Sunday, May 31st...After a very late night voice chat (yo!!, common on weekends), I had slept hoping to get up late and was woken up by a phone call at 9 am..The voice, which sounded like he had suddenly got a lifeline, started with a Hello....I immediately knew Rafael was out of Roland Garros...He ended with "Have a great day buddy".....(I wont take his name, cos patrons of this blog will not like it..LOL)...
My mind went overdrive worrying about the person who I believed would win after Rafael had lost... Some Roger guy... OK, the great RF... I instantly thought "Please no.....please"... I knew that a win here for Roger, would surely make my word redundant/irrelevant(not that a few people gave weightage to it anyway :D).. Sadistic or whatever u want to term it, I don't care, I just followed my heart..
14 slams now for Federer and counting.(abba, he hasn't overtaken Pete yet :))..Having won slams on all surfaces along with his remarkable consistency, he rightfully can claim to be greatest..
But... There is something about Sampras, that I refuse to let go of him as the best player I have seen on a tennis court... May be the emotions he could stir up, that mental fortitude, that walking-on-water belief, that unbelievable slam dunk smash, those magical 2nd serve aces at 0-40..
May be I am biased, hell I am, but for me Sampras is still the best.. Its not logical, but heyy, I truly love my champion...
I don't think any sportsman has had such an impact on me (maybe Ganguly, Tendulkar and Dhoni are close!!)... I remember watching the 1994 Wimbledon final at home in Hyderabad.. All 4 of us watching the match on a Sunday evening, Dad and lil bro vociferously rooting for Ivanisevic and me for the great man.... I prevailed.. I remember the fist clinch and the cry "Come onnnnn Pete!!!"....They made fun of Pete hanging his tongue out like a dog, when asking for ball from the ball boy... But that habit I tried to ape too, albeit unsuccesfully.. :-)
Cut to 1995.. Wimbledon semifinal... Pete v Goran again... Pete was on a hat-trick of Wimbs having won in 1993 and 1994... He lost a set and I thought the hat-trick won't happen.. Imagine a 11 year old crying for loss of a tennis set.. I did...I heard advice from Dad and Mom that its not good to cry in sport.. I just refused to listen.. I couldn't stop...Pete had such an impact on me...I looked up to him.. I must have celebrated like mad that day, when the great man overcame Goran...
In the school summer holidays in Mangalore at Grandpa's in the mid 90s, we did not have cable television, so I couldn't watch French open...I used to be half scared to open the morning papers, to see the results...I feared that Pete might have lost... He dint do justice to his talents and dint try hard enough at the French.. That will remain a blemish... One that I shall regret..
I remember waiting for the Sportstar magazine edition, whenever Pete won Wimbledon, hoping to read a lot of articles that eulogized the champion and also see that exclusive Sportstar poster of Pete holding the trophy aloft..
Clearly, this Pete obsession is something I can't overcome...
Well played Roger..U are a legend... (Get up Rafael... Go get him mate.. Go now!!)...
But Pete, you are my undisputed champion mate... By head, by heart and by Jove... :)
5 comments:
Yes that wonderful person who called you was ME... and am proud of it :-)
You forgot to mention that i called you after the final as well and you didnt pick up .. hope that voice message i left was entertaining :P
Coming back to your post.. i agree that it's wonderful to have a sporting hero and worship him.. and pete was a champion player. But again, we must not let emotion come in the way when analyzing and comparing players. I used to hate pete coz agassi was my hero. But i will never say that, for me agassi is still the best player. He is my favorite player, but pete better than him overall. Similarly, even though you hate fedex , you need to accept that as a player, fedex is way ahead of pete :-)
Favoritism and idol worship is great, thats what makes following sport so great, but at the end of the day logic should prevail
Sportstar...I still remember that magazine...used to be addicted to it for a while! Nice blog man....
Maga..my favorite is/was/will be John Mc Enroe..Super kooke sisya... He loses a point and he the umpire an M**therF*****... Now, that's called level...
Speaking of Roger Federer, is he genetically mutated?? Geddru he starts crying, sotre antu kelade beda... Cauvery flowing... What a girl...
Rofl @ Bhargav's comment about Roger.
I think I know how we both came to like Nadal. I was a big fan of Pete and the came mr federer who beat him and whom I started disliking after that, then came Nadal, the federer beater so I guess we started liking him.
But I'll have to admit, Roger is most naturally talented tennis player I've ever seen and he's better than sampras, though I'm a big nadal and sampras fan.
@Akshay--Thanks..Hero worship is a must in sport almost.. U must follow someone closely, else sustaining interest in the sport is tough..And this blog was not abt logic, as I clarified.. :-)
@Shreyas-- I loved Sportstar.. I remember waiting at the door when I was a kid for the paperwala to arrive..Thanks for liking the blog buddy.. :)
@Thatha-- U come to my blog and u take the plaudits with a comment to the gallery... Not fair maga :-)
@Nithin-- Thanks dude... Yeah I knew from day one u are a big Pete fan too... Its almost like people love alternate superstars.. Love Pete, Dont love Fed and Love Rafa.. let it go on :) :)
Post a Comment