Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Enuffa of Ruffa?

Okay, I have neither the time nor the energy to write a proper post about Nadal's US Open win, but suffice it to say that the two sleep-deprived nights in a row (the first spent waiting desperately for updates about the New York rain situation starting at 2 AM India time, the second with the match again prolonged by a rain interruption) were completely worth it. (Not to mention the tense 24 hours in between, when I was convinced that the extra rest day would help Djokovic win.) If you read this post from a couple of months ago, you'll see that I was more than happy - at the time - to see Rafa regain his French Open title and sweep the clay season. What's happened in the two months since has been well nigh unbelievable.

It's also made me feel slightly ambivalent as a fan. My initial interest in Nadal's game (as expressed in this post from 2006) had a lot to do with his role in keeping men's tennis from being completely dominated by one player. But now that he's had a Federer-like, three-Slam year of his own, I wonder if I should shift my allegiance to some else. Or start following women's tennis instead.

Pure rhetorical speculation, of course. Vamos! and all the rest of it.

11 comments:

  1. One would have to really be incapable of anticipating happiness to be able to say 'Enough!' to Rafa :)

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  2. the only way I can tolerate having him around is if he gets beaten every now and then. if that doesn't happen I hope his knees spontaneously combust or something.

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  3. I’m happy Nadal won but I like him only because he defeats Fed-ex on a regular basis, who in turn used to defeat Sampras. Made me all nostalgic about Pete and I had to pen an entire post on him!

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  4. I like him only because he defeats Fed-ex on a regular basis, who in turn used to defeat Sampras.

    Come again? Federer and Sampras only played each other once at competitive level - Wimby 2001, where Roger won a tough five-setter. But Sampras was past his best then, and Fed was a few years away from becoming a great player, so that match hardly meant anything in the larger picture.

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  5. she's a girl, man. what do they know about sports... or anything else for that matter.

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  6. I’m including the exhibition matches they played in Seoul and KL and even the one in NY. I take those wins/losses to heart too.

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  7. I’m including the exhibition matches they played in Seoul and KL and even the one in NY. I take those wins/losses to heart too.

    Come on, that's being almost masochistic (as a Pete fan) - the guy was practically a granddaddy playing a Federer at peak form. Can't count those.

    Seriously though, while I don't believe in carrying the "what-if" games too far, this is my gut feeling about what would happen if Peak Federer played Peak Sampras 10 times on each surface:

    Grass: 5 matches all (copping out there), or maybe 6-4 to Sampras. Would depend on the type of grass too, I suppose.

    Clay: 9-1 or 8-2 to Federer

    Hard: 6-4 to Federer

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  8. I'd agree with your assessment. In fact I'd go definitely with 5-all for the grass and 9-1 for clay, but you must understand how tough it is for me to admit this!

    I am the person whose exam results were directly affected by Pete's performances, so now you can guess which years I fared badly.

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  9. I am the person whose exam results were directly affected by Pete's performances, so now you can guess which years I fared badly.

    Gargi: here's a funny story (it wasn't funny at the time though). I got most of my book written between June and September last year, and that happened to be the period just after Rafa's loss at the French Open - it included his withdrawing from Wimby and his being more or less a non-factor for the next few months. A big part of my getting any writing done was that I didn't have to worry about watching tennis every other day during the most cramped leg of the season. If he'd been winning the way he was in the summer of 2008, my eyes and mind would have been under enormous stress.

    Btw I was quite a Sampras fan too, though I wasn't watching tennis too closely back then - it was just the Grand Slams, and usually just the latter stages of those.

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  10. Good one. If it was me I'd have been moping about his losses so much that I would've have completely neglected my work.

    I followed tennis so closely in the 90s that I guess I just gave up when the new millenium kicked in.

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  11. Sometimes, the view from top is boring.

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