A Tale of Two Finals

Wimbledon - This was the first time I was watching a Federer - Nadal tie. In fact, I have never watched a complete match featuring either Nadal or Federer. But didn’t want to miss this one, since I mainly wanted to see how Nadal performs on his supposedly least favorite & least suitable surface. I was expecting a total decimation of Nadal by Federer and the way the Federer wrapped up the first set before people could even got settled in their seats, the rout was very much on the cards. But after the initial jitters, Nadal showed the world what he is capable of on the grass court. Nadal might have lost yday but yday's match has surely given me confidence that if not next year, Nadal will surely beat Federer at Wimbledon in 2-3 years from now. This was Nadal's first final at Wimbledon while Federer had been here 3 times before. So, I am sure if Nadal comes to the final next time, he will play his more relaxed game, something which we saw in the 2nd and 3rd sets of this final. Though the match didn’t rise up to the expectations of the Clash of the titans build-up it received, it definitely had its moments. Both players brought out some of the best weapons from their armory. The one thing that surprised me was Federer's reluctance to come to the net. He played a major portion of the match from the baseline. But that seemed to be his match plan too. Nadal's only shortocming that I can see as of now is his serve, which is not all that good. Though he serves a high percentage of first serves, they are less threatening. This match threw up an interesting statistic which is reason for both good & bad news for the future - Federer(32) had more unforced errors than Nadal(26). Good news bcos it gives hope to aspirants like Nadal that Federer can be tamed on his favorite surface, his unforced errors opening that small window of opportunity while the bad news is that if he can win inspite of having more unforced errors than his opponent, it tells something about his ability to raise his game to that extra level when he deems it fit. That is dangerous. Very dangerous.

FIFA World Cup - Like I had mentioned earlier, my interest in the World Cup was lost once Argentina lost in the quarter finals. They were clearly the better team than Germany. But the good thing about your favorite team getting knocked out is that you can watch the finals without an iota of anxiety & with a great peace of mind, bcos you simply don’t care about the result and no matter who wins, it isn’t going to affect you. The match was OK. Wouldn’t call it anywhere remotely close to great or an epic or a match for the ages. Any time the finals of such a prestigious tournament is decided by penalty kicks, it sucks. I had the same feeling when Brazil won in 1994. Atleast then, the Brazilians were the better team on that day. But yday I thought that France was the better team and hence felt bad that they lost in the penalty shoot-out. In the final 20 minutes or so, the ball never got off the Italian half. The French were attacking continuously. But the goal keeper of Italy, who didn’t do anything in the shoot-out, was the man who won it for Italy as he saved that most crucial header from Zidane in OT. And that brings us to the whole ugly episode involving Zidane, which is something this final will be most remembered for. This report here says that Zidane's (re)buttal was bcos Marco Materazzi called him a 'dirty terrorist' (Of course, Materazzi has conveniently refused it). But a player like Zidane (he became only the 4th player ever to score 3 goals in the history of the World Cup final) should have known better as how to react to comments like these. If Zidane had stayed, he surely would have taken one of the kicks and who knows, it might have even changed the result of the match. But the minor consolation for him is the fact that he won the Golden Globe award for the MVP of the tournament (BTW, that vote was decided before he was sent off). So, Italy it is, for the next 4 years, as the world still awaits the 8th different nation to win the World Cup. Do you think we will get to see a country that is not named Italy, France, Brazil, Argentina, England, Germany win the World cup anytime soon? I doubt it.