The 5 Stars for the Swiss



As the three former champions John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg, sauntered down the center court, one of them was sure feeling quite insecure. There was certainly no insecurity or languidness in the Swiss reigning champion Roger Federer, as he took a 3-0 lead in the opening set against the precocious Raphael Nadal. The Spaniard broke back and made it 3-3 with some mind-blowing passing shots. The first set went to a tie-breaker and the Champion took the better of the Underdog, to go one set up. The boy from Mallorca fought back with some invigorating tennis as he won the second set 6-4. Some of his newly cultured artistic backhand drop volleys were a treat for the photographers and quite a handful for the great Champion. The latter again stamped his supremacy in the third set and prevailed in yet another tie-breaker. The furious backhand winners unleashed in exquisite style accompanied by some lissome court movements make FedEx the ultimate conqueror that he is.

Just when the feeling of “Roger Federer is mortal on the green” sinks inside a tennis player, it is exactly then he can ‘win over’ the Champion or at least think of doing so. With some impeccable ground strokes, controlled nerves and meticulously executed passing shots, Raphael Nadal made it two sets all. At 0-3 down in this fourth set, Federer had even questioned the ‘Hawk Eye’ asking for it to get replaced, the point went to Nadal, and was crucial enough to dent some Federer confidence and ruffle him to some extent.

As the fifth set started many felt that Nadal will finally see his dream come true. Vijay Amritraj very rightly put it as “Let’s see, who’s got the nerves and who’s got the stomach for this fight now”. Though Nadal had four break points in Federer’s first two service games, the later taking a page out of Sampras’s book, served brilliantly well at crucial points and made life quite onerous for the challenger. The last time a Spaniard had won this tournament, was 41 years back, and unfortunately, history was not to be repeated. With some brilliant serve and volley games Roger, The King shut the doors on Nadal. After 3 hrs and 44 minutes of a grueling battle, a satisfied (of watching great tennis) Vijay stated “He is physically and emotionally drained as he equals Bjorn Borg’s great record of 5 consecutive Wimbledon crowns, a record which has stood for 27 years”.

Looking at Fed’s girl friend, this is what Vijay had to say, “She had some nails four hours ago”. This for sure stated the fact that mankind had witnessed some unbelievable display of nerve-racking lawn-tennis and had also accepted the fact that there is no beating the great FedEx.

At the end of it all, the fighter in Raphael Nadal shouldn’t be disheartened, who despite of a tendon damage, showcased some breathtaking tennis maneuvers and won many hearts all over the world. But last but not the least, if the man sits down at the end of the day and tries to wonder what did he do wrong on the court, he might not find many answers, just that he has to accept the fact that he chose to ‘live’ in a wrong era, an era of a gentle-man named Roger Federer.

Amen!