A Nadal Fan's Perspective : Rafael Nadal Goes Down Fighting

I wrote a CvC today on Rafael Nadal's chances against Del Potro.

I saw the match, saw Rafa being taken apart methodically and cruelly. I saw myself being made to look stupid in front of all of you guys.

Well, I do plan to go back and see what went wrong with what I wrote. I have done that already to an extend. But this is not about analysis. I have done enough for a day, and been punished for doing it.

I started seeing the match with a lot of hope. Nadal gave some trouble to Del-P on a couple of his service games, and though he was troubled a bit on his own, that is the way Rafa is, and there was nothing to worry about.

Then the scene started to unfold. It was vintage David Vs Goliath, but this time Goliath was in the Zone. There is pretty much nothing David can do about it when that happens.

Being a great admirer of Rafa, I started feeling a bit sick when things were happening the way they were.

Rafa started getting frustrated in the second set, but normally he doesn't get frustrated unless he believes that it is something that he is not doing right that is the reason for all this. Even that is pretty rare.

But I guess, it did not take much time for Rafa to realize what was happening. Once that happened, the grumbling stopped, and Rafa seemed to be ensconced in that world of his own.

He started pouring his heart and soul into the match. With every mistake that he committed, he tried to put an extra rpm on the ball, and an extra mph on the racquet head. Though he did not find success in doing it most of the times, there was that mantra to improve - "If I am losing, it is because I am not trying hard enough".

One could sense it in the way he was running down more balls, the increased power he imparted on the ball, and at his attempts to paint the base-line increasingly. Even in the muted celebrations after making some of his shots work.

It did not trouble him that he could not quite break Del-P even after getting a lot of break-points. He tried, he fought till the end.

A great example of this came in, I think the penultimate-or-so game in the last set where he constructed a point successfully and closed it out at the net. There was that fist pump. That "Vamos."

It was a long time since Rafa's real intent had found approval with the geometry of the Arthur Ashe, and Del Potro. And it seems he found that important in some manner. Important enough at that moment to shut out the fact that he was on the verge of losing that match and that in the bigger picture that point meant nothing. Yes he felt like celebrating his success on that point.

Well in the end, he played, he fought, but he was conquered. He went down fighting. He forced his opponent to defeat him.

Even when he was in the deepest trench, he tried to climb up. Not hoping to live, but as if that were his function in this universe - to keep climbing.

I did really feel sad after the match. But in retrospect, I realize that if I feel sad at this loss, I am being a fan of Rafael for all his slams. For playing his brand of Tennis. For being one of the best players in the world.

Though it took me some-time, I realize now what it is that I love in him. I could not have asked for a better performance from Rafa in that respect.

This match was, contrary to what many would say, vintage Nadalian for me.

I will have a drink now. A drink to Rafael's health.

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"VAMOS!"

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And a big congratulations to Juan Martin. You are shaping up to be one of the best players in the world. And you were really classy with your interview to Cahill. All the best to you!