Monday, July 7, 2008

WHAT A FINAL!!

Nope not the Asia Cup one.

The Wimbledon one!

This is a cricket blog and we don't usually write about other sports unless using them as a reference in a cricket related post, but last night's Wimbledon Final deserves a mention in every sports forum that exists.

It was by far one of the most fiercely competitive Tennis match I have seen in a long long time.

There was tension, there was drama, it was exciting, there was anxiety, there were fightbacks, there were cheers, there were sighs, there was rain, there were fist pumps, and in the end there were tears.

One has to feel sorry for Roger Federer for missing out on a record, but one can't help but feel elated for Rafael Nadal.

The boy threw everything including the Kitchen Sink at King Federer and finally he did what he couldn't do in the last 2 Wimbledon Finals.

Federer summed up the match in his first words of "I tried everything", and he sure did.

He fought till the end, he tried whatever he could but Nadal was at him throughout the match and Federer was always fighting back.

Nadal deserved to win I think. I know many loyal Federer fans who are disappointed, but you gotta give it Nadal. He played his heart out.

I heard somewhere that its the first time since the 80s that someone has won the French Open and the Wimbledon in the same year.

Considering that he's only 22, one can only imagine what he can achieve.

Here's to RAFAEL NADAL!!!

Make your pitch on this post...



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16 Pitched:

  1. Anonymous said...
     

    Yes, what a final it was!! ive always belonged to the Federer camp, but when the 5th set started i had mixed feelings. At that moment both the players deserved to win! Federer's fightback from two sets down and Nadal standing upto the King-of-Grass at every point..just amazing!

    during the 5th set i could relate a little to what the parents of William sisters feel when there daughters are up against eachother! you just dint know who to cheer for!

    i guess Nadal deserved it but i still feel sorry for Federer, who off late has been treated by pundits and media bit unfairly and after this loss it will only increase. I personally dont feel his time is over and players like Nadal and Djokovic will upstage him easily. Definitely the bar has been raised but Federer will rise to it!

  2. Anonymous said...
     

    Man, I missed it. Too busy trying to watch Mendis, and then I just assumed Nadal had it after the first couple of sets.

    Hope you've read the piece on Federer that I linked to recently...

    http://outsidetheline.typepad.com/outside_the_line/2008/06/if-only-monty-w.html

  3. Q said...
     

    Oh it went on for a good 3-4 hrs after the Mendis show DS...

    I've read ur piece that uve linked.. brilliant as always.

  4. Q said...
     

    Life in Binary - agreed. It was mixed feelings. Its always been Federer, but Nadal's effort just made me root the other way...

    What cruelty it would have been had Nadal lost considering that he had 2 championship points in the 4th set!

  5. Anonymous said...
     

    a snippet of an article that i was just reading...

    "This dramatic final helped Federer rediscover, when all seemed lost, his desire to play, a taste for risk-taking, a need to amaze," it said. "The artist has reappeared. Time for him to show if he has the right stuff."

    very true and accurate!

  6. Miriam said...
     

    It was awesome wasn't it. SO exciting, and such brilliant tennis.

  7. Q said...
     

    That is true LiB. Some of those forehands that Federer rocketed past Nadal to get back into the games were just out of this world. It reminded you of the 22 year old Federer. Brilliant Stuff.

    How awesome was Nadal climbing the stands and meeting the family and royalty!!

  8. Q said...
     

    It sure was Miriam. Probably the best tennis i've ever seen.

  9. a fan said...
     

    another good piece of writing about yesterday's event...
    http://tennisworld.typepad.com/tennisworld/2008/07/nadal.html

  10. SledgeHammer said...
     

    Great game, especially when you consider what was at stake. Truly one of the most historic matches in tennis history.

    But the best tennis match I've ever seen was the Ivanisevic vs Rafter final in 2001. What made it amazing was the crazy crowd. Since rain forced the final into Monday, the crowd was full of rowdy average joes, rather than the stiffs who normally attend on the Sunday.

