But how did the 18th happen? The great man
himself didn’t see it coming this early after his comeback from the injury.
Neither did his fans, as they were just happy with the fact that the maestro is
back in action and they might be able to see some of his signature shots for
the 2-3 rounds he survives post his comeback. And he himself summarized it the
best when he said ‘ I thought I will do
well to last 2-3 rounds, may be 4 or quarters max, if the draw is kind to me’.
But he kept going, lasting back to back 5 setters, outclassing one top 10
player after the other and finally setting a dream date with his old nemesis, Mr Rafael ‘fighter’ Nadal. And the rest
is now history, history written in golden words.
And once the finale date was set with Nadal, there was a
sense of that old dejected acceptance that the inevitable will happen again (as
it has happened so many times before) and the great man will succumb again to
the resilience of the Spanish warhorse. And to add to that there has been a
recent pattern to Federer’s grand slam performances, he keeps playing supreme
tennis round after round and when he looks almost invincible he produces his
most ordinary game that day and chickens out rather tamely. Interestingly, I was
also chatting with one of my close pals during the finals and we both agreed to
another pattern of his in the last few matches (including the finale), that as
soon as his serve gets broken he almost gives up for the set and literally
rushes to the start of next set, without an inkling of fight to comeback in
that set. And this in addition to the other depressing patterns made fans like
us very nervous and to some extent irritable as well J. As we all knew, if it’s not
now, it’s never.
But four sets and a game later, the picture was almost clear,
with a break in hand Nadal wasn’t going
to let go his 15th grand slam title at any cost. But what happened
in the final 8 games of the match was unexpected, un-Federer like and very Nadal-esque
in nature. Breaking all recent patterns, Federer was on break point on all subsequent
Nadal serves, finally breaking through to bring it back to serve. And then breaking
Nadal’s serve again to serve for the Championship. Now if you are told a story
that someone was a break down in the very
first game of the final set of the championship final and he fought back hard
to be on break point on all his opponent’s serve and finally breaking him twice
to lift the trophy, you would without a hitch say that fighter someone would have been none other than ‘Nadal’.
So yes, Federer actually did a Nadal in that final set to complete his quest
for 18th.
And that feeling, that joy, that happiness which that win
brought has been surreal. Nothing could have been sweeter, the wait has been
for almost 5 years now and even without the 18th he would have still
continued to be the best and the greatest players to have ever played the game,
in our hearts. But the 18th was probably his way of thanking all his
fans for the unparalleled love and support for him over the years. The class,
the finesse, the aura that he emanates through his game and through his conduct
gives you a joy and high of its own kind, which probably can’t be expressed in
words. And there are very few moments in
life that give you that feeling of inherent happiness and satisfaction in
whatever small things you do post that joyous moment, this certainly was one
such moment.
We don’t know for how long we would be watching your mind-blowing
backhand winners, magical drop shots and unbelievable tweeners but with this
magnificent 18th you have won us all over again, and this time for
life.
Thank you Roger!
--
kin…
