federrer to scamper. There would have been no inch on the court where the ball would not have landed and still each of them was chased down. If Federrer was sheer brilliance, Nadal was all precision with grit and determination.
These 2 legends play the game in a different planet and they belong there. Others in tennis today are sheer numbers to fill. Thanks to these 2 great warriors for giving me an opportunity to watch what I saw today, a match that forced me to key in these words. Hope to see these two toil out on the red clays at Rolland Garros.
4 comments:
ha ha ha.. interesting one!! I m not expecting too much of a battle in Roland Garros! Nadal was just brilliant at Rod Laver Arena, though. I thought Fed did very well to come back in the second and fourth sets but Rafa, like always in the recent past, had the last laugh! Where does Fed go from here? He must be shattered!! Let's watch out for more of these two
Fed will definitely come back. He is running out of ideas. He might feel the need to have a coach who can help him fine tune. Fed played as well as Nadal, but the big points is where Nadal just chose to ignore the greatness of the man on the other side of the net that separated them.
I think the match was played more in the arena inside their mind and less on the Rod Laver Arena. What we all saw was just a manifestation of that mental battle. Fed lost there to Nadal. Fed will definitely realize where he need to work and improve, being a champion that he is...
Nadal is simply too good for Fed right now....
Fed has to continuously look for areas to improve to beat Nadal. Nadal follows his simple strategy of making sure he returns the ball each and every time, its all about remaining fit and agile.
But even when i see Nadal winning again and again against Fed, Still Federer is for some reason the best tennis player even today.
That was indeed a mental battle rather than the one in courts and here also Nadal was ,although it was as narrow as a hairline, on the better edge. Many a times, he seemed to be very very strong mentally and of course physically.Kudos to these champ players....I have not seen, even have not read about any other players playing with the same spirit .
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