Our Champion ... and suffering ...

Hello.

At this precise moment, I am almost as spent as Rafa.  That match today was a lesson in suffering.  For Rafa and for us ...

Scarcely have I ever watched a Grand Slam final and just willed it to be over, and even now, I can barely remember any moments of the match.  I'm just glad it's done.  There was sooooo much #blah #blah #blah over the weather today and the hot conditions it just set my teeth on edge. Forgetting Barcelona (as all the other top players do), Rafa has preciously 4 big tournaments where he faces the best of the World on his best surface.  Four.  And even then they are praying for some sort of meteorological intervention to disadvantage him and give his opponents a better chance - not that it isn't perfectly acceptable for him to be disadvantaged for the rest of the damned tennis schedule.  But what they fail to consider is the fact that hot, humid conditions against a gruelling opponent take their toll on Rafa too.  As it was plain to see today.

He had to get that second set, didn't he?  And thank God he did.  I don't even remember now how it happened, but he had his break points and took them.  Rafa subsequently said (with much shaking of the head) that to come back from two sets down would have been too tall an order.  He would have tried, but ...  

I don't remember now when he broke in the third, if he was broken back or what, but I do remember the sick feeling I had if the games had been levelled and we were facing a tie-breaker.  Thankfully, that didn't happen.  But it was becoming increasingly obvious that Rafa was suffering.  As was his opponent, and I feel it became less of a tennis match and more one of endurance.  When Rafa had a break in the fourth set I just prayed for a quick conclusion.  But he failed to go after so many of Djokovic's serves and the stretching out of his back was something he didn't try to hide.  It was torture. But one advantage he did manage to have in sets 2, 3 and 4 was that he was serving first, and this came to pass in the end.  With Djokovic serving at 4-5 down - did he have game points?  I think so but again, I can't entirely remember - but Rafa "kept him honest" as the saying goes, and he fought his way to match point.  Did I feel a bit sorry for Djokovic with the crowd shouting out before his second serve? Yes I did.  But don't get yourself in that position anyway I say, and it's not like he doesn't have a history of losing on double faults - the 2012 French Open final and Rome of the same year.  He's even failed to serve out sets in this year's FO Championships too.

Rafa won ...

I find it interesting that besides the weather, another theme of the commentary I listened to was the constant reference to their hypothesis that Boris Becker was brought in to help Djokovic on the big points.  The assumption being that having a former Champion in the camp meant that he could whisper those words in his ear and tell him how to hold it all together and to motivate him to do so.  It's not working, is it? Because really, all the talking to in the world and all the motivational speeches you can listen to all fade away to nothing because at the end of the day ... it's just something that you have to deal with yourself.  It is something that simply just has to come from within.

And so whilst I didn't enjoy today's match as a tennis spectacle and willed it to be over, and I didn't particularly feel massive joy or elation at the the end of it and in some respects, I'm feeling a tad guilty for that ...  what I am now feeling after it's taken a little bit of time to sink in is just God Almighty massive respect for what Rafael Parrera Nadal is.  You see, he doesn't have some fancy multi-Grand Slam winner in his box.  He has a coach that played ping pong.  He has a coach that never played a professional tennis match in his life, never mind win any sort of championship.  And so when it comes to playing those big points and taking those opportunities that are crafted which Rafa did so much better than Djokovic did today, it comes not from what words or speeches are delivered by someone else, it comes from within.  It comes from himself, and his fearless desire, and his mental strength and his heart and his will.  And that's what makes him so special.  That's what makes him so unique not just in tennis but in sport; that's what makes him a Champion, and that's why he won today.  And no I can't remember much of the match, and no I don't really remember those big points ... but you suffered Rafa. You took your weary, painful body to the brink and by sheer will, heart and desire you played those big points better and you won that match.  And that, is what I shall remember ...

I'm not the biggest fan of Toni, but there was no mistaking that heartfelt hug they had when Rafa climbed to the stands.  And there was no mistaking Toni's pride.  Rafa spoke animatedly to Toni and mostly behind his hand following their embrace ... and I'd give anything to know what he said.  Rafa knows he barely made it, and Toni does too.  And over on Eurosport Rafa gave - what was for me - a very telling interview.  He brought the Australian Open final up again, and it doesn't seem that he gives a rat's behind how his success was brought today because he feels that the Tennis Gods owe him one. And interesting that Rafa said how fit he was in Australia and how good he was feeling, only for his back to go so early in the match and that the defeat affected him so badly that it was only a couple of weeks ago that he had started to recover from it.  A couple of weeks ... says it all, doesn't it?

And so the French Open Championships is over.  And the bastion that is Rafa Nadal is once again it's Champion for an amazing 9th time.  I am immensely relieved, and immensely proud.  I think over the next couple of days when I start to leaf through the pictures to post and read the accolades and recover from all the stress of it ... I'll start to revel in Rafa's victory a bit more than I am right now.  

Big points take a big man, with a big heart and a big spirit.  I salute you Rafael Nadal. There was never a moment's "inevitability" in it.  *wink*