Why Federer is King.
Came back from two-sets-to-love to win.
Did a five-setter in last year's US Open, same round, against another opponent, and went on to win the trophy.
Except the Andreev match went like: 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 3-2.
This is the fourth time in his career he came back from 0-2 to win, and perhaps was only motivated enough to do so because it's a Grand Slam.
This is why I love him. This is also why I am kicking myself now for not believing in him when he was down two sets and gave back a break in the third. I didn't even believe he'd consolidate the second break he got - but he did. And was never broken ever since.
Truly, Grand Slam Federer is in another league altogether. He's in another zone, breathing another kind of air, gunning for another kind of victory that all the other players currently playing can only hope to dream of: breaking the Sampras record, cementing his status as the GOAT (Greatest of All-Time), and I'm so truly honoured that I get to witness it!
When it comes to Roger, it's not just the tennis I'm following. It's his story, even in a single match like this one, how it has a beginning, middle, climax, an end, and how indescribably good it feels when he succeeds. I am aware of my tendency to get way too emotionally invested in my heroes the way I do, but ugh, I can't help it. He makes you want to root for him. I've always been a sucker for a good underdog story, and I think Roger's is the perfect one: he who stood tall and dominant for so long is suddenly knocked off the apex and is now seeking to reassert his dominance, when everyone is writing him off. How fucking amazing it's going to feel when he hoists that trophy for the fourth time in his career. How wonderful it'd be to rub it in the faces of all the morons who are betting on lesser players like Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal to win.
Sorry, this is Roger Federer's world; everyone else merely lives in it. And I think everyone knows that if Roger hadn't contracted mononucleosis last year, Novak Djokovic would still be Slam-less today, and perhaps Nadull would never have won Wimbledon. I almost feel sorry for Djokovic; it must suck being defending champion but not the favourite. But then again, after what his camp said about Roger last year, about how it was over for him, he's perhaps finally getting a well-deserved karmic payback. How many times has he choked just as he's about to overtake Roger in the ATP rankings? Crashing out of that first tournament he played in the first round sure did nothing to help him close the gap.
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On another note, I'm aching all over again today from yesterday's tennis. My friend JK spent the whole two hours (effectively an hour and a half cos he was late) correcting my disastrous forehand. Apparently I had this terrible bad habit of opening my racquet when I return a ball, which causes the ball to fly really high and out of the court. The correct technique is brushing the ball up with the playing arm resting across the shoulders, thereby generating topspin that enables the ball to move forward.
This makes perfect sense in my mind and I've followed tennis long enough to know what it means and how it works. But oh god, the actual doing is so, so difficult. The brushing thing, as well as everything about tennis basically, is so counter-intuitive. When I'm trying to get the ball across the net, my first instinct is to hit it upwards and in so doing, I open my racquet. I find it so hard to keep it closed, especially when returning. I can manage a proper forehand or two if I toss the ball myself but when JK threw the ball to me, I kept making the same damn mistake.
Argh!
Backhand hasn't been tested much but it seems to travel across the net fine. Not sure how to open the racquet with two hands, so I guess at least I have one shot that's not entirely wrong? If there's nothing wrong with slicing the serve as I think I tend to do, then that makes two shots that aren't entirely wrong.
Sigh. I should sue Roger for completely misrepresenting his sport. He makes it look so, SO easy, so effortless, as if anyone can play tennis. But that's so not true. NOT TRUE AT ALL. I've started playing like almost six months ago, and my forehand is STILL wrong and all out of whack. Unbelievably tragic, it is.