Its all about that Will, that Hunger, that 'DESIRE'!

The legendary Napoleon Hill in his even-more legendary and all-time classic ‘Think and Grow Rich’ talks about the various characteristics and essentials that are required to succeed in life. As one would expect, there are a number of qualities that define champions and to zero in on any one quality is not the most easy of tasks. However, its not impossible either and the man through the most roundabout of ways talks about how critical a part does ‘DESIRE to succeed’ play. Infact, all said and done, in the very end, it does boil down to that 6-letter word ‘Desire’. How badly a man wants to succeed in his chosen endeavour, does, more often than not, end up playing ‘THE’ pivotal role in the eventual result. One such exemplary case-study was seen some 10 days back over the 2 weeks of high-voltage and highly-emotional drama at the Flushing Meadows, New York. No prizes for guessing whom I’m talking about. [Well, I wont even name him this time around :)]

True, its been quite some time now since the event saw its final point being played. And ever since then, numerous articles have been written on the man and all those odes have been well deserved allright! One thing though seemed to have caught more of my attention than all of the other things. Agreed, the achievement itself needs to celebrated [especially with the kind of un-Federer-like year that 2008 was till then]. Accepted, the feat of being the only man to have won 2 Slams 5-times on the trot needs to be highlighted. Fair enough, the display of the Master in the final which eventually turned out to be pretty one-sided affair needs to be written in golden words. But what caught my attention throughout the tournament and one that has managed to capture my imagination throughout the Genius’s 4 years of utter dominance was the reaction that every Grand Slam win manages to bring to the man’s face. His various outbursts [compared by his own standards i.e] and the n-number of emotional shouting and all that at NY’08 [Who can ever forget his war-cry like reaction after his 5-set win in the 4th Rd match] could still be attributed to the kind of year he’d gone through and what the victory hence meant to him. But this is nothing new to the millions of loyal fans that he can boast of across the globe.

Can anyone afford to forget the sight of a tearful Federer falling on his knees and crying like a baby after all, post his 5th straight win at Wimbledon? That child-like reactions and the sheer joy of watching the man jump up and down or collapsing on his back after his wins over the years at NY city is still so fresh in the mind. What about the post-final presentation at the Australian Open, 2006 which saw the great man actually crying on the dias and having to console himself in the arms of another great, Rod Laver.

Make no mistake folks, you’re talking about a man who much before even 2007, even when he was atleast 6 slams short of Sampras’s all-time record of 14 majors was already spoken of in terms of the ‘Greatest Ever’. You’re talking about someone who’s “dominated” [That word to be taken in the very true sense!] the game like no other person ever possibly has. Heck, the man’s been winning the ‘Laureus Sports Athlete of the Year’ award for the past 4 years, clearly telling us that not just in Tennis, but across all sports, the Swiss Master has been pretty much the ‘bloody best’! You’ll find a 1000 others sportstars otherwise who could have achieved a lot less and yet, fallen prey to the various hazards that popularity and fame come along with. But that wasn’t the case with Roger, hardly infact! Here we have a man who just couldn’t and who just wouldn’t rest on his laurels. He just wouldn’t let success get to his head, just wouldn’t let success make him think less of his opponents. Here was that one sporting idol that all of us are privileged to watch and one who truly symbolizes that one quality that Napoleon Hill thought was so essential to succeeding at the very top: DESIRE! His ‘desire’ to ‘remain the one to beat’ has been relentless, to put it mildly. And boy, was it there on full display during those two eventful weeks in front of the boisterous NY crowd, who by the way, truly seem to have made the SwissMaster feel at home in that city!

Its easy really for a man to start off his life with magnanimous desire and then to succeed as well. What constitutes true greatness though is ‘How badly does that person wants to reach the very top’ and ‘How motivated is he to remain there for a long period of time’. Its these traits that separates a Sachin Tendulkar from a Vinod Kambli, a Vishy Anand from a Pravin Thipsay and your Roger Federer from so many others. Point needs to be made though that people who were not so “expressive” on court despite achieving great feats are not being put down out here. A Pete Sampras rarely displayed great amount of emotions, atleast he didn’t in the 1st half of his career. That obviously doesn’t mean, his hunger to succeed was any less than Roger’s. Heck, no! What I’m trying to say is, Roger does make it very obvious what records mean to him, what history means to him, what winning means to him and finally, what Tennis means to him and to his life! And from whatever has been on display over the past 4 years or so, it does mean a HELL LOT!


Its been a real privilege, privelege of the highest degree to have watched him in full radar, for possibly the 1st time in the year and we, as fans, can only hope that the ‘aura of invincibility’ will be back in its entirety during the various season-concluding indoor tournaments. Even otherwise, you, Roger Federer [or as the famos Tennis guru Peter Bodo addresses, TMF] have given us enough reasons to be happy [such an overused word actually and such a rare commodity in reality]. Not just that, there’s so much to learn from you, lessons that we can only hope to apply in real life so that we could achieve atleast a quarter of what you have so far in your life! [Remember folks, that ‘Desire’ thing?]

Thank you for everything! Hope to see you collect yet another 5th crown, come November at Shanghai!