Well, coming a day after one of the most enthralling matches and that too at the most hallowed turf of green grass there is in the world, very few need to be event presented with a “guess who” for an answer! McEnroe had predicted 3-4 years back that Federer has it in him to be the “greatest ever” to have stepped on a tennis court. The only opponent was himself is probably what most of us had interpreted that statement to be. But then, the bull fighter from Mallorca gave an insight into what else could be there!
Well, forgoing at least two other personal commitments, I reserved the “second best seat” as Vijay Amritraj put it, right from the time the whole show commenced – assuming that the final starts at 5.30 PM (IST). But then, I was witness to one of the most poignant moments on TV screen in a long while. There was the genius John McEnroe, the great Jimmy Connors and the one and only Bjorn Borg walking and talking together right from the locker room to the centre court. And they were interviewed by Sue, who very aptly said that she was about to live the most incredible moment in her life … and as an aside, requested John and Jimmy to not spoil it, for her sake, when she was talking to Bjorn.
And then, the match began. Nadal showed that he is the prince and the king-in waiting on grass. As Sue said in the post match interview, last year we all knew he could win, this year he himself thought that he could win! His fighting qualities, relentless pursuit of balls that others would have so easily given up are in itself a deadly combination. But, what flummoxed most people was his amazing comfort and accuracy with net play and volleys. His prowess at the net surpassed Federer’s by a long margin. But then, the champion came up with his serves in almost all the big points, a quality that propelled his illustrious predecessor Pete Sampras to his share of the grand slam pie. Probably, that is what proved crucial – his 24 aces compared to 1 of Nadal, and most of those aces were when the chips were down. I guess, one would not do justice by trying to some up yesterday’s match in words.
This Wimbledon, the wettest in at least 25 years, has been tremendous in terms of the quality of tennis that one witnessed. From what I can recall, the Jelena Jankovic – Lucie Safarova match started it all. A tremendous match, the highlight being two back to back rallies featuring 20 odd shots, and remember, we are talking grass here, not clay! Then there was the Ana Ivanovic – Nicole Vaidisova match, Ana surviving 3 match points before recovering to win. There was the Nadal – Soderling match, where Nadal had acknowledged applause of the crowd as part of his victory celebration, when the Swede challenged the call and won. And it took 3 more sets over 2 days for Nadal to stamp his authority. Nadal had another 5 setter, recovering from being 2 sets down before beating Michael Youzhny. Novak Djokovic had to fire on all cylinders and go to the last bit of his reserve, before beating the Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in a 5 hour 5 setter. Novak had already put in 4 hours to beat ex-champion Lleyton Hewitt. Novak had exhausted his reserves to such an extent that he had to throw in the towel half-way into his first Wimbledon semi-final. Serena pulling her leg in the match against Hantuchova, and having divine intervention in the form of heavens opening up, enabling her to recover and then beat Daniela in a 3 setter. Then there was the phenomenal run of Mariam Bartoli, beating Jelena Jankovic in 3 sets, before taking the snuff out of the front-runner Justine Henin. Will Henin end up being like so many of her predecessors, winning all but the one slam that matters the most, or will she be in that elite club that includes Martina and Steffi? Bartoli turned the match in the second set and beat her own as well as those of quite of a few experts, with the greatest upset of her career. She played damn good in the final too, but then when Venus is on song, it hardly matters who the opponent is. Like Sharapova in 2005 who threw everything at her, but got more of it in return, she was simply superb – coming up with serves that would have won her points even in the epic final of the men’s … err … gentlemen’s singles.
And to cap it all, World No. 1 against World No. 2, both of them chasing the record of Bjorn Borg – one to become the first man in history to equal (note, the key word here is ‘equal’!) Bjorn’s record of 5 successive Wimbledon titles and the other to again equal another record that has so surprisingly stood the test of time, of being the first after Bjorn to win both French and Wimbledon titles in the same year. With at least 5 ex-Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Singles champions (number of Wimbledon titles in brackets) – Bjorn Borg (5), John McEnroe (3), Jimmy Connors (2), Boris Becker (3) and Manuel Santana (1) looking on, Federer summoned his last reserves and played out of his skin to win. Greatness always comes with humility, and Federer so aptly summed up at the net “You deserved it as well, I just got lucky”! Well, he also conveyed as to what he felt about Nadal – that he was just 21 and so he will have lots to pick up and that Federer’s is just pocketing whatever he can. Let us hope that these two come up with more great matches, resembling the rivalry of Borg/McEnroe, McEnroe/Connors, Edberg/Becker (to some extent?!) and Sampras/Agassi. I would have to give my bias at least now, let Federer get the crown at Roland Garros and that too beating the Clay King (Grass Prince!) Rafa, so that he joins Laver who is there in his 1 man club! Let there be more …. “It was a privilege to watch the two of you …..” during the presentation ceremonies of at least a few more Slams. And if it takes a lot of rain to produce such a beautiful day with sunshine, let the heavens open up at the most beautiful tournament in the world!
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