Up side of it is it feels like Aamir khan...one blog a year.. :) (U patrons of this blog must be thanking heavens that I will be writing only 1 a year, but I may not be that kind to u guys!)..
One reason why I showed a stop sign to my laziness was that the topic popped up itself, without me having to go running wild behind it.. It was just last Sunday that arguably the greatest sporting event of the year ended..And this time it very much lived up to its name..
2 of tennis' greatest players perspired and inspired their way to the greatest tennis match in recent times.. The incessant rain at London along with the ever active Sun God in the United Kingdom added more drama to the event..
The match in itself was 4 hours 44 minutes long..Wait wait..Long is not the word.. It was just a measly 4 hrs 44 minutes short.. The way the two artists of the drama were playing, it seemed we could stay in front of the idiot box for another zillion years..It was tense, roller coaster like and an exuberant battle of the best...
Well u may argue that since the man I was backing won, this blog was written..Well that is partly true..Who would watch highlights of a cricket match India just narrowly lost...Thats natural..
Coming back to the artists of the showpiece..The man who lost first...Roger Federer...He
who is part of the endangered species of tennis players cos they dont make them like him anymore..A man bristling with talent, surely the most talented player to have ever walked on a tennis court... He sometimes has 2-3 shots for each occasion and surely that backhand to save matchpoint in the 4th set tiebreaker was unthinkable and surreal..And then the "challenger"..Rafa "vamos" Nadal... He is now the champion, no? I have rarely seen someone who is willing to retreive every ball as if his life depended on it.. A nerveless macho man with amazing resolve and brilliant concentration..
This is not the forum to discuss who is the better player and who will be better.. This is simply a celebration of the riches these guys have provided tennis fans over the past few years, especially the last 2 Grandslam events...
What makes a rivalry tick is if both guys on any given day can beat the other...From what I have seen Sampras-Agassi in the mid 90s was at par the Fedex-Rafa bull fight...Am not qualified enough to comment on Borg-Mac and Connors-Mac cos this was well before the 90s...
I just hope that these 2 guys continue what they do best, decimate opponents along the way and reach finals.. Cos simply put, this has been a salivating rivalry, one that will easily be the paradigm for more to come in this century..
I know for sure that the genius of Roger Federer will keep making semifinals and fi
nals on all surfaces for some time to come yet..Now its up to the man from Mallorca to follow suit... He sure has everything that takes to click on all surfaces..And yes, the more time Roger takes in exceeding Pete's tally of 14, the better it is for tennis fans and tennis per se.It means that Rafa has made it to more finals along the way and given life to this rivalry as well as to the tremendous sport that we all love..
25 comments:
True ... Rafa winning is great for tennis ... had to happen last year only !
Rivalry is great ... not on par with Sampras-Agassi though.
hmmm
I was expecting lavish praises on rafa in your blog. you seem to have written sense here. :) Truly a riveting match that was. Its always tough to compare the current players with players of yesteryears. even though the rigours of sport produces better and better players, people are scared to place the current players above their predecessors, thinking they might insult the former greats. :) so now the discussion moves on from "is fed. better than sampras" to "is the fed-nadal rivalry better than the best of yesteryears". :) Thank you nadal for giving us a fresh topic to fight upon. :)
Good one!!!...
Nice blog, Sac. I should say that this is the best wimbledon final that I have ever watched. Having been an ardent tennis fan, I am of the opinion that this rivalry is greater that sampras-agassi simply because agassi almost always lost to sampras on big occasions. If you look at their head to head, it is hugely in favor of sampras. Even though rafa has been dominating federer for sometime now, it has been mostly on clay. Long live this rivarly!! The world of tennis badly needed that.
Very nice Blog !
Very nice Blog !
I don think there has been any rivalry better than this.. Sampras, Borg or anyone else dint hav an opponent who outplayed them on both grass n clay..!! So last 2 yrs Nadal has changed d scenario completely n made life difficult for Federer.. Thanks to him, v r assured of some gr8 tennis in d near future..
True... Damn that rain!!! else rafa would have thrased fed in straight sets and we wouldnt have got to see the greatest wimbledon final ever... coz everyone who saw the match would have realized that in the third set fed was in a mess mentally and you could see this in his body language too...
And to add to my previous comment, there is no way fed would have carried on for 4hr and 44mins playing such great tennis... even after two rain breaks he wasnt able to complete two full rallies towards the end of the fifth set.. so i repeat... rafa would have thrashed fed in straight sets(or probably four) had the rain not played spoilsport.
@Deepak - are you the UVCE Deepak of Time pass fame ?
