Writing the Pine

Photo Credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

I’m not a crazy tennis fan.  I watch here and there, definitely the major tournaments and some of the smaller ones when they are on and I have since I was a little kid.  I saw all the players growing up: Becker, Edberg, Chang, Lendl, and of course Sampras and Agassi.  But even as a casual fan, I can honestly say that I’ve never seen anyone like Roger Federer.

Roger Federer defines smooth on the tennis court.  He’s like Kobe Bryant or Dwyane Wade on the hardwood, (a young) Ken Griffey Jr. on the baseball diamond, or Ladainian Tomlinson on the gridiron.  As cliché as it sounds, he makes the game look easy.  He’s so graceful when he plays, you just know tennis is what he was meant to do in this world.  He was meant to play and meant to be the best.  And he is the best.  Ever.  Well, at least to this casual fan.

He doesn’t just look like the best to me, but it’s tough to argue with his accomplishments.  As he finally conquered Roland Garros yesterday (even though some crazy bastard tried to put a hat on him.  Question: Why the hell did it take so damn long for security to get that guy out of there?), he not only completed the career Grand Slam (the sixth player to do so) but also tied Pete Sampras’s record with 14 total Grand Slam titles.  That’s pretty damn impressive.  And he’s only 27!  Sampras didn’t achieve that feat until he was 31.  There might be some doubts right now as to whether Federer is greater than Sampras, but when Federer breaks the record (and he will), there will be no more doubts.

Federer didn’t have to face Nadal at the French Open and some people might say this victory deserves an asterisk.  But c’mon.  It’s a single-elimination tournament.  Losses happen.  That’s tennis.  The top seeds don’t always make it to the finals.  It’s like a mini March Madness every time in tennis and that’s what makes the sport interesting to me.  You gotta be at your best every time you come out on the court.  It’s win or go home all the time.  So who cares if Nadal didn’t make the finals?  That’s on him.  You can’t take anything away from Roger because Rafa messed up.  Besides, Federer finally beat him on a clay surface not too long before the French Open so maybe he’s turned the corner.

Roger Federer had tried throughout his eleven-year career to win the French Open.  It ate at him and ate at him that he was not able to win this one tournament that he wanted to win so badly.  His failures at the French drove him to tears last year after losing to Nadal for yet another time.  On Sunday, he finally won, fulfilling a lifelong dream of his and ending years of disappointment.  But with the victory, he also finally proved to the world that he is the greatest tennis player of all time.  And the best part?  There’s still more to come.