Roger Federer & Rafael Nadal in the Epic 2009 Australian Open Final

What Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have showed us recently is breathtaking not just on the tennis level, but from the level of general history. There’s something fundamentally fascinating about watching true greatness in an arena that preserves the purity of that greatness, and tennis is one of the few sports that can do that. In NBA basketball, especially now, it’s not really possible. The rules are so subjective that it’s impossible to see consistency from one play to another and it becomes frustrating. Different players get treated differently and it’s next to impossible to truly see how great a great player really is. Tennis, on the other hand, is an individual sport with simple rules that are easy to enforce, so it’s easy to focus on the actual performance of the athletes.

Back to this 2009 Australian Open Final. I am a huge fan of Federer and more recently, Nadal, because these guys are so unbelievably good. It’s really crazy how much better they are than even the #3 level tennis players. They have now played 2 epic matches in a row, and that is something you just don’t see much in your lifetime. Nadal has won both of these very important matches and because of this, the next few years are going to be quite dramatic for these two great tennis players. I think when it is all said and done, it will turn out to be the most important era in tennis history.

The great thing about sports is its ability to tell a story. We all love good stories, no matter what form they come in. What’s even better than a good story is a good, real-life story. Why? Because real-life is true. That’s a big part of our society’s fascination will reality TV (which, ironically, isn’t all that real). You can say that sports is like ultimate reality tv. Of course, often times, even sports gets manipulated by the media and other powers that be to a point where it ruins the story. My point is, it’s rare to see something as truly real and raw and GREAT as what we’re seeing with Federer and Nadal, and we should appreciate it because we may never see it again.

On to the story. As you all now, not too long ago, it seemed like Federer was so good that it seemed like he would walk his way to 30 Grand Slam titles without so much as breaking a sweat. Nadal was equally good also…but only on clay. If it weren’t for Nadal, Federer would have likely strolled to 12 GS titles in a row, which is mind bogglingly insane. Even Sampras wasn’t that dominant. Nevertheless, Federer’s greatness was still considered unique in history…Nadal took the French Open and Federer took the rest, as is usually the case in tennis. Unlike Sampras, however, Federer was not mediocre on clay, it’s just that Nadal might be the best ever on clay. Federer was getting to the Finals, just not winning them. So don’t go thinking it’s the same as what Sampras was doing.

But hold on! All of a sudden, Nadal starts improving drastically on the other surfaces. Coincidentally, Federer’s invincibility starts to weaken and he loses here and there to other players. Of course, nobody could sustain perfection indefinitely, so it was inevitable. Again, it wasn’t a big deal at the time. Everyone still expected Federer to shatter all the records, even after showing a few weak moments. The amazing part is that no one expected Nadal to show such drastic improvements outside of clay courts.

Then comes the 2008 Wimbledon Finals. Federer owns the Wimbledon. Every dominant, premier player of the current era owns Wimbledon, even if they suck at the French Open. Again, that’s just how it is in tennis. What’s amazingly rare this time is having the clay master, Nadal, meet the everything-else master, Federer, in the Wimbledon Finals. After possibly the greatest match in tennis history, Nadal comes out on top. That was one of the greatest sport events I have ever seen. It was real, it was pure, it was the two best players at war with each other. What makes it even more special is that you can’t hate either player. They both command respect as players and people. They aren’t sickeningly nice in a pretentious way, and they aren’t cocky, asshole bastards. They exude the perfect amount of fierce competitiveness, respect for each other’s skills, and honest emotion. You have to love that. You just have to. It seems as though tennis is more able to display this kind of thing (at least publicly) than most other popular sports.

Think about Federer at this point. What’s going through his mind? No doubt he worked hard to improve his clay game, only to get crushed in the French Final. At least for the French Open, you can say that Nadal just owns it, and to even get to the Finals as consistently as Federer has been doing is still some sort of moral victory. But to lose the event you own to the exact same person, in a very, close long game…well, that hurts. You knew Federer was going to work hard in a special way the next few months to make sure that didn’t happen again. It was a rough year, it happens. Life is never as perfect as you want it to be, even for the greatest people.

