tennis unplugged!
Experienced the pure joy of watching LIVE TENNIS (on TV, obvious) after ages !!
It was battle of the titans as Rafael Nadal took over Novak Djokovic in the Hamburg Master's semifinal.
If i revere Federer, then i think these two stand next in line!
The future of men's tennis for the next 4-5 years looks set (realistically considering Fedex s retirement!)
But this post does not concern the future of tennis..
The reason behind this post is, the author being totally astounded by the quality of the game and the sheer competitive spirit of the two!
The match's start was pretty predictable, with the clay czar taking away the first set! (i missed the first few games). Novak, did fight back but lost the first set 7-5!
Rafa looked unstoppable after the first set with hardly any unforced errors in his kitty..each rally was being played to perfection..every shot was a beauty..specially the drop shots..he used them quite a lot today!
but this was just a snapshot!
in the 2nd set, joker made a comeback..he won it 6-2..it was his chance to play intelligent and at the same time beautiful tennis! He won the crucial 3rd game, by breaking nadal's serve which made the match truly entertaining. All the rallies were a run for money! i dont remember a single point when i dint clap! It was really difficult to cheer any one of the two..i wonder what the crowd went through! Both used almost all the shots available/invented/improvised!
The third set was more of the war of the minds..the survival of the toughest types!
Though joker was broken in the first game itself, he gave a good fight! It was a tense moment when nadal was up with 3-2 and novak looked to level the scores. But the clay king prevailed, he took the crucial lead of 4-2 and then won 6-2 straight, with a highly frustrating match point battle! Frustrating for the two, as its always a treat to watch an amazing game of tennis.
For me, the outcome of the match wasn't so important..it was the pure perfection of play and the hard earned winners! Mind-blowing!
The match statistics also proved this, both were neck to neck in every section..novak's only weak section being the 'break points won'..he could convert only 4 out of 19 into winners to rafa's 5 out of 9! Can be said that it was Rafa's day in the end! Now the final looks really yummy with fedex (i wish he wins) and rafa set on the platter!
My ooh's and aah's and the claps were so loud that my roomy also came and saw the whole match with me and enjoyed! Such was the beauty of the game!
I saw a simply superb tennis match full of action,suspense and drama after eons and the satisfaction i feel is 'better left unexplained' types.. :D
Wonder what those who saw the match live must be feeling!