7th July, 2008
Wimbledon 2008 Finals: Just unbelievable.
What a truly unbelievable Wimbledon Final. First, five-time champ Roger Federer (yes, that’s five titles in five straight years) LOST the chance to break tennis legend Bjorn Borg’s record wins — now they’re tied for five consecutive wins, the most for any gentleman’s tennis champion. But the fact that he lost it to his “nemesis on clay” (to quote Star Sports commentator and former tennis player Vijay Singh) Rafael Nadal just made things seem more surreal.
Yes, that handsome young Spaniard four years the Swiss’ junior, informally dubbed as the King of Clay, finally broke the curse against him and the grass surface. He’s been up against Roger before in Wimbledon matches, and predictably, lost. Federer’s the master of grass, but clay is Rafa’s turf. And people were happy to leave it at that.
That was precisely this is why Rafa’s victory wasn’t exactly an outcome I could find myself rejoicing over. Partly because I am a fan of both players, and when they’re up against each other it was so hard to choose a side to root for — but mostly because Nadal’s win just disrupted the entire balance of the long-accepted truth of tennisdom. Don’t get me wrong, I myself am a big fan of Rafael Nadal (and his bottomless source of energy; he’s just such a raging bull on the court!) — but why couldn’t he have won next year, so Roger could have at least broken Borg’s record? :P
I watched the replay over Star Sports again today (I stayed home from school, since I wasn’t feeling well — but what a gift rest is, especially after a tiring birthday weekend!), and I couldn’t figure out how Federer could have lost. He played brilliantly, had more than 20 aces in the match, and even made Nadal commit some unthinkable net errors. But I suppose the small mistakes Roger made at key points — like not being able to hustle back, incorrect anticipations, net faults — were crucial to his defeat. Besides, the way Nadal had him running so much, after four hours and forty-six minutes, he was bound to make those mistakes. (It was funny, how, at the interview in the awarding ceremonies, when asked to comment on his thoughts on the match — after the reporter of course acknowledged his disappointment — he would joke how he “tried everything… but tried everything too late.”)
I would want to blame it on the extremely windy weather of the day, but still, I did enjoy the match Nadal won — 4-6, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, 9-7. My dad pretty much thought Nadal would win, since there was a tremendous amount of improvement on his strategy and his skill on the grass, so he wasn’t suprised at the result at all. Rafa appeared every bit the gracious champion he was; in the public eye it almost becomes necessary to downplay one’s victory in interviews. I thought he handled the questions quite well, not really relishing in the glory of winning, dishing out compliments to Roger and saluting him all the way as a who (Right after he won, he climbed up into the box where his uncle and his parents were and embraced them — but afterward he shook hands with the Federer camp. He also made his way to where the Prince and Princess of Spain were sitting and shook their hands. How fun.) Segue: I love listening to Nadal whenever he’s interviewed; his English is quite endearing. Somehow the standard answer “It’s very important to me” always comes up. :) (”Important” of course sounds like “imporrrrtant” because he rolls his R’s like a typical Spanish man would. It’s so cute.)
I suppose what scares me the most, though, is how this single victory could spell the end for Federer, that he has to relinquish his championship streak to a younger generation. But then again, it could go the opposite way for Nadal, too. I mean, hasn’t every man who defeated Federer on the surfaces
he’s been declared a master of — Safin, Roddick, Hewitt — been deprived of another title since beating Roger? :P
* * *
In other tennis favorites, despite how much I love Serena Williams (and how disappointing that Venus beat her), I don’t think I can care to blog about the Williams Sisters Ladies’ Singles Final. Not because it was more or less expected, after the other talented players were booted out of the race early (*coughsSharapovacoughs*), but because… it just seemed tautologous. Couldn’t the title have escaped the Williams Family? They even won the Ladies’ DOUBLES Title. I mean, come on. Spread the love! xD Though it should really be a milestone because it signalled their comeback — sort of — after being sidetracked by other things in their lives, like a clothing line.
On another note, I was mighty proud of the Chinese woman who made it into the Semis though. :) She’s a dark horse in this huge tournament, and she’s played extremely well. Perhaps there’s hope for Asian tennis, after all?
Permalink | Posted at 5:54 pm |
On July 8, 2008 at 05:35 Erin Lynn said:
July 8, 2008 at 05:35
Hey thanks for commenting on my blog!
As for Wimbledon, I’m not really that big into tennis, but I’ve seen enough to know some key names like Roger Federer. All I can say on the match is that I am a fan of the underdog winning, even though it would have been cool to have a record broken. I agree with you that it would have been better for Nadal to win next year so that Federer could get the record. It would have been even more of an accomplishment by Nadal the year after because then he would have defeated the current record holder (even though technically Federer is tied for holding the record, it’s not the same as being THE record holder).
On July 8, 2008 at 10:28 ai~ said:
July 8, 2008 at 10:28
Thanks for the comment, Erin. :) Actually Nadal isn’t really an underdog, he’s World #2 at the moment, and he just defeated Federer who’s World #1. :) In fact throughout the Wimbledon Tournament, Nadal was groomed to be the favorite, the one who could finally defeat Federer. So all in all it WAS a truly great match, since the top two players of the world made it to the finals and treated spectators to one heck of a competition! :) I’m just really sad that Federer lost. I’m just not used to see him lose. XD
On July 8, 2008 at 20:31 Jamie said:
July 8, 2008 at 20:31
I’m not a big tennis follower but Roger is a name I definitely know about. It sucks to hear that he lost but there’s always next time, which I think he’ll totally kick ass at, no doubt :)
On July 8, 2008 at 23:21 carelis said:
July 8, 2008 at 23:21
am sorry to leave you the message here but i couldn’t find a taggie. Any who would u like to join us by link exchanges? i also have a directory yummy-directory.com email me let me know.
On July 9, 2008 at 03:34 Mimi said:
July 9, 2008 at 03:34
I’m not much of a tennis fan myself, and what I know about that sport, I’ve learned from watching Prince of Tennis (lol). But um, he’s cute :D
On July 9, 2008 at 07:30 c! said:
July 9, 2008 at 07:30
TEEEEEENIIS!!!!! I love tennis. I’ll rip it off of youtube or something but i didn’t catch it. oddly i had to work (which is teching kids how to play tennis lol) while it was on lol
On July 9, 2008 at 21:21 Anna said:
July 9, 2008 at 21:21
Thanks for the tag! :)
I know, it is pretty sad that Federer lost, I was supporting him. I couldn’t watch the whole match since it went on quite late in the night where I live.. and when it was not too late I was busy watching the Asia Cup Finals *is a big cricket fan* XD
x.
On July 10, 2008 at 08:09 Lani said:
July 10, 2008 at 08:09
thanks for the comment (: I’m not one for tennis, I’ll play it but I can’t watch it with a straight face haha. Thanks, and likewise, its so calming and pretty lol.
On July 10, 2008 at 22:36 Persh said:
July 10, 2008 at 22:36
I’m actually a fan of Federer, and it pains me when Rafa won, though I’ll say that he deserves the win :D
On July 25, 2008 at 03:49 Isyana said:
July 25, 2008 at 03:49
Hey Ai! Glad to know you like the button! I initially made it to match my red-themed layout. I thought of getting a bit of a retro touch as well, so I picked the Warhol image.
As for my name on the list, just leave it as it is. Thanks for the offer though!