I had promised a follow up post to the Nadal blog...hmm...a few months back. The Sunday before (after French Open first week), I sat down to pen it and paused: should I not wait for the next Sunday? After all, world may see more of the phenomenon called Federer in those 7 days. Even, I did not expect the world to see so much in the last 7 days about this champion!
Champion, an over-used term in English... lets examine it in the sports context. I love sports since, it strips the weaker often-used human facades. We are often exposed for what we truly are, both in interactions and in values. Character. Sports professionals are able to build stronger facades, but as the stakes get higher, even those facades break down one by one. We start to tag the top performers in any sports profession as champions. Then, we get a bit more selective, in looking at the "extra ordinary performances over a period of time" and tag those associated. This is where media and critics and other pundits chip in, with additional criteria around who could be selected out of that elite group to next level. Then a human being or couple emerge out of that group based on their impact or truly extra-ordinary character. This is the space an Ali or Jordan occupies.
Lets look at Federer through these lenses. He is a top performer who has won 14 Slams, been world #1 for 237 consecutive weeks and is only the sixth man to win a career grand slam. Okay extra-ordinary tennis performance by any measure in sports. Some pundits even tag him with "greatest of all time" and few more with "greatest of our era". Can we now get a bit more selective? Lets talk about the attributes of the tennis game: A. Power - Fed has one of the best (arguably the best) & most versatile forehands that game has ever seen, a very powerful one-handed backhand, one of the most effective serves in the game; B. Movement & Skills - people who follow tennis swear by the fact that Fed has the most beautiful movement & touch that they have seen. Laver has gone on to say that its indeed unfair to have so much talent in one body; C. Stamina - Except in 2008, even the ring-side commentators have not seen him sweat or breathe hard in a 5 setter match. So much for tennis attributes, that could put him on par with the best on talent & hard work. Now comes the kicker: Federer has been to 20 consecutive Slam semi-finals. What is special about it? That is an astounding 5 years worth of Grandslam events where you have played against the best of the best "on form", not "on class or legacy". Players who are "hot on their current form" get to the subsequent rounds in Grandslams on the best-of-five format and meet the seeded players. As a player, Federer may have good days and bad days. But, to do this, even on bad days, you have to beat the "in form" players consistently without a SINGLE lapse. This is where, I believe, a true champion emerges and distances himself from the elite.
Now, lets go back to the term champion. What is Federer championing? With every single achievement, with every bit of his unlimited talent and hardwork, with his mental fortitude, with his love for the game, he is drawing the new lines of Tennis (or Sport itself). I can almost believe that Tennis can be played as an individual sport like Golf where your search for excellence is enough to make you a winner - opponents don't matter. I can believe that Tennis is a beautiful and elegant sport, played with grace. I can believe that Tennis at professional levels can be healthy on the human body while building the character. Great champions of the past & present have made contributions to some or other pieces of this. Never have we seen it whole.
To me that's the legacy that Federer champions.
Champion, an over-used term in English... lets examine it in the sports context. I love sports since, it strips the weaker often-used human facades. We are often exposed for what we truly are, both in interactions and in values. Character. Sports professionals are able to build stronger facades, but as the stakes get higher, even those facades break down one by one. We start to tag the top performers in any sports profession as champions. Then, we get a bit more selective, in looking at the "extra ordinary performances over a period of time" and tag those associated. This is where media and critics and other pundits chip in, with additional criteria around who could be selected out of that elite group to next level. Then a human being or couple emerge out of that group based on their impact or truly extra-ordinary character. This is the space an Ali or Jordan occupies.
Lets look at Federer through these lenses. He is a top performer who has won 14 Slams, been world #1 for 237 consecutive weeks and is only the sixth man to win a career grand slam. Okay extra-ordinary tennis performance by any measure in sports. Some pundits even tag him with "greatest of all time" and few more with "greatest of our era". Can we now get a bit more selective? Lets talk about the attributes of the tennis game: A. Power - Fed has one of the best (arguably the best) & most versatile forehands that game has ever seen, a very powerful one-handed backhand, one of the most effective serves in the game; B. Movement & Skills - people who follow tennis swear by the fact that Fed has the most beautiful movement & touch that they have seen. Laver has gone on to say that its indeed unfair to have so much talent in one body; C. Stamina - Except in 2008, even the ring-side commentators have not seen him sweat or breathe hard in a 5 setter match. So much for tennis attributes, that could put him on par with the best on talent & hard work. Now comes the kicker: Federer has been to 20 consecutive Slam semi-finals. What is special about it? That is an astounding 5 years worth of Grandslam events where you have played against the best of the best "on form", not "on class or legacy". Players who are "hot on their current form" get to the subsequent rounds in Grandslams on the best-of-five format and meet the seeded players. As a player, Federer may have good days and bad days. But, to do this, even on bad days, you have to beat the "in form" players consistently without a SINGLE lapse. This is where, I believe, a true champion emerges and distances himself from the elite.
Now, lets go back to the term champion. What is Federer championing? With every single achievement, with every bit of his unlimited talent and hardwork, with his mental fortitude, with his love for the game, he is drawing the new lines of Tennis (or Sport itself). I can almost believe that Tennis can be played as an individual sport like Golf where your search for excellence is enough to make you a winner - opponents don't matter. I can believe that Tennis is a beautiful and elegant sport, played with grace. I can believe that Tennis at professional levels can be healthy on the human body while building the character. Great champions of the past & present have made contributions to some or other pieces of this. Never have we seen it whole.
To me that's the legacy that Federer champions.
1 comment:
Nice blog! I have said before that the 20 record is maybe Rogers most impressive record. Ill add you to my blogroll :-)
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