Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Federe vs Nadal: The final at this years Big W

I have been following tennis from the 1991-92 season and have seen almost all, barring a few matches, of the 17 years of Wimbledon that has been telecast on Star Sports.
This has been if not the Best ever Wimbledon final ( apart from being the longest ever Tennis final on the grass of the Center court at the All England Tennis and Croquet Club aka The Championships), it is by far the best game of Tennis I have ever seen.
From the time of the Becker-Connors-Chang-Stitch era, before that, Borg and McEnroe going at each other, and later one of the biggest rivalries in modern era of Tennis, the Sampras -Aggasi rivalry; the FedEx-Spanish Armada rivalry has been the only one since, that can dare to come close.
What a hell of a match it was.
Like the match between India and England at the NatWest Series a couple of seasons ago, I was tempted to turn off the TV seeing Federer down 6-7 6-7 4-5, when the rain interrupted the game for the first time.
But I am a bigger fan of Tennis (and of the Championships ) than that of Cricket any day, hands down. And I am proud of the decision to stay up till 3 am to watch the full game.
Well after the match resumed, King Fed held onto both his service games, and somehow pushed the set onto a tie breaker and won that.
A set score of 2-1 was a relief, to know for a fact that at least it was not a complete white wash like the one in Paris some 4 weeks ago, but looking the way Fed was playing, some surprise was surely in store. And how he Played!!
The fourth set again went down to a tie break and of the 7 heart attacks, I suffered during the match, 5 came on the tie breaker. 2-5 down, What a comeback! Long live king Fed!
The back hand pass of Federer that kept him alive in the championships is one of the many rallies I can relive again and again in my head even now and no one would need a highlight reel to remember this match for sure.
Well you might end up watching the entire match in the highlight reel (under normal circumstances shows all the best points played).
It was as if Federer could conjure an Ace at will / time of need in the 3rd or the 4th set. (Maybe more of this was needed in the 5th set to seal the deal)
If you have a look at the stats bulk of the 26+Aces came in the 3rd and 4th sets.
I still feel If FedEx would have nailed the 2nd set when he was leading 4-2, the outcome would have been very different...
Well later we had a second rain delay in the fifth set tied at 2-2 (deuce), and I was hoping Nadal doesn't gain an advantage which Fed did cause of the first delay.
All through the match i was praying to God, to let Federer win this Wimbledon title and in return I would start supporting Nadal too from the next tournament on (Not everyone has the chance to win 6 big Ws in a row).
Though God hasn't lived up to his end of the deal, I do feel that I will be supporting Nadal too from the next tournament on. But in the Fed-Nadal clashes, its still going to be Fed for me. Federer has some class and grace like no one else on the tennis circuit now, and he is the only player who has come close my all time favourite Pete Sampras (at least for me).
It seemed that I will be up till 5 or 6 or till the lights completely die down in Wimbledon but like all good things come to an end, so did have to, this final. Nadal won, wouldn't say deservedly so, cause both did. But as they say there has to be a winner and there can be only 1 at that.
It was Nadal this time. But be warned Nadal, you have woken up Fed by costing him his most favourite title ( only second to his desire to be called: World No# 1).
I am waiting to see Federer all back in form this year and in the future, and like he said, "I'll be back next year!!"

No comments: