The Magical 18th!

The quest for 18^th always gave a sense of dejavu, it was almost similar to the quest for the 100^th a few years back by someone as great, in a different sport though. In both the cases the fans hoped but knew of the improbability of the task. The 100^th did happen, much later than it should have been and is now synonymous to the great man that Sachin Tendulkar is considered in the game of Cricket. Similarly, 18^th might as well become synonymous to the great Roger Federer, unless of course he surprises us all again as he did on that unforgettable fortnight in Melbourne J.

But how did the 18^th 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 15^th 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 18^th.

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 18^th he would have still continued to be the best and the greatest players to have ever played the game, in our hearts. But the 18^th 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 18^th you have won us all over again, and this time for life.

Thank you Roger!

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