Hail king Roger

I couldn’t watch Federer conquer Andy Roddick, blame it on CAS ,but managed to catch some glimpses of the semi finals. Watching Federer play is pure joy. Watching Federer is like watching Michael Angelo paint the Sistine chapel or Mozart composing his symphony in C major. One knows that he/she is witnessing a master in action. Federer’s racquet is more like a paint brush that seems to create strokes out of thin air. The ball goes just where he wants it to go; the racquet is only an enabler, a guide. The great man’s brain creates an opportunity which mere mortals (audience and the poor guy standing on the other side) can’t imagine, it all happens in the blink of an eye, arms extend the racquet meets the ball at the right angle and the ball then obediently obeys its masters bidding and leaves us gasping at the sheer brilliance and the opponent frustrated. Spare a thought for poor Roddick, after a bad year when he was knocked out early at Wimbledon and French opens, fought tooth and nail to make it to the finals here. Whom does he meet? A guy who has a 11-1 record against him. I guess Roddick must be tired of meeting Federer in a final. Imagine going into a final knowing one is going to come out second best. Roddick has Jimmy Connors as his coach, a man who played each point as if his entire life depended on it. But even the combined might of Connors and thousands of screaming Americans, couldn’t stop the juggernaut, it just rolled over Roddick with minimum of fuss. More often than nor discipline, commitment, dedication and never say die attitude prevail over talent. But there appears once in a while an outrageously gifted athlete who just eclipses the rest. Federer is a once in a life time athlete. He knows that he is special and more importantly knows how to handle his precocious talent to create history. He is competing only with history……….

But then history has it’s own way of telling mankind that sheer perseverance combined with an over my dead body attitude can prevail over genius and it seems to have sent a 20 year old with Popeye like muscles who runs after every ball as if the very existence of human race depended on him reaching it. Rafael Nadal inspires hope, he seems to be the Achilles heel of Federer. He was supposed to be a one surface wonder but he proved the pundits wrong by making to the Wimbeldon finals. A guy who has a 6-2 record against the greatest player to hold a tennis racquet cannot be a one surface wonder.

Federer won watched by Tiger woods and Michael Schumacher announced his retirement. Guess it’s time for something special by Brian Charles Lara and Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!