It's sad that one player has to lose at the end...but it is the only fair outcome possible.. to decide the fate of a fiercely fought battle.
Yes..the 2012 Australian Open Grand Slam's Men's Singles Championship final was nothing short than a battle - and with each battle win, Djokovic-The Joker has almost won the war with Rafa.
The match was BIG.. it had its BIG moments .. and both the players captured these moments with some really BIG points..It was a display of stamina, grit, some ruthlessness, some brilliance and most of all some hard fought and beautiful tennis. Be it the 4th set when Rafa came back superbly from 0-40 down in the 8th game to just avoid almost handing the game, and possibly the match to Djokovic, or be it Djokovic's resilience in the 7th game of the deciding set, to come back from a break down and go on to take the lead by winning a break himself. The match had many such moments.
The match is already in the history books, with the bunch of superlatives to its name. The longest grand slam final and the longest match in Australian Open history. With more than 100 years of tennis played.. this is a huge thing !
It's amazing what sport can do to you. The match kept me rooted, giving me thrills and goosebumps, like those felt during the WC Cricket final. With absolutely no patriotic sentiments involved here that's quite something !
Though I was supporting Rafa and am sad that he lost...all I can say is that I would have been equally sad too if Djokovic would've lost .. that is the beauty of such games.
The joy and excitement that you feel when you score that run in gully cricket. The tension and thrill you experience while playing a competitive game.. even at a most basic stage like say may be a table tennis tournament in you apartment. Now multiply these a million fold and you get to, what it must be like competing at the world stage, where numerous eyes are watching you, analysing and scrutinizing your every move, cheering you, jeering you.. And competing through all this, bearing the weight of unimaginable expectations. This is not something you and I, a common person can ever imagine, leave apart living.
Yet, it is all this, that such champions endure, and come out with stuff that is out of this world - to entertain us, to give us tremendous joy.. to come up with a contest like this. A contest where you become the player himself and experience his emotions. A contest where a player almost done and dusted midway through the match turns the table and claws his way back, slowly strengthening his stranglehold, conjuring that extra bit of energy and effort, to almost tilt the contest in his favour, before that one final twist, an impossible will, fuelled by an intense desire to not give up lifts the other player, finally, towards victory !
Thanks Novak and Rafa, for this unbelievable contest ! Though exhausted (obviously nowhere close to how much you are) , we yearn for more...
