Day 13: Clash of the Titans

Well, we waited patiently for thirteen days, and it's finally come true: a dream lineup of nadal and federer in the french open final!

I haven't been this torn since my first day of cable: I really want rafael to win, because, well, i adore the guy to death basically - yet I want roger to win because I want him to complete his grand slam (that's winning four grand slams in a row, which only two other men in history have done).

Plus, I think federer deserves it in some surreal way - hes not run away from clay like sampras did - he fought his brick-red demons face on: he's played all the right tourneys, has put in all the right practice hours and has shown all the resilience that makes him 3000+ points ahead of the nearest competitor.

And Rafa's not had a great week - these past few matches he's not played like the Oh-Yeah-Baby-This-Thing-Is-What-I-Was-Waiting-For tennis we've gotten used to - it's as if these past few days he's played to "not lose" instead of "to win". He's been more vulnerable then I can ever remember and that scares me!

An important factoid: both of them have played three times this year, with the Spaniard coming out the better all three times. Roger just has a huge mental hurdle overcoming Nadal. In my opinion, the recent Rome Masters final, one of nadal's best performance ever, pretty much showed that federer's just that tiny bit hesitant when it comes to nadal. And mind you, ONLY nadal. The rest of tennis players of the world, he can handle. The thing is, if federer doesn't win this time either - big occasion, the one grand slam he has never won before, the grand slam he needs to complete all four in a row - I don't think he'll ever figure the kid out.

In the previous matchups - it was always federer who'd had to win these thing - you had the feeling it was all up to him. This time, I think it's all up to Nadal.


notes from today's semis:

- nalbandian is an idiot. and he pulled a hennin. Hah. and only shortly after he stated in a recent conference that even if he was 5-0 down in one of the most mportant grand slams of the calander - no amout of pain would shoo him off the court. ofcourse, the journos kindly reminded him of his quote :P

- ljubibitch, ahem, opps, i meant ljubicic played his match in the most mean-spirit I have ever seen. Whining to the chair umpire that nadal was taking too long between point and the umpire should tell him off (even though the umpire saw nadal playing within the rules (except that one time violation warning, meh)) - most prolly a tactic to distract the kid. But then ivan goes complaining of converation between toni nadal and rafa! even though the only conversation we saw on tv was both of them muttering 'vamos' to each other in turns (which is always quite funny, really). but the last straw was when he nearly didn't shake hands with the kid! he walked directly to the umpire, shook hands and was about to walk to his bench, with the kid (a little taken aback that he hadn't met him at the net), rushed up to ljubibitch, ahem, sorry again, and forced a semi-shake out of him. That tells you alot about someone.