Here comes the Spaniards
Recently, the sporting world has some kind of a Spanish take-over as three major titles now belong to our former colonizers. (I’m still wondering why after 300 years of Spanish rule, our noses are still, nag pataka lang gihapon og suroy, very katag!) They now dominate FIBA basketball and a month ago, they won the EURO 2008, their first FIFA European football crown since 1964.
Three nights ago, or more accurately, two very early mornings ago, the 22-year-old Rafael Nadal took the
Another sporting event indicates Spanish supremacy. Although he has been humble and is down-playing his chances, Alejandro Valverde won the Tour de France’s first stage, his first since his 10th-stage win in 2005, in the process donning the leader’s yellow jersey, his first time to wear it in his four years of joining the tour. He could be the next Spaniard to win it all since Miguel Indurain.
I rarely watch lawn tennis although I have a working knowledge on how it is played. Last Sunday’s match was the first time that it took my interest and I had the TV and the game all to myself. The match did not disappoint this tennis non-fan as I was simply amazed with the way the world’s top two tennis players did their thing.
Both had power games but Rafa Rocket had that ridiculously insane forehand that the Federer Express could not solve. In the end, age prevailed as the younger Nadal ruled. He’s five years younger than Federer.
Talking about numbers, ironies and sub-plots, their match had an abundance. It was hyped as a dream match-up and what a game it was, taking almost five hours to complete. If it were not for the two rain delays, I could have stayed till early dawn and finished the game. Since it would be just a matter of years that I would qualify to the senior citizens’ group, sleep took the better of me after the first rain break. I woke up past four the following morning in the hopes of catching some replay, instead I caught Nadal trying to bite a chunk off his trophy.
The left-handed Nadal halted Federer’s hopes of making it his 6th straight Wimby title. It was in 1981 that another leftie, in the person of John McEnroe, that stopped Bjorn Borg’s Wimby streak to five.
What’s up with the numbers? For starters, Federer first won the ultimate crown of tennis at the age of 22, the same age as Nadal today. Five years later, at the age of 27, Federer’s 5-year run snapped, exactly 27 years after Borg’s own 5-year title reign. McEnroe was also 22 when he won his first Wimby at the expense of Borg, who was 25 at that time. Both Borg and McEnroe witnessed first-hand perhaps the best tennis so far displayed by Nadal and Federer.
E-mail at bobbytoohotty @lycos.com
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