I stayed up until 4am last night watching Roger Federer win his 4th Australian Open Title, and 16th overall major title. I love Federer. I love his grace, his stoicism, his ability to continually rise to every occasion and leave the rest of the tennis world baffled. At last year’s Australian Open, after losing a heartbreaking 5-set final to Nadal (his only true peer in the game), he broke down on the podium, sobbing uncontrollably and letting his emotions spill forth. It was a rare show of vulnerability from a man who is often seen as preternaturally confident and private. Many fans and critics saw it as a crack, a sign of weakness. But this show of humanity made me love him even more. This is why we love sports, not just for the glory in victory, but for the pain in defeat, the humanity, the indomitable human spirit.
Many people wrote him off that day, saying he would never win another major. Exactly one year later he has won 3 more majors and was one set away from winning a 4th. He broke the all-time Major Titles record previously held by Pete Sampras, cementing his place in Tennis History. He is a living legend, and we are blessed to be able to see him play live, to say we were there when it happened. Who knows how much time we have left with him; but I know that I will be there for every Major, for every title, for every collapse of joy and tear of defeat, until the end.
5 hours later I woke up to watch my other sports love. It was a game like so many other this season. We played from behind most of the game, never letting the Nuggets pull away, yet never getting over the hump. I have a lot of thoughts on this game, but CapHill over at PtR summed up most of my thoughts in his post, and I recommend you read it. To me the biggest points of the game were the 3-Point shooting disparity (and the woeful shooting by the Spurs, particularly Duncan, who is clearly in a shooting funk, in general), and the continued excellent play of George Hill and Antonio McDyess. A dispiriting loss, but still room for hope.
For today, however, I’m going to revel in the joy of Federer’s latest triumph; I’ll get back to worrying about the Spurs tomorrow.
