By Dave Bigila
Summer, of the year that followed the turn of the Millennium, a young boy from Basel, fell to his knees, weeping profusely, after an excruciating 4th round match, on the center courts of Wimbledon, where he had only been crowned Junior Champion the penultimate year.
On that afternoon in June 2001, this 20year old man was weeping, not because of pain or loss or that he had even served out a Championship point on those famous courts at SW7- no. He was weeping because he had done something no man or woman alive had ever been able to do in 9years- beat Pete Sampras, then World No 1 on grass.
Pete Sampras, then 30, was then the undisputed World No 1, who had as at then won 13 grand slam titles and more than 60 singles titles since turning pro in 1988. That loss to the young boy from Basel would be his denouncement – he will pick up only one more grand after that loss to that 20yr old.
Enter Roger Federer.
On that fateful night, he defeated Sampras, not many people even knew his name, but all agreed that, with that victory, a new champion had been born and the baton of power handed over he had beaten his idol and mentor, a man whose legacy he was about to inherit. Roger Federer would go on to lose the very next match and get kicked out of Wimbledon that year, and would in fact have to wait 3 more years before he would claim his inaugural senior title there on grass, but he had nonetheless announced his arrival on the tennis scene – and with aplomb too.
Federer was the spiritual successor of Sampras one of the last remaining advocates of the serve and volley style of tennis- a style of play that was slowly going extinct, even as at then. Federer turned out to be a worthy successor and would reinvent this style of play, watering it down if necessary and started to rack up titles
He was a serial winner who didn’t know how to lose. Once he started winning on tour, he seemed like a PMM- a perpetual motion machine, which thermodynamics tells us once started, continues working till infinity. Well, the Sampras legacy, being perpetuated by Roger Federer soon hit infinity, and that infinity turned out to be a colorful Spaniard from Catalonia called Rafa Nadal with his all-action, all-powerful double-handed baseline style of play as a total contrast to the Sampras-Federer serve and volley pattern.
He would soon be joined by another from Serbia- Novak Djokovic, with whom he would conspire to steal a combined 41 grand slam titles from Federer, culminating in the one that just served up the first human with 21 titles in Melbourne- a human born of a woman outnumbering Federer for the first time, since he overtook Sampras many years ago.
Though outnumbered, as long as tennis is concerned and till he has now been outnumbered by slams, Federer was always a factor and he was the last known connection between two generations of tennis players- the Sampras/Agassi Vintage and the Rublev/Medvedev iteration. By finally consigning Federer to history, going one better- Nadal has finally an end to that tennis era of yore- of the single fisted play, of the serve and volley variety, of the white tennis apparel generation and of the polite, civilized practitioners- now to be replaced by the new school.
The new school?
Enter the likes of Rublev, Shapavalov, Tsitsipas, Dani Medvedev and their brash, uncouth manners and verbosity, the baseline pattern of play, served by heavy-hitting serves. With this victory, the authority of the baseline play has finally been established in Tennis and the style favored by the old generation and still on display by Federer was finally given interment.
The undertaker was none other than Rafa Nadal- a man who is also on his way out. He has been ranked No. 1 in the ATP rankings for 209 weeks and has finished as the Year-End No. 1 five times, winning 21 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, an all-time record. His 13 French Open titles in particular are a record at any tournament.
His style of play has been eclectic, his mannerisms didactic and his victories quixotic. A classy and urbane champion, his career has been dogged by injuries, limiting him from reaching the full extent of his capabilities. He is a dyed-in-the-wool kinda player, rugged as nails, with a strong mentality, never gives, and could be staring down the baring receiving for championship point, two sets down, and would come back to win as he did against Medvedev to claim his 21st.
In this record-breaking victory, he looked down and out, infact buried after two sets and staring down the barrel. At 35, he upon his immense reserves of energy, and started fighting point for point, conserving his energy along the way, not chasing lost causes, and knowing that his serve was like his wife- nobody must take it.
His experience began to come to the fore, mixing up his play with short balls, drop shots, lobs, dragging Medvedev from his comfort zone on the baseline, isolating him at the net to hit passing shots now and again. On a day, his serve was uncharacteristically poor, Rafa had to rely on his baseline strokes to get the job done- grab one break of serve from Medvedev, make sure he (Rafa) doesn’t lose any of his serves, and then simply serve out the rest of the set, leaving his adversary to do whatever he wanted with his own serves/strokes
It worked till that moment when he was serving for his 21st title 5-4, and 30 love and served three bad serves in a row, letting Medvedev back into the game to tie proceedings at 5-5. It seemed Medvedev was out of jail and had gotten his mojo back but Rafa was having none of it as he broke straight back and served out the game to win 7-5 and claim a piece of history.
Age is not on his side, and surely, Rafa is on his way out, with others like Djoko and Federer. However, he will still fancy his chances at Roland Garros, where he will aim to put daylights between him and his main rivals- Djokovic and Federer. Even if he is not able to do this, history will always remember Rafa kindly, as the man who helped in giving freedom to the new school, shackling off the yoke of impossibility, bridging two eras of tennis, and giving the younger players a reason to dream.
We witnessed history and should Djoko or Federer fail to better this, this is an achievement that may not be bettered in this lifetime. It is a good time to be alive and to have witnessed Micheal Jordan in basketball, Tom Brady in American Football, Messi and Ronaldo in Soccer, and this trinity as well as the Williams in tennis, we can indeed begin to say that posterity pampered this generation.
Congratulations Rafa and may you win more slams.
Dave Bigila, a seasoned writer, lawn tennis player and IT professional, writes from Abuja