Monday 9 July 2007

The English flaunt, The Spanish flunk and The Swiss bang

He tottered and toiled and finally the great man in whites fell on the green turf,not of flunk but of the ecstasy of emulating greatness for a fifth consecutive time, rather elusive for the ordinary.
What a rhetorical finish to a scintillating encounter between the world's best players rather to a fortnight of rain drained grand slam.The hands of fortune and destiny plucked out the champion off misery from the clutches of a sullen climax.
Yes, for the fifth time in a row the great Roger Federer has won the coveted Wimbledon gentleman's title fending off stiff challenge from his rival, the clay prodigy Rafael Nadal.

3h 44' back : Clock in the roofless center court of the All England Club ticked 12:15 and the chair umpire cried," Play". The first serve of the match flew from the racket of Federer and went untouched past Rafa. An ace to start off the proceedings. From the start it was an absorbing affair. Federer broke Rafa's first service game but the mallorcan was upto the challenge and shedding of his early center-court-jitters he broke back and the first set went into a tie-breaker. The king of tie-breakers prevailed and Federer won the first set 7-6.
The game had just begun for the Spaniard and he went on to claim the second set 6-4. As expected Fedex fought back and took the third, again through a tie-breaker. Fed outplayed Nadal both in terms of winners and unforced errors. He got out of those self-built swamps by the Sampras way i.e. serve great, cracking 27 aces in the match as against 1 by Rafa.
The ever so adamant and dynamic Nadal cakewalked through the fourth set going 4-0 up before even Federer could start his counter in the electronic score board.nadal took the set 6-2. The fiery forehands, lightning ground strokes and deep high balls coupled with backhand cross-court winners soaked the sweat out of The world no.1.His numerous volleys were outplayed and outsmarted by brilliant backhand and forehand ,cross-court and down-the-line passing shots.
Damn!! this kid has improved. He really played AWESOME!!!!!
The game went into the final set,the decider and at this stage Rafa clearly had the upper hand.His agility and pace left Federer gapping for breath and great desperation showed in the face of the champ.
"Never seen him sweat on grass so much",commented Vijay Amritraj.I almost thought this is the end of Federer.
But like a true champion, a Phoenix,he rose to the occasion and saving four break points in the final set ,Federer kissed the golden trophy for the fifth time.
Hooosssh!! I was jumping up and down my house seeing the match and my excitement prompted me I should let you all know how I feel.. Wah!! kya baat hai!!!!!

Trivia* :
  • Federer has now equaled Bjorn Borg (Sweden) winning five consecutive Wimbledon.
  • The longest match ever in the history of Wimbledon finals took 4 hrs and 16 minutes and was between Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe.
  • This takes Federers tally of career grand slams to 11.
  • He and Sampras have not won the French open never ever in their illustrious careers.
Huh!!! Got lucky for the fifth time, Mr.Federer.

But this game has certainly raised questions on the dominance of Roger Federer in the open era thanks to the mallorcan with thumping biceps, perhaps........

(*Not scrutinized,info courtesy running commentary on star sports by the Indian great Vijay Amritraj )

1 comment:

  1. great match.. fed showed his class and proved again that he's the true champion.. it was more emotional for him than any other match.. the tension transfered to us.. hail Fedex the great

    ReplyDelete