Grand Salaam!

Sundays can be quite boring especially, when the fresh Friday release “Luckbychance” is sold out and it gets even worse when that feeling of having to go to office the following day sinks in right from the Sunday afternoon!

But, thanks to Mr. Roger and Mr. Rafael, things changed … well actually, thanks to Farhan Akhtar, that I could watch the epic match, stroke by stroke till the very end ...

And it would be quite unjust that I do not pen down my appreciation of the great men that helped me keep my boredom at bay! … another blog after some good reviews for my earlier one (http://2008-theyearthatwas.blogspot.com/ ) … (for the critics, never mind some advertising!)

From ca. 1.30 p.m. IST, I moved into Melbourne, Australia at the Rod Laver Arena, right from my cozy chair. Vijay Amritraj and Alan Wilkins were my fellows commenting aptly and beautifully on every point played. It made the match certainly more enjoyable. The “Forehand Winner” shouts by Vjay Amritraj with his typical vocal modulation accompanied by supportive statistics and “Champion” echoes by Alan Wilkins added more spice to the delicious supper on offer. The 4hr 23 min match had everything in it, action, drama, ecstasy and even some element of irony with Roger Federer having won more points in the match than Rafael Nadal (174-173), just showing how hard fought it was! But eventually the better, stronger and fitter player (on that day), Rafael Nadal won! (Clearly, I am a Roger Federer fan!)

Roger Federer, 27, 2nd seed, from Switzerland, the senior player with 13 Grand Slam wins and looking for his 14th to equal Pete Sampras and his nemesis Rafael Nadal, 22, 1st seed from Spain with 4 French and the mammoth Wimbledon 2008 to his credit took the centre stage in the approbation of the audience. Both wore a headband with the Nike “ticks” on them, urging them to “Just do it”, and as if to vouch for the success that each was looking for on the Grand Sunday night!

Federer had got the better of the dismayed Roddick in the semis and Nadal had beaten Verdasco. But as Roddick said, he ‘ran into Pete Sampras when he was young and then into Federer’, both of whom had been better on the court against him. Nadal had pulled off a thriller against his fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in a five setter.

The match began and Nadal took the first set 7-5 after the crucial break of serve. The score read 1-0 in the Championship, but it was far from over.

Federer fought back in the second to take it 6-3 with an early break of serve. Vijay could not stop commenting about the “the angle” over and over again, and indeed the strokes played had almost made all angles from as less as 30o to 150o, with both players running from one corner to another to hit seemingly impossible shots even as Alan Wilkins would comment “Isn’t he (Nadal) supposed to be tired (after the Verdasco match)?”

The third went into a tie-break and Nadal got the better of Federer, winning it 7-6(3). The match had innumerable “Point of the match” moments, but for me the game in the third set with 2 games all on Roger’s serve, which had as much as 7 deuces was the standout.With Nadal now having won his second set, he seemed to be in the drivers seat and the favourite from thereon.

But, Roger fought back again to make the fourth set the penultimate set and took it 6-3 leaving the match to be decided In the final set without any tie-breaks. The rather non-emotive on court Roger Federer, vented his emotions with a punch in the air, much to the cheer of the spectators. Rafael Nadal took a quick banana break as Wilko quickly commented “We know where he gets his energy from”. Vijay too, was quick to complement by saying “It is quite tiring even to watch this match”.

The final set began and the players took their sides again amid the deafening applaud in the packed Rod Lover arena. Both players had their respective fans, but more than all, all loved the game. As the set progressed, one could probably see that Roger was not giving it back as one would have expected him to, when Nadal broke him in the early part of the set. Once could almost sense that the Master was about to weep when a flurry of backhand errors in the last set had left him with no hopes and had left the tear glands of his fans titillating. Nadal kept his cool as always and finished what he had set out to do. And when Roger hit the final stroke "long", Rafael froze the moment and lay on the ground, after having finally grounded the Champion!

Alan Wilkins, who commented on Nadal as a Winning “Athlete”, had quite some implications. He not only commented on Nadal as a stronger and fitter man, but also of the changing phase of the sport from the winner being a “Tennis Player” to the “Tennis Athlete”.

Roger Federer who undoubtedly has all the stokes in the game of lawn tennis, did not probably have the sustainability to stand to the physically and mentally stronger Spanian, Rafael Nadal. I am in no way saying that Nadal does not have the complete game, but it is just that his “power”play overshadows his stroke play. Quite magnificent indeed was his sheer energy and the will to return every ball returned, be it anywhere on his side of the net. Verdasco has now famously put it, “You have to win a point three times against Rafael (to win it once)”.
Just to draw a parallel with cricket, it was like watching the wonderful stroke play of “Sachin Tendulkar (or the cover drives of Rahul Dravid) and the audacious play of Shahid Afridi”. All of them are stars but it is just that I prefer to watch the former.

He also said that Nadal is in his (Roger’s) head. Quite evident, when Nadal now takes the head to head draw to 13-6 in his favour.

Quite striking for me were the expressions of Roger at the beginning of the match where he lost the toss and Nadal chose to “Receive (the serve)” and the end of the match, when, with tears in his eyes Roger could not control his emotions at the award ceremony and broke out. Nadal, however, was as strong as ever and congratulated the great Federer as a true sportsman should.
With this win, one can probably say that a “Hero is born” who can not only stamp his authority on clay with his swift moves, but also sustain classy players on grass, and now on the hard court. Although, the U.S. Open still remains to be conquered, Nadal has a strong enough CV to get him what he wants, a Grand Slam win at all the four majors!

As the 13-Grand Slam winner was humbled by the young 22-year old, some may say that Rafael is now on his way to make his way into the elite league of winning all Grand Slams in a year. But having seen Roger over the years, it is surely not going to be a cake walk!

There is correctly a dispute as to who the better player is. While I leave it to them to decide on the courts, I do it selfishly in the quest to see another head-to-head. Come what may, this rivalry-cum-sportsmanship is here to stay for a long time and entertain one and all fans of this wonderful game. Both, Rafael and Roger are so strong mentally that none is ever willing to give up, giving the feeling that their matches could probably, last to eternity, should both have a fair day! It reminds me of the famous Nike ad of Agassi and Sampras, where the rally goes on for … ever … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-pHkn1X2wk

At the end of it all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for me, albeit my favourite, Roger did not manage to supersede on the day.

To both these Masters of the game in the current era of the Grand Slam, I humbly offer my Grand Salaam!