If so ... then what you say is BS !
Fyi
Sampras-Agassi head to head
Total 20 - 14
Grand Slam 6 - 3
Finals 9 - 7
GS Finals 4 - 1
Best of 5 Matches 8 - 4
Just to tell you the range of players Agassi and Sampras defeated en route to finals from 1990 US open to 2002 US open
1990 US open Sampras beat Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe
Agassi got to the finals beating Becker in Semis
In 2002 Agassi beat Hewitt and Sampras beat Andy Roddick ( who went on to win 2003 US open)
I agree it is not feds or rafas fault that they are in the wrong era ..But Fed-Rafa rivalry is only in finals and not over entire tournaments !!!!
If you are not the Deepak of UVCE - Then what you say is right dude !!!!
hehehe
Good blog sac .. i object to the usage of the words "2 greatest players" though.. i think there was only one greatest and other is still a long way off.. It was the best match i had seen for a long long time and thank god for the rain in the 3rd set. This year federer hasnt really played his best tennis for various reasons, but i admire his determination to stick it out there and fight.. thats why he is a great. Kudos to rafa for his mental strength and his modesty. He's played the best tennis of his life in the last 3 months. I just hope he can maintain this for a full year which he has failed to do so previously. Congrats to both of them for giving us a tennis masterpiece... looking forward to the olympics now :-)
@vini--Thanks..Deepak who commented here is also from UVCE but not our common friend...Anyways good one maga :)
@Snellika-- I knew u guys will fight if I say something against federer..so street fight beda antha bitbitte..Hogli paapa :)
@Murali/Pallavi--thanks for the comments people :)
@Deepak Nag-- I think Fed-Nadal have some time before they can claim they are better than Pete/Andre..thats bcos Pete/Andre were class acts on all surfaces and over many many years..these two have to do that yet...And lots of rallies in Fed/Nadal matches maybe prompting u to say that the standard of tennis is better, but Pete/Andre matches were also the same class but different style :)
Thanks for the comments maga :)
@Sanju--"I don think there has been any rivalry better than this.." that wil be a lil like jumping the gun...
Anyways ur point is accepted that Nadal has made us sit up and take note of this rivalry... :)
@Karthik--"Damn that rain!! Else Nada is no match to Fed on grass." Nanna magane idakke annodu ganchali antha... Rain made Fed stretch the match to 5 sets, so rain helped Fed and halted Nadals momentum.. To feds credit he made use of the rain to come back...Nadal outplayed Federer..He outthought and outlasted him...Hats off Rafa..
@Uday-- I agree that rain helped Roger..I have always believed Roger is a bit suspect going into the 5th set in any match with his fitness, simply bcos he doesnt play much of those..So the longer the match lasted, Nadal was going to outlast Fedex..
@Alva sir-- I stil feel Nadal will perform on all surfaces..He is a much better player now than he was in 2006 and before..So lets give him a chance..I feel he wil go a long way..
"Nadal outplayed Federer..He outthought and outlasted him". outthought? what are you talking? does nadal ever think? outlasted,yes. thats the only thing he can do because of his junglee power.
@snellika
This is wrt the "out-thought" phrase which is supposedly creating havoc...
Just watch the match and see how rafa used federer's weak backhand. (Yes.... Roger has a single hand backhand which is beautiful to look at.. but by no means a error-free.. Sampras too made many errors, but had better control. As far as I know, Justine-Henin had excellent control over the single hand back-hand)
Coming back to my point, Rafa used this weakness to his advantage. Just watch the long rallies where he kept on hitting towards the backhand. Sometimes even when he had a chance to use his "junglee power"ed monstrous forehand to force a winner, he changed directions to ensure roger played on the backhand...
I agree with sachin that rafa outplayed, outthought and outlasted roger... :)
@vini : excellent statistics... just to add to whatever u have said, Sampras-agassi rivalry started when they were playing against their previous generation (McEnroe, Becker, Lendl); it spanned the entire length of their generation and ended with them beating their next generation players (roddick, hewitt, safin). Its not without reason that ppl "do not place the current players above their predecessors"...
A link which has a reasonable scale of comparing the top players in the open era. Just a guideline... no major compulsion to agree on this... :)
http://espnstar.com/tennis/wimbledon/news/detail/item84260/The-best/?-You're-havin'-a-laugh!
@Snellika-- I think Sri has said everything that I wanted to..
Mate are u telling me that it is possible to beat Roger Federer on grass by just overpowering him? If that is the case, Roger cannot be placed in the pantheon of greats..
