Oh! Federer!
There are few moments in sports that takes your breath away. Similarly, there are few sports person who seem to do the impossible like a routine. Think of Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Tiger Woods and the one and only Roger Federer.
Oh! what a match it was yesterday. The Wimbledon finals and the champ facing a familiar opponent, but a much improved and rejuvenated one at that. Roger showed the world what steely resolve he is made of. Any other 'ordinary' player would have given up. He overcame tiredness, a relentless opponent and more importantly for most part of the 4th and final set, he seemed to have lost his 'magic' touch and he had to play a more sedate/down-to-earth tennis rather than the more sublime tennis which we are so accustomed to. I feel lucky that I could watch the last few games of this match at least.
Arguably, Roddick was the much better player on display yesterday. He controlled most of the match . In fact, his serve wasn't broken till the last game, which eventually gave the champ the trophy. Most of the headlines are claiming this to be the most classical Wimbledon final ever played. My own adjectives will be "heart-stopping, unbelievable tennis" on display.
I think, no one believed , including myself, that this final will be as close as this. With Federer's utter dominance of Roddick (18-2 win-loss ratio before this match), I thought this will be one more cake-walk victory for him. Without Nadal at the other end of the net, I thought Federer will play one of his casual yet sublime tennis and will just put it across the challenger. But, sport is much more than mere statistics. One has to play/watch to believe what it can throw up.
Thank you Roger and thank you Roddick, especially, for the brand of tennis you guys put on display yesterday. I'll consider myself to be lucky to have watched this piece of action in my lifetime. Wishing to see many more such duels in future (call me greedy :-)).
Oh! what a match it was yesterday. The Wimbledon finals and the champ facing a familiar opponent, but a much improved and rejuvenated one at that. Roger showed the world what steely resolve he is made of. Any other 'ordinary' player would have given up. He overcame tiredness, a relentless opponent and more importantly for most part of the 4th and final set, he seemed to have lost his 'magic' touch and he had to play a more sedate/down-to-earth tennis rather than the more sublime tennis which we are so accustomed to. I feel lucky that I could watch the last few games of this match at least.
Arguably, Roddick was the much better player on display yesterday. He controlled most of the match . In fact, his serve wasn't broken till the last game, which eventually gave the champ the trophy. Most of the headlines are claiming this to be the most classical Wimbledon final ever played. My own adjectives will be "heart-stopping, unbelievable tennis" on display.
I think, no one believed , including myself, that this final will be as close as this. With Federer's utter dominance of Roddick (18-2 win-loss ratio before this match), I thought this will be one more cake-walk victory for him. Without Nadal at the other end of the net, I thought Federer will play one of his casual yet sublime tennis and will just put it across the challenger. But, sport is much more than mere statistics. One has to play/watch to believe what it can throw up.
Thank you Roger and thank you Roddick, especially, for the brand of tennis you guys put on display yesterday. I'll consider myself to be lucky to have watched this piece of action in my lifetime. Wishing to see many more such duels in future (call me greedy :-)).
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