Tennis from The Gods

I kept believing that Roger Federer had another Grand Slam win in him. Time is an honest assessor of our ability. As we get older, our powers diminish.

I remember the great rivalry of Ali and Fraser - those two brought out the best in each other and also a side to Ali that was less than favourable, where “Smokin” Joe was concerned.

It is wonderful to see the mutual respect that Roger and Rafa have for each other as sports men and human beings.

Their rivalry brought us the finest Tennis ever seen. I became a big fan of Bjorn Borg and cheered him on to five Wimbledon Titles. I enjoyed McEnroe for reasons other than is sublime Tennis, his tantrums where hugely entertaining. Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Boris Beck, Stefan Edberg, Michael Stich, Pat Cash, Goran and the incomparable Pete Sampras. I feel blessed to have seen these great players at work.

One afternoon, during Wimbledon, I saw Pete Sampras play a 19 year old from Switzerland - Roger Federer. This match in my opinion, is the greatest tennis match I have ever seen.

This is the match where I first saw Roger play and came to the conclusion, here is the next man to take the game of Tennis to another level…..I was right.

Today, down under, Roger achieved the extra ordinary feat of winning The Australian Open against his number one advisory Raphael Nadal. 

Five amazing sets of Tennis - I thought he was out in that last set. I was reduced tears at the final ball, he did it, after being out of the game for six month. He and Rafa came back and made the ranking system look stupid with the exit of Novak and Andy.

This feat became a possibility for one reason only. Roger and Rafa both LOVE TENNIS. 

They are passionate about the game. Roger had no expectation of achieving anything at this tournament, his mind was free to just play and have fun. Rafa too had a similar mind set given his year of injuries.

They both showed us that love and gratitude come first. They hoped for the best and life showed them both that they still have a lot to offer the game.

2017 is looking interesting for Tennis - I would love to see Roger win another Wimbledon, that would be something special.

For now, I give thanks to the gods for being alive to shed a tear of joy for the greatest mens Champion Tennis has ever seen.