Federer - Nadal Rivalry : As good as Sport gets.

HOW good was the Wimbledon final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer? Judging from the chorus of praise I have read in newspapers around the world, I reckon it was so good, it has refreshed the meaning of sport.These are heavy thoughts and the point about the Wimbledon final was that it was amazingly light. In fact, by the end, you hardly thought at all.
You were somehow included in the drama. The power of the game came from the two archetypes on display — the fiercely physical younger player and the graceful older champion. It's certainly a pity Nadal's fellow Spaniard, Pablo Picasso, didn't live to see him play. He might have painted him as one of his minotaurs, half young man, half young bull. Potent, muscular figures bristling with life.
Then you have Federer. I can't tell you how disappointed I was by his clothing. Someone had given him a "look" — a gold RF moniker on his cheast, white tracksuit trousers, white cardigan with a gold stripe. If I got hold of those responsible, I would have shouted at them: "Don't you understand? This is one of the most naturally stylish men who has ever walked!"
I'm a big fan of tennis. Although, a certain sense of polite society that has its origins in class and means a lot of attention is given to some pretty boring people. But Federer is different. Federer IS class….Pete Sampras had a giant talent and a wizened sporting intelligence to go with it, but he never excited me, never animated me, like Federer has. Sampras never took me to that other place, the one you go to when sport crosses into the other dimension so that you walk away, as I did after seeing Michael Schumacher in the 2003 season, thinking, "Did I really see something that good?" So good it's gone where memories go that never leave you.
You see a lot of sport that's good, some that's not, a bit that's great, and this other tiny fraction that becomes, well, timeless. Federer took us to that place because there was so much we could admire about him — his physical grace, his obvious intelligence. And then there's the story of how he achieved mastery of the game through achieving mastery of self — that, as a kid, his on-court moods dominated his play. Federer felt every ball, was sad and upset when he lost. Then a close friend died and he found out what real sadness was and, after that, playing the game was a case of, well, playing the game.
I couldn't get over Bjorn Borg sitting in the front row, watching. Here was the last man, like Federer, to win five Wimbledon titles in a row. He sat there, like a ghost in a sporting drama written by William Shakespeare. The Swede's life after tennis has skidded around like a Volvo on an icy motorway. In sporting terms, Borg would have known how much the final mattered. In life terms, I suspect, he knew how much it didn't. Late in the fifth set, Bjorn lent across and shared a joke with the attractive young woman beside him. I would give a lot to know what that joke was.
After nearly five hours of tennis, a mere five points separated Nadal and Federer (209 to 204). There was not a single coarse or angry moment in the game. The dialogues of the two players were internal.
At the news conference after the match, Federer was the least graceful I had seen him. The fact is he didn't hide his sense of loss. But that was fine….It was the new champion who took the game to its final level. Almost in the manner of a younger brother, Nadal seemed to feel as deeply for Federer in his moment of defeat as he did for himself in victory. On the court, Nadal had burnt with a fierce heat. Now, in his moment of triumph, he showed an extreme humility that somehow took in the whole occasion.
What is the meaning of sport? Three hundred and fifty years before the birth of Christ, the Greek philosopher Aristotle said the meaning of sport was that it caused people to engage in contemplation, which he regarded as the highest of human activities.
I find it compelling that so many people from different countries and cultures have felt the need to declare the 2008 Wimbledon men's final to be as good as sport gets.

A knowledge of Murphy's Law is no help in any situation.

It is an experience common to all men to find that, on any special occasion, such as the production of a magical effect for the first time in public, everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Whether we must attribute this to the malignity of matter or to the total depravity of inanimate things, whether the exciting cause is hurry, worry, or what not, the fact remains.

Murphy's Law is commonly expressed as "If anything can go wrong, it will." Really frustrated people add "and at the worst possible time" at the end of the saying. Bad luck is something that seems to haunt people and I’m pretty sure everyone assumes that they have the worst luck. From the most failsafe plan to the faultiest, Murphy's Law will make something happen that was not expected. Personally, I have no other choice but to be a fan of Murphy….he seems to have taken a personal interest in me. Almost every activity I do (or rather end up doing), is a direct repercussion of at least one of Murphy’s laws.

In the last month in Bangalore (I’m doing my PS here), I tend to find Murphy almost everyday most notably on July 21^st when my GRE got postponed due to technical difficulties in the centre – the worst I thought that could happen was if I ended up getting a rather low score, my mates have scored generally above 1500, but this surpassed all my expectations from Murphy. Since that day I hold Murphy in the highest regard for his sheer pessimistic (I prefer to call that realistic) views on pretty much everything.

I ended up in a different branch of Honeywell (my PS) – the rest 8 were together , I really do not mind being alone but the lack of good looking girls here really frustrates me to the point of…..well forget it. The main reason that I am actually writing this is ‘yesterday ‘.

I woke up around 9 after my alarm failed to live up to its expectations, got ready really quickly and went to Honeywell early as our PS instructor was due to visit us that morning – no prizes for guessing what happened…she obviously did not turn up. After shaking off the disappointment, I decided that going for a movie in the middle of office hours was the best way to change my luck for the day. So my Honeywell mates and I decided to go to PVR Cinema in Forum – that was my idea , the main reasons being to reduce the effect of Murphy…The costliest cinema hall , a Weekday , an afternoon , The Dark Knight ( almost one month after its release) , there was no way things could go wrong apart from ‘ the journey to PVR’ .Surprisingly , we got a free cab from Honeywell to PVR ( I was beginning to think Murphy was beginning to pity me but how wring I was).After going to PVR , we did not get tickets obviously and to add salt to the wound the guy told us that he had just sold the last 4 tickets about 2 minutes ago.I guess that was Murphy himself having fun at our expense.

After a few events here and there including getting smitten by a really amazingly good looking girl in Landmark and losing her in 20 seconds(Did I really see her or was my Honeywell branch beginning to take its toll??), I was waiting for my friend’s bday treat only to be mystified by a last minute change in program(WOW!! This could beat the IBM ads). In spite of my perpetual hunger, I decided to go abstemious till I reach my hiding place. I guess this was not enough for one day….there was no power and it was not expected to be back till 10 PM.

The rest of the day went pretty ennuily (derived from ennui :P) , I hogged and then decided to call it a day.

Such days really make you wonder ‘How the freak can I escape Murphy?? ’ But then I realize that if you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared and unforeseen, will promptly develop.

I have begun to enjoy these unexpected twists and turns, I mean it is definitely better than the mundane chores of everyday. As dismal as Murphy's Law is, I have learnt that sometimes I do not have the efficacy to control everything and to at least break a smile in the irony of the big picture and imagine people cracking up over my misfortune. You can also add on to Murphy's Law by adding on other unforeseen problems that you have run across and have hindered your life. Even when things seem the worst, think of this; smile today because tomorrow will worse. [:-)]

P.S. – My Manager happens to be a guy who sits in his place and talks with me only through Communicator , although as luck would have it…as I was in the process of churning out this article , he came just to check on me… :P