When sport is at its best and the finest, it is also at its worst. A match that is poised on the razor’s edge throughout, when it ends, it splits the two equally matched opponents as a winner and another as, hate as much as I like to call it, the loser. It magnifies the tiniest of gaps between the opponents and throws them apart at two extreme ends of emotion, one as a victor and the other as vanquished. Wimbledon, the greatest sporting event in the world was no exception to this rule. It pitched two finely gifted players in a battle that no one wanted to lose and then ended up choosing just one winner. It was like that epic battle where everyone wants the batman to win but the in the end, joker steals the show.
Going in as a favourite into the final, more for emotional reasons than the rationale, Federer found the heat too much to handle to hand Novak Djokovic his third Wimbledon title. The match itself may not have gone down to the wire, but it brought out the best from both the players. At one hand was an all-time legend who has been synonymous with all things Wimbledon- style, grace, and panache and at the other end you had Djokovic who refuses to believe that the ball can get past him.
Federer’s serve has been his ace throughout the tournament and that had helped him keep the returns sharp and points short. At 33, any bit of energy that you save is a boost. In the finals however he was pitted against Djokovic who kept running from pillar to post; he stretched, skidded, slipped and recovered in time to return the ball into play. For once Federer was playing more points on his serve than he did earlier in the tournament. His famed first serve started to crackle just that little bit.
Just that little bit. That’s what it takes to turn a point that could have been lost into a match that makes you a Wimbledon champion in four sets. His mental intensity was such that Djokovic was able to summon the best of his serve and returns on the points that counted the most. Longer rallies invariably went his way. It made Federer go for the broke, trying to produce shots that could, only could, have been possible when Federer was at his clinical best. Yesterday, under the relentless scrutiny of a Djokovic will, Federer’s first serve deserted him. His famed finesse chased the lines and went overboard as unforced errors. On the other hand, Djokovic seemed to wrest the precision from the swiss maestro.
When it looked like all was over for Federer, he showed great grit and gumption to emerge from a hopeless situation to win the second set. The famed Wimbledon crowd saw the glimmer of hope – that there will be history made and Federer could after all make a comeback. It wasn’t to be. Even when Federer was at his sublime best, Djokovic was in the game for that one shot more than what Federer expected. That one shot more made all the difference.
In the hindsight, it is far easier to appreciate the flare and the style of a Federer; it is harder still to appreciate the value of valour that someone like Djokovic brings to the game. This is what makes Federer a natural crowd-darling and Djokovic that other one who comes jarringly between them and their champion. It adds colour to the contest, a context that defines an epic. That partisan crowd however only adds more pressure on the ageing favourite while firing the will and bringing out the best from a younger warrior.
Federer has dazzled the fans worldwide with his breath-taking range of strokes and his ability to create poetry on the court. For the man who has been the brand ambassador of Rolex, the time-keepers of Wimbledon, time however seems to be running out for his quest for his eighth Wimbledon title. Whether he will get there or not is immaterial. What matters is what he has given to the game, and to his opponents. Probably if it weren’t for the brilliance of Federer, we won’t have seen the best of Djokovic today. We probably won’t have seen the best of tennis, either.
With his braveheart play, I am sure Djokovic has won over even the most stoic fans of Federer. It is hard to not like a bloke who refuses to give up and lifts himself notches above in turn. It is time to sit back and cherish the battle that will define the coming of an age of a champion who will take over the mantle of the crowd favourite sooner than never. At Wimbledon, the sun may never set on Federer, but it will now shine brighter on Djokovic. Brighter than it has ever before.
