Skip to main content

Rafael Nadal vs Lukas Rosol - Wimbledon 2012


29.7.2012: There is a definite buzz in wimbledon today. There was an upset yesterday, a monumental upset.


 Rafael Nadal - Living Legend.

The name which has come to be associated with grit and determination. A man against whom you had to play inspirational tennis to win a single point; let alone a match. Rafael Nadal plays tennis the way it is meant to be played. There are no freebies on offer. Every ball is chased as if his life depends on it - and then invariably returned. Outrageous angles are created, the existence of which we were never taught in school. And all this, when he is in cruise mode. But every once in a while, comes along a stubborn opponent; an opponent who is willing to fight it out, an opponent who commits the blasphemy of believing he can win, believing that Nadal, Rafael Nadal, can be defeated.

 The response: Nadal digs deep into his inexhaustible reserves, he shifts into top gear. Tennis becomes sublime. Time stands still. Gods wake up from their slumber to witness divinity.  

 Rafael Nadal does not defeat opponents, he decimates them. When the match starts, there are two men on the court. As the match hurtles to its logical conclusion, only one man remains; the other is reduced to a mere shadow, a pale one at that.   


 Lukas Rosol - _______

 Well, who is Lukas Rosol? Ranked 100 in the world, making up the numbers in a grand slam, Lukas Rasol at best was a journeyman. This was his first Wimbledon. In his five earlier attempts, he had not managed to get past the first round of qualifying. His name, from today, will forever be intrinsically linked with Rafael Nadal. At the age of 26, he has lived out his greatest victory, his hour of fame and glory.

After 198 minutes of grueling tennis, Nadal was defeated; vanquished. But what does this match teach us? To me, it makes all his other victories that much more special. It reminds me that in sport, there exsists both victory and defeat and all that separates these two is a line so fine that it is often invisible.

It is days like these that make you realize how insanely amazing these guys really are. 

It is days like these that make you realize that they don't win by default, that they earn every run scored, every wicket taken, every goal, every point, every putt and every basket, that nothing ever comes for comes for free, never ever. That they pay for their seemingly effortless brilliance with years of toil, with sweat and blood.

It is days like these that make you realize that these guys are a tribe of men and women, who though live on the same planet, are a world apart from the rest of us.

It is days like these that makes us realize how very fortunate we are to witness these great men and women in all their pomp and splendor. Thank you.

Rafael Nadal: True Champion!
Lukas Rosol : Bravo!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Just how much did Sachin mean to us?

Aspiration for success is the single most natural thing in the world. It is not a trait unique to human beings alone; it is the very fundament upon which nature exists. It is what gives rise to evolution and results in life as we know it. And yet there are times, when even before you begin, you not just suspect that you will not succeed, but know that you are doomed to, and, will fail. Nonetheless, you go ahead and do it anyway. Because it is not a choice, but a call to duty; like a mountaineer attempting to scale that one last impossible peak, a surgeon trying to perform the miracle that will not happen or even a letter of infatuation that you know will never be reciprocated. Failure is merely a meaningless by-product. And so I attempt to put in words, the emotion that cannot be explained but only be felt, the phenomenon that cannot be understood but only be experienced and a love that cannot be rationalized but can only be succumbed and surrendered to. I attempt to both understa
Post a Comment
Read more

Of Federer and Nadal; of Sport and Us

There were 13 players on the field. But one stood out. And he knew it. There was a swagger to his walk, poise in his posture and his entire demeanour was of a man who knew there were a million eyes on him; who not merely was aware of and acknowledged it, but also courted the attention, craved for it and feeded of it. As the ball soared off his bat, 50,000 rose off their chairs in unison; but even before the triumphal act was concluded, the smiles were wiped off their faces and there was tension in their eyes. The fielder settled under the ball; it was to be a regulation catch. But, was it to be? The floodlights shone down upon him, almost sinister in their intensity, but that did not matter; he has done this a thousand times before. What mattered though was the thousands of eyes boring into him, the unnatural silence, the searing hostility of strangers, the expectations of teammates and most of all the stature of the man of whose bat the ball has soared from and was now hurtling
Post a Comment
Read more

57 Tabs: The Joys of Wiki-Hopping

It is 10 minutes past midnight. To my left, I have a box of refrigerated chicken popcorn from KFC, and to my right, I have my phone. In my phone, I have 57 tabs open; Wikipedia pages, they are.  The missus has abandoned me gone for a sleepover to a friend’s place and I have the house to myself. I snuggle under the blanket and reach for a book; ‘My name is red’. The data is switched off and the phone is a safe distance away, or so I think. Alas, no. I come across an intriguing word, reach for my phone and switch on the data. Google recommends Wikipedia; good friends they are. I read intently, for all of 3 minutes. Then, I long press and click on ‘open in a new tab’. Thus, begins the hopping; perpetual in scope and orgasmic in pay-off. Soon, I have 57 tabs open.  When I was growing up, during my primary school, there was a library in the neighbourhood. It was big, it was free and it was welcoming. Many a childhood hour was spent there; lost to the world and yet, at the same tim
Post a Comment
Read more