    And there is a cricket link to the match. Australia wrapped up the first Ashes test within 4 days on that Sunday. So you had some good ol' crazy baggy green supporters free to queue all night to watch their man Rafter in action. I believe the inflatable kangaroo made it in the crowd too.

    And you can imagine the passion of the English fans for Ivanisevic, especially since he was playing an Auzzie. Just like at any cricket match, it was Auzzie fans vs everyone else! ;)

  11. SledgeHammer said...
     

    For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, here's the video of the last game and a bit of that 2001 final:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=FGKJiCXOCAc

    Goran was a wildcard entry. He was a 3-time losing finalist at Wimbledon. Never won any other grandslam. He beat England's best hope in decades - Tim Henman - in a very emotionally charged semi-final. And this was pretty much the last breath of his career.

    Even Rafter battled 5 sets with the perennial crowd favorite Agassi in the other semi-final.

    So it made it quite a fairytale. From a quality perspective, you probably won't get a better match ever than what we saw yesterday. But from an emotional and sensational perspective, the 2001 final was unbelievable.

  12. Gaurav Sethi said...
     

    Q - Coupla years back when Roddick went down to Fedex he said: i threw the kitchen sink at him, but he threw the bath tub at me.
    Y'day's game was about houses being flung at each other. It will linger on for a long time.

  13. Anil Singh said...
     

    wimbledon final overshadowed
    asia cup final, no second thoughts about it(unless you are a cricket fanatic, who don't even misses domestic tournaments).
    The sunday's final reminded me of Becker-Edberg finals ,back in late 1980s. Two sets won by the one, the next two by the other and the final set went into tie breaker.The tussle between the two scored even more points on exhibitionism, with players banging their rackets, sreaming at themselves and making all sorts of hue and cry.
    At times it seemed, as if rain gods are paving the way for a Federer win, but Nadal's resolve proved them wrong.
    The person who deserved won

  14. Q said...
     

    Thanks for the links Bisht. Though I used to love the Becker-Edberg contests, I thought the Nadal-Federer final was way above in terms of the kind of tennis played.

    NC - thats true..it was more than the kitchen sink and bath tub.. maybe it was even buildings instead of houses. It will definitely linger on for long.

    Federer was aksed yesterday how he felt abt being in the best tennis match ever. His reply was that he will probably think abt that 20 years later...

  15. Q said...
     

    Sledge - I remember that match and I was right behind Ivanisevic...there's just something abt supporting the underdog, the one no one expected to make it and win and I also remeber Ivanisevic on the floor celebrating his win falling down much like Nadal last night.

    And I agree with u regarding the emotions attached with that game.

    But even 2 nights ago, there was a story within the game. The man who had been champ for 5 years, the world number 1, the one who had just lost the french open title for the umpteenth time to Nadal, was trying his best to remain the champ on his territory but he was denied by the man who had been denied for the last several years.

    It was beautifuly tennis and as many have been saying - Nadal has raised the bar so Federer is going to do the same. In all probability u will see an ever better Federer going forward.

  16. Obaid said...
     

    I just found this thread :) You can read my thoughts in more detail on my personal blog:

    http://zokasessions.blogspot.com

    Sledge, I disagree and feel that this match was better than the Ivanesivic vs Rafter final... but then that is a personal opinion. I am a pretty decent tennis player myself, and in my area I have local tennis players coming to me that they feel inspired to play the game after watching the final... that is what makes it stand out as the match of a generation, just as the Borg McEnroe Wimbledon final was the match of the previous generaton.

    I think this game was full of drama, suspense and tennis of a sustained higher quality. Plus it has more subplots than the final you refer, in which the only main story was, will Ivanesivic finally win Wimbledon after making all those finals.

    We have Roger Federer, clearly one of the best players of all time who has now been defeated on his home turf. While NAdal was playing amazing tennis throughout, nobody had called him a clear favourite, because Fed is after all Fed at Wimbledon. The most interesting part is how Fed will bounce back from this loss...

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