"... the match of his life!!"

Commies - [insert player name] is having the match of his life!!!

How many times have we sat through a Rafa match and heard that? Seriously, think about it. When you’ve watched journeymen, “little guys” that you’ve never heard of, former top-tenners, players coming back from injury … hell, there’s a whole myriad of guys registered with the ATP who all seem to step out on court as if their whole raison d’etre was having a victory over Rafael Nadal. Even Djokovic’s Holy Grail of winning the French Open is actually prefixed with “beating Rafael Nadal” to win the French Open – tell me I’m wrong.

And so it was again last night. Gilles Simon. Or Simone if you had the mis-fortune of having to listen to Leif Shear-ass (as I like to pronounce HIS name) commentate last night. I didn’t previously have anything against him – well, I tell a lie, I have Madrid 2008 against him, where it’s one of the few matches that left me cross all day because I couldn’t believe that a game of running side-to-side and going pat-pat-pat would actually beat Rafa. And if I think about it some more, I’ve actually seen Simon play live more times that I would ever wish happen to someone who I had my deepest, darkest thoughts about, simply because of having to see those hideous chicken legs and the utter snore fest and tedium of his side-to-side, counter punching game. Urghh. But here we had it again in the evening twilight of Rome – a player such as Simon, who’s had an in-and-out career of late with nothing notable in terms of victories – but he chooses that moment to step it up, hit for all his worth and yes … have the match of his life!!!

I’m sure if a lay-person read this, they’d think what the hell was I going on about? Isn’t it right that a player should face one of the top guys and try to play out of his skin? But we’re Rafa fans here, and no … it doesn’t feel the same when [insert player name] is playing against the likes of Smugly and the PoD. Somehow it’s beating R.A.F.A. that seems to be the biggest prize. Is it a backhanded compliment? I really don’t know. But what I do know is that if [insert player name] after “… having the match of his life!!!” then went on to back that victory up and make some headway within the tournament, I somehow wouldn’t mind as much. But they don’t, do they? No, they celebrate their victory like they’d won the Grand Slam and then just wimp out meekly in the next match … always.

So when watching last night and Rafa (still with some yips perhaps) failed to serve out to win the first set, all I could sense was deja-vu and oh great … here we go again. But then I relaxed after the TB and with Rafa 3-0 up … till it all started up again. And I watched Ana-Maria in the stands and thought … I know exactly how you’re feeling, love. But even when the second set didn’t go Rafa’s way, I still somehow had the belief that the match was still there for him. And with a couple of breaks, thankfully, that feeling proved to be right.

Of course we had the “gladiatorial”, “brutal”, “bruising” synonyms being bandied about - yawnsome. But we also had heart, determination, guts, tactics and fight. I hope for Rafa’s sake that today [Mikel Youzhny] doesn’t have “… the match of his life!!”, or then that [Andy Murray] doesn’t have “… the match of his life!!” either. And as we all know, [Stanislas Wawrinka] already has had “… the match of his life” … so maybe Rafa will get a break there. Un-jinx to infinity.

But back to one match at a time. In a perverse sort of way, I think Rafa will be pretty pleased to have come through that match in the way that he did. And on a personal note, it re-ignited my passion for tennis again, which has been a bit lacking this year – well, since the Australian Open. When I had the great fortune to watch Rafa play at Rome in 2010 I had a t-shirt printed for the occasion … “Don’t worry … he is NADAL”.

I think I’ll be digging it out again … *wink*