Winner Or Loser: A Retrospection

As the championship reaches its conclusion and the finalists are decided it is just a matter of hours before the winner is decided.

After days of patience, perseverance, endurance and hard work, the finalists have got to battle it out for the last time in the tournament.

All matches were important, but this one, this one is life and death. It is the crowning glory, which hours later will either be magically won or tragically lost.

The players who know that this is the match in which not 100 percent effort is required, but at least 10 times more is needed.

As the finalists approach towards the Center Court for the last time in the championship, there must be a plethora of thoughts going on in their mind.

There of course would be the usual: excitement, anticipation, nervousness, the feeling that the legs have perhaps turned into marshmallows or even lead.

More than this there is the thought of the spectators: the crowd which has come to see its favourite battle it out; not to mention the million odd people who have parked themselves in front of their television sets to watch their idol.

And then there is the psychological thing that everyone keeps talking about. It is an integral factor especially when the opponent has the edge over the statistics and also when the opponent is a clear favourite with the crowd.

The human mind is a complex thing, but I am sure the mind of the finalist as they get ready is perhaps a tangle of webs inter-woven with millions and zillions of thought.

Amidst all these factors, there is one that the player cannot ignore, even if  he or she wanted to.The player himself or herself!

If he or she wins, it is glory in all its sheen, but if by chance, the player loses, it is a shattering of dreams, dreams that the player must have seen and visualised since the day he or she became a pro.

Every championship commands its own unique respect and to lose in the finals means wait: wait that is agonising, wait that is full of pain and regret! Another year before the championship returns, another year where one has to face new and perhaps even stiffer competition.And age, age which definitely doesn't turn backwards!

So equipped with all these train of thoughts along with his or her usual mundane tennis playing stuff the player steps up:to play a game, but in essence and reality, to fight a war which  will either result in him/ her being victorious or him/her being the vanquished.

Shakespeare said "To err human, to forgive divine" , but when the favourite loses the favourite ceases to be human and the fans definitely don't turn out to be divine.

All this while have the fans thought about the person who has faced it all? The player is the one who has taken the blow of it, like being at ground zero at the time of a quake.

The fans shall forget about it in a month's time or two; but for the player it will be like guilt,which will never cease.Its vestiges will always remain no matter what.

As I say this, I have realised one thing; that irrespective of whether a player wins or loses, he is ultimately the winner in any case, for going to that level deserves nothing less than true and profound admiration and appreciation.