Why I feel (yet again) that TMF is 'Human' after all & A mini-preview of The Madrid AMS

So, after giving all his fans a real scare over the past few days, TMF after all will be playing again in 2008. The final leg of the season for the two big guns got underway last night what with the local favorite Rafa Nadal being felicitated early on for his capture of the top slot. The tournament Director was himself present for the momentous occasion and Rafa clearly looked quite overwhelmed though he must have got used to quite a few of these ceremonies by now. Its been quite some time now since he gained the no. 1 ranking; close to two months actually. Right then, the Madrid AMS has kicked off and tonight the World no.1 will begin his personal campaign out there. TMF is likely to play tomorrow and he’s got a tougher draw ahead of him. Stepanek, Tsonga, JMD/Nalbandian; they’re all ‘more-than-handy’ players who on their day can upset the great man. Nole’s been placed in Rafa’s draw while US Open finalist and the new World no. 4 Andy Murray should face Federer should things go according to seedings.

As stated earlier, fans of the Swiss Genius who were all on Cloud no. 9 since his heroics at NY city were collectively taken aback when he’d announced his withdrawal from the Stockholm Open and had then made a statement which in effect said that he wasn’t really sure as to when would he be back on tour. For a person who chooses his words so very carefully, it was quite a big thing to say coz most fans had actually thought that an in-form Federer who was clearly close to his very best during the latter half of the US Open would be itching to play as much as possible now and get as close to Rafa in terms of ATP points. Who knows, he might have a crack the no.1 ranking in the current year itself and be on course for the hardest Pete Sampras record to emulate, leave alone break! For a person who epitomizes ‘desire to excel’ like few modern-day sportsmen do, his reluctance to possibly further participate in 2008 surprised me as well. But then, it didnt take long for one to realize that this was actually yet another instance when he proved that inside that steely exterior, Roger Federer after all is a human being. A human being who much like the ordinary mortal has emotions, is someone who utterly values goals achieved and most importantly, can get exhausted under relentless pressure; so much so that even he can end up feeling the need for a “break”!

Come to think of it! Which other modern day superstar has been under the kind of pressure as has TMF during his ‘bad’ year. (Even Sachin Tendulkar over the years had to put up with a lot less vitriolic and at times, funny comments and observations) As if an ever-improving Rafa wasn’t enough, Nole upset him at the season’s 1st Grandslam and that really started off the barrage of comments from experts and then, from the so-called experts alike. I must admit here and say that some of the observations were quite allright; after all, Federer shouldn’t consider himself to be so above the game that no one has the right to find faults with it. Losing to Rafa and Nole is one thing but losing to Blake and Co. quite the other. So far, so good. But when people started to comment that the man wont possibly ever win a Slam again, one could only pity at such, well, jokes. Again, don’t get me wrong. At the end of US Open 1992, few would have thought that an in-his-prime-Stefan Edberg would never win a Slam thereafter. Yes, strange things do happen. But to publicly predict something to that effect as if you’re some kind of a Nostradamus of sorts is laughable to say the least. Worse, you had celebrity moms stating that the “King is DEAD! Long live the KING”. Really, how stupid and naïve can one get?! We’ve said this a zillion times before, but I cant stop myself from repeating. All these ‘wise comments’ in a year when TMF reached 2 GS finals and a semi-final before ofcourse that famos win at Flushing Meadows!

Lets give it to him folks. The man’s endured a lot this year. Pardon me for sounding crass, but he’s had to put up with Bu****** of the highest order for the majority of 2008! And its only natural for even the great man to feel bad about it all. His post-match comments at the end of NY’08 only went on to prove how terrible he and his family had been left feeling this year. And its only right on his part to take a break or a “long break” if he wants to “thoroughly celebrate” his GS win no. 13! I mean, how often do we get see ordinary mortals in our day-to-day life saying that they are “fed-up” with the constant pressures of life. Employees complaint of nagging and demanding bosses, students complaint of relentless competition, customers complaint about less-than-satisfactory services, unions keep complainting of low wages, husbands are yet to stop complaining about wives [wonder when that’ll ever stop], the list will go on and on. Point to be noted here is, pressure of any kind at the end of the day is just that, PRESSURE! So a multi-millionaire Roger Federer must be getting as irritated and must be feeling as much under the “cosh” so to say as would the ordinary Joe in town. Heck, it wasn’t for no reason after all that a certain Swede hung up his racquet at the ‘ripe-old age of 26’ in the summer of 1981! Make no mistake friends, whichever ladder of life you’re at, pressure means the same! It hurts when people write stuff about you, it sucks even more when people write stuff that’s as close to crap as you can imagine! Critics, by the way, might once again start harping on why they think Federer was/is over-reacting and that he need not get so-worked up with the media and all that! What they fail to realize is that here is a man who publicly shed tears when he was handed a trophy at the hands of the iconic Rod Laver. Here is a man for whom victories mean so much that he ends up getting emotional even if that were to be his 5th straight win at that place. Clearly, he’s one of the few old-timers [if I may use the word] for whom the game is bigger than everything else and for whom the game’s rich history and its heroes mean a hell lot! Roger Federer aint not "One of the modern day greats". He is "The 'GREATEST' of the modern-day greats"!

Would be nice to see him back in action and would be equally nice to see others too. Rafa obviously, or atleast in my book, will start as the favorite. I hope people don’t point towards the “fastest surface on tour” as to why he cant win it. TMF has realized and I hope others do too, that Rafa Nadal of 2008 is not the same as the Rafa Nadal of 2005. Nole seems to have tapered off with his below-par performances at London and NY and to expect A.Rod to win an AMS would be a bit too much. Murray will interesting to watch and I hope he delivers a performance that will force all of us to talk about a ‘quartet’ at the top than a ‘trioka’. But then again, its too early to bill him as one of the serious contenders. Rafa and Roger will continue to be the two top guns. But keep an eye, yet again, on JMD. The one player who can displace Murray and even Nole come 2009, he’s had such a fantastic 2008 that it’ll be hard to ignore him in his 1st Masters series tournament post his string of successes. Finally, the defending champion seems to have hit some serious form ahead of Madrid. David Nalbandian, one of the game’s greatest underachievers will look to secure his place at Shanghai with a solid performance here. Whats more, he’s in line to face JMD at some stage in the tournament. Would be a real mouth-watering encounter that.

So then, the final part of 2008, the Indoor season i.e has begun! Sit back and enjoy!!