"Everyone has a plan ... until they get punched in the face". Jim Courier

After the match had ended, when I was getting a bit emotional and could almost feel the tears starting to come because of Rafa's total demolition of Andy Murray; his perfect tennis, Rafa's interview in French (suck on that PoD) which because it was even worse than Djokovic's practised lines it was better (if you catch my drift); to see his perfect smile, the happiness oozing out of him ... they began their post match analysis on ITV4 - the TV channel I was watching.  They were talking about Murray's tactics and what he might have thought of doing before the match, and what his tactics should have been during it, when Jim Courier came out with an anecdote.  He said that it reminded him of something Mike Tyson once said.  And I assume when Tyson was the Champion of World, other boxers would work out how they were going to approach the fight, what they would do to him in the ring, and when asked about it Tyson said ... "Everyone has a plan ... until they get punched in the face".

I was hysterical ...

Because if anyone gave Murray a Glasgow kiss today, it was Rafa.  Let's revel in the delight that his tennis was, because in all the years I've been watching him, however great he's been in some matches, there are still only a few occasions when he's totally annihilated his opponent.  Smugly in the French Open 2008 is one, and Fer in the 2010 Monte Carlo final is another.  They're the couple that spring to mind.  And I have to say that seriously, I wasn't expecting today.  Rafa's matches with Murray are always hard fought affairs, nothing has ever been easy ... and whilst I thought this morning that I should stop my fretting and Rafa could easily get this in 3 ... I shook myself out of such thoughts to remind myself of the Rafa rollercoaster, and that it more than likely would be a slug fest.

And whilst over the years, it has been hard to find a friend of Rafa's on the Philippe Chatrier court, it seems that the Parisian weather is - in fact - his true French friend.  It was his friend in 2012 when the final had to be abandoned on the Sunday *cough* and it was his friend today as the sun came out and cast its warmth on the crushed red brick clay.  But isn't that how tennis ought to be played?  Isn't that why the Tour follows the world's continents during their Spring and Summer seasons?  *Hands up* who else remembers those long, hot, sunny days watching players play in the heat on Wimbledon's burnt grass whilst sipping a glass of Robinson's barley water at the change over?  You know ... the days when my friend Denz and Bjorn Borg were 22 ...

It's just that with the onslaught of climate change, satellite TV, global interest in the sport, million dollar sponsorship, massive stadia ... tennis has become a sport for a different era.  It's now about racquet technology, Hawkeye and even playing tennis at night under the spotlights, sometimes till the early hours of the morning. And whilst that's all fine and the mark of progress, how good was it today to watch an old fashioned match played in the sun, and see a genius of the sport give an absolute lesson in how clay court tennis should be played.  Rafa ... you were totally awesome.

Unfortunately on this lovely day, Ernie didn't ride the fastest milk cart in the West, and old mop head - the Prince of Darkness - waits for Rafa in the final.  And I'm sure that gruesomely ugly team of his will be meeting in their lair to plot out their tactics, and Djokovic will already be practising his winner's speech in that dreadful, unspontaneous French of his ... that is - of course - "until they get punched in the face".