Last night's epic gentlemen's final at The Championships was one of the most enjoyable individual sporting events I've seen in quite a while. Be it Federer's surge in the latter half of the game and his graciousness in ultimate defeat, or Nadal's continued resolve to stay in the game to be the first man in 28 years to win at Roland Garros and Wimbledon back-to-back, every moment was riveting. There will be no dearth of speculations as to what this means about the era of Federer's domination on grass, but I do hope we see a lot more of him than we did of Borg after his Wimbledon loss in '81.
And just as Federer runs shy of his 6th consecutive title (knowing that it will be next to impossible to get to winning 5 more in a row again), his friend Tiger has his left knee giving him trouble yet again. I imagine that must be quite frustrating, and it utterly changes the dynamics of the entire game of men's golf for the rest of this season. There is suddenly a lot more room at the top.
Its interesting to try to analyze what makes a few so far better than the rest (in tennis, in golf, in $skill). Some combination of natural abilities, lot of hard work, great resolve, rigorous practice, experience and more. A combination that just works. A combination that eludes the rest of us.
As some hopes are dashed, other dreams begin to take shape. Come 8/8/08, I will definitely be following Michael Phelps in his quest for 8 ultimates as he tries to shatter the 36 year record for most golds in a Games, or Dara Torres as she competes in her amazing 5th Olympics.
While my prospects of playing professionally are diminishing with each passing year (not that I ever had very many illusions about that), watching last night's Wimbledon final made me pick up that racket, restring the spares, and put the clubs in the trunk with renewed vigor. There are a few athletes who have that effect on many of us, and end up improving the quality of our lives. And this is not just limited to sporting arenas, we find such motivating performers in all spheres of life.
Those are the legends among us.