Enter the Australian Open 2009. Looks like Federer is back to his invincible self. He just cleaned up at the US Open. In fact, it wouldn’t be a big deal to see Nadal exit in the early rounds and see Federer coast to the title. Luckily for us, they meet in the final. In the second consecutive epic bout, Nadal wins again. Federer cried. The man actually cries…a lot…in front of everyone. This is reality people. You have to appreciate what you’re seeing. There’s a story here that’s so beautiful and pure. It’s the story of a man trying with everything he’s got to be the best, not just currently, but for all time. And it’s not a delusion or cliche effort, like so many people who either don’t really know what it takes to be great, or simply don’t have the gifts necessary to be the greatest. It’s very, very rare to have the gifts and the desire and the ability to even put the two together in a cohesive way to produce such greatness, not to mention the opportunity. That’s why in the history of the billions of people that have walked the earth, there are only a handful of Tiger Woods, Roger Federers, Kobe Bryants, Michael Jordans, etc. So many things have to come together to produce that result.

If you don’t understand that, you won’t grasp the significance of Roger’s tears. Men like Roger don’t fail like that, that’s what makes them great. The failure hurts so much that they will extract every effort out of their immensely gifted bodies to prevent that. I know I’m talking a lot about Roger’s greatness, but Nadal’s greatness is to be noted also. I’m not convinced that his greatness is on the level or Rogers, but that’s something the future will reveal. That’s why this story may be even more fascinating in the years to come, even after two of the greatest tennis matches in history.

But seeing Roger cry like that, that’s something very special to see. It’s hard to see inside the minds of these great athletes with the way the media bombards us with their packaged presentations and the way famous people protect their privacy, and just the general lack of trust that something you see on TV is genuine. But that was genuine. And it was rich in meaning.

Remember when Kobe cried after losing to the Spurs which ended the three-peat? When great men cry like that, that means something. You are a fool to make fun of it. There is humanity in those tears and a level of desire, dedication, and hard work that few people ever experience. Thankfully, through TV we can at least share in some of these rare experiences. There are often some subtle moments which symbolize all that is happening. John McEnroe, who has taken part of some of the more dramatic tennis matches in history, and who is no stranger to championships and heartbreaking losses and redeeming victories, had a beautiful moment when he was interviewing Federer after the Wimbledon Final. Now, I’m sure a lot of people think McEnroe is a little insincere or boring because of the way he talks, but he seems to be very sincere to me and doesn’t really have an agenda, and I like his integrity and honesty (especially as a member of the media). During his interview, which was inevitably awkward, he gave Roger Federer a hug for providing the world with such spectacular tennis. Can you imagine?? An announcer, ex-tennis player, gave Fed a hug during an official station interview. That’s a male-male hug. That was beautiful. You have to love McEnroe. That’s what the match meant. And this was right before Federer was probably about to shed a few tears. A few months later, Federer couldn’t hold back and let loose in front of the stadium crowd. Wow. I love how honest he is able to be in front of the world. That’s not easy, even among the greatest.

Unfortunately, it seems as though youtube is removing many of these videos due to copyright issues. You know what I hate about that the most? The sports organizations keep all the rights to these videos themselves, and they rarely show these great, subtle moments. Sure, they show the highlights and stuff. But there’s something to be said about being able to see the raw footage without any added post-processing or music. That’s what I was trying to show here. The real thing. Oh well, if I find the clip, I’ll put it here.

See Federer’s interview with McEnroe (hug at 1:00):

Federer crying tears of greatness:

Derek Fisher and Kobe crying at the end of the 3-peat:

If I had to make a prediction, it is this: Roger is going to change something in his game and training and will return even stronger and smarter. Nadal’s awesome greatness is challenging him physically and definitely mentally. And I think Roger has an additional level that we have not seen yet.

On the other hand, what can you say about Nadal? He is amazing. When it’s over, he may be the greatest and most dominant player ever. So many question marks with him because he’s very young, and his physical style that doesn’t lend itself to longevity. But he keeps proving us wrong. Maybe he’s more unique than we can imagine. However, I still stand by Federer and a future comeback.

I love what’s happening with Federer and Nadal. The beauty of it is universal, you just have to understand the story. You don’t even have to like tennis.