I think Roger is undisputedly a great already.. As Sri beautifully explained it is not that Rogers game is totally fool proof though..
His one handed backhand with which he gets a lot of spin is a shot that he basically exploits well against lesser players, but against someone who sees the ball early like Nadal in the final it was just sitting up to be hit.
Rafa would just go for his "junglee power" forehand and win the point.
It was akin to bowling a slower ball to Virender Sehwag.."If u bowl slower I will swing the bat later :)"
I am not saying Rafa dint outlast him.If someone has reserves of physical fitness, thts surely not his fault is it..
I totally disagree with ur notion that Nadal is total brawn and no brain. He cannot beat Federer on grass and for that matter in 4 successive games of clay without "outthinking" him.
Vamos Vamos!!!
I dunno how many ppl hav watched borg mcenroe encounters.. But both of them had a serve n volley game. U could bet tat both of them wud serve n come to d net almost every pt. So federer n nadal hav a much more allround, sensible n complete game. Fed n Nadal are also way above ppl like Roddick, Hewitt etc.. Atleast Fed is. So it may seem tat they don hav competition gettin into d finals. But its jus their genius.. Sampras n Agassi are d only legends of the last era.. If u consider the rest like Rafter, Ivanisevic etc their graph is wobbly, comparable to Safin's. :-) Sampras had never been pushed in Wimbledon d way Fed has been pushed by Nadal last 2 times.
@Sachin: There has been no player ranked no. 2 who has won both french open n wimbledon d same yr apart frm Nadal, tat too by beatin d no. 1, a genius like Fed, in d final. Wel, the rivalry has lasted 4 yrs now n is lookin better than ever b4. So i dunno hw u can cal it jumping the gun. :-)
This is the link that I wanted to post... but there was some problem last time....
http://espnstar.com/tennis/wimbledon/news/
detail/item84260/The-best/
?-You're-havin'-a-laugh!
Hehehe !!!
Sombody just started players' comparison ... Nice !!
Federer and Nadal are currently flag bearers of the wonderful Tennis left behind by Ivanisevic, Krejicek, Courier,Becker, Stich, Rafter, Philippoussis, Moya ...guys with wobbly graphs .
But these wobbly boys were responsible for shaving the grass from the wimbledon courts and not just around the baseline as with the present day ALLROUND players !
When the peaked they won grandslams ... when they peaked they also lost to Agassi and Sampras ... that defined the era !
However in the current era... when the wobbly boys peak they always beat Federer ( as with Nalbandian in Wimbledons, Safin in Ausie Open)
Agassi was a baseline specialist who took Sampras' Serve and volley to his advantage and returned like no one else. He dint play safe by playing baseline !
I love federer. He's great for tennis. Now I love Nadal . But I would love to see more wobbly players to define another era !
@sri and sachin: i still dont agree with you guys. let me explain. Nadal is a RETRIEVER. He can fetch balls from any part of the court like nobody else. thats because of supreme fitness(not talent, well this will ignite a big discussion now. :) ). even you and I know that fed's backhand is weak. that doesnt make nadal a great thinker. every player knows that. but yes, his supreme power allows him to direct any ball to fed's backhand(which other players struggle to do). when the ball has so much spin on fed's backhand, you need extreme power to change the direction of the ball and hit it with great speed.
When every other player knows fed has a weak backhand, why dont they exploit it? Nadal just waits for fed to make mistakes. Thats why I consider fed as the greatest because "fed wins his points by hitting winners. not by his opponents unforced errors. but nadal just relies on fed's unforced errors. I know he has a good crosscourt return using which he has started winning a lot of points. still, he doesnt match upto fed."
Its a treat to watch a player winning by hitting winners than winning because of opponents unforced errors. Thats what makes fed a true champion. just look at the stats in wimbledon final. fed had about 80 winners compared to about 40 winners from nadal(nearly double). unforced errors column was also similar. fed had twice the errors as compared to nadal. :) when I said about "thinking" it means what a player does dynamically during a point. Just look at fed serving those aces at those crucial moments. he just goes for it. Look at his variety in the shots fed plays. its just his unluck that nadal is on the other side chasing down every ball. for a champion, fed made unusual lot of errors because of which he lost the match. as I had said its mostly that "fed lost the match than saying nadal won it". bring on more comments. :D
@snellika
If I play a match against Roger Federer ... I will lose the match because of my unforced errors ... He wont win the match !
:)
PS: Dint know this blog was still alive !
ROGER FEDERER.. GREATEST TENNIS PLAYER OF ALL TIME !!!!!!
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