The Talented Mr. Federer

Taking this opportunity to revive my blog by posting my comments on Ramanand's blog about the Roger-Rafa Wimbledon Final 2008. So, here goes...

Got to see the match between the two rain beaks. So, I saw the best part of the match. After watching Nadal play in previous matches, I had predicted a comfortable Nadal win. Federer surprised me. Federer will never win French Open against Nadal. Its very difficult if he will win again here in Wimbledon against Nadal. Why? Because Federer doesn't practice enough. He doesn't bring his best game with him to every match. He just does what is required. This is very unlike Nadal who plays every point to the best of his ability. That is why he always has his best game to his beck and call. Federer doesn't. True, I rooted for Federer. But the true champion won. And so he shall remain. One final point. This not a decline of Federer. This is the same level at which he has played for years. Its just only now he is up against a genuine contender. I only hope this revives Federer to scale greater heights. If he has it in him, he will realize that there is no such thing as "my part of the season".

Now when I say practice, I mean it in terms of playing your best game against the best opposition when really required. That he couldn't play his best game, this much Federer himself acknowledged after the match. Case in point is his backhand in this match. It seemed to desert him for most part between the rain breaks. But we did see a scorching one ON championship point in the fourth set tie-break. As per Nadal's admission, he had deliberately placed the ball to Federer's backhand as he was missing a lot on backhand. So, had his backhand working fine, he would have won, I suppose. But he couldn't summon it. He is a great player. But most of his titles have come in an era when tennis has been uncharacteristically devoid of rivalries. I, myself, am a Federer fan since he came into prominence. But I have increasing realized that people often overlook the beauty of Nadal's game. How many times does he seem to miss these days? He also plays almost as great shots as Federer hits, only with seemingly less error percentage. But nobody seems to be raving about his shots. Does Federer's elegant personality translate to his shots being noticed as more graceful/beautiful? Does Nadal's battler reputation take the sheen off the beauty of his shots? We will have to make up our own minds. To me it certainly seems to be the case. Anyways, I must point out that I am only a grudging Nadal fan.


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