Saving the best for last

CEBU - He saved the best for last. After the smoke had settled, there he stood with the coveted trophy in hand - symbol of his 2008 US Open triumph.

After a clinical 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 demolition of Andy Murray, yes, Roger Federer is back. What a time to show the world that he’s still king of tennis despite what was shaping up as “annus horibilis” for him.

Watching the Federer Express, I felt that even Raffa Nadal wouldn’t survive such a finesse game from the master.

Now he has won 13 slams, just one short of equaling Pete Sampras. If he wins two more, then he’ll be holding the record for most grandslam wins. I don’t see why Federer couldn’t equal or even surpass Sampras in the next two years. Even if he only wins a grandslam a year! I feel he’s still good for a couple more years despite the quality of tennis displayed by a bumper crop of young players.

He started the year losing to Djokovic in the OZ Open. Then he lost in Roland Garros and to Nadal in Wimbledon. In the Olympics, he wasn’t that impressive at all despite winning the doubles.

Then he lost his Number 1 ranking to Nadal. Going into the US Open, he has a lot of blocking out to do! He has to erase from his mind all the bad memories of the past eight months. He has to concentrate. He has to perform. He has to come out victorious.

Well, he not only came out the winner, in doing so, won his fifth US Open title, the first player to do so since 1924. He said, “I always say one grand slam (a year) in my eyes saves a season. That’s definitively what it did. But ‘saving a season’ doesn’t sound right. I proved to myself that I was doing the right things. I played excellent towards the end of the tournament and it’s the first time I felt invincible again for a change.”

Andy Murray, who is leading the next generation of players, should learn from this experience. Before the finals, he has won two of his three meetings with Federer. This time, however, the champion showed he still has mental toughness and the talent to take the title.

I keep forgetting Rafa Nadal. In fairness, if he made it to the finals, and as I’ve said earlier, he didn’t have a chance against Federer this time. The hardcourt would favor Federer and the way he Federer played, Nadal would have suffered the same fate as Murray although I believe the scores would be much closer.

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I wanted to run in the Don Sergio Osmeña footrace last Tuesday, as it was one of a few races not held on a Sunday. The night before the race, however, I got soaked in the rain after playing basketball at Bright Academy home of the ongoing Thirsty Hoops Jam! As I expected, I was burning with fever when I woke up at around five Tuesday morning. I tried to swallow two tablets of paracetamol but I could never make it to the starting line. I missed the race. I’ve trained for it and all my time spent at the oval and on the road just got wasted by rain!

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