Dear Federer,
It has been
more than a day since the epic final has ended but the memories of the match don’t
seem to cede space to anything new.
You have
given us a match for the ages. A match that we will remember as long as we
watch sports.
After each
match we ask ourselves, what motivates you? What drives you to attain such
perfection? I think I found the answer yesterday.
You don’t play
for the awards, rewards, rankings, prize money or to prove a point. You are
beyond all that. I believe you play the sport the purest way. For the love of
the game. The sheer unfettered freedom and uncluttered mind with which you attacked
the ball every time could not have come from a player with any ambitions
lurking in his mind.
In Maslow’s
hierarchy, you have reached self-actualization, no – you have attained self-transcendence
– “Transcendence refers to the very highest and most inclusive or holistic
levels of human consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than
means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other
species, to nature, and to the cosmos”.
You had
beaten the world number two in the semis, were facing the number 1 but seeing
the match, no one could guess that your opponent was ranked higher and was
almost six years younger to you. You barely broke a sweat in the matches. In
about five hours of the best tennis the world could see, you were a picture of
serenity and calmness.
Djokovic is
no ordinary player. If it were any player other than you, he would have won the
championship in straight sets, but that was not to be.
You seemed
to have an answer to everything that he threw at you, every serve, every return
of serve.
While the
15000 strong audience in the Centre Court and the millions of fans across the
globe raved, ranted, bit their nails, oohed and aahed, swore, lost their cool, became
restless, filled social media with millions of emojis and words, you seemed
unperturbed. You went about your task as if you had all the time in the world
to play your shots.
Whenever
we, the audience thought you were down and out, you sprang a surprise.
But, in the
match, did you show that your family, your biggest strength, could become your
biggest weakness too?
You were
serving for the championship, after breaking Djokovic. Mirka, your wife found
the match so intense that she closed her eyes. Them you fired an ace and you
were at 40 -15. She opened her eyes and asked, what happened. Your team members
around her informed her that you had fired an ace and were having two championship
points. Was her loud cheer then your distraction? Did it let you slip your
guard, for that fractional moment?
Did that
small opening prove to be your nemesis in the finals?
Tie
breakers are cruel. Much like football matches that end with penalties. Or like
super overs in cricket. Here skill gives way to luck. The three sets you lost
last night were all tie breakers. If there were no tie breakers, would you have
won? Only God knows.
John Keats
had said “A thing of beauty is a Joy forever”. But, beauty has always been
associated with frailty. Like porcelain that is fragile, beauty has always been
locked, preserved, safely kept away.
The world
has never seen a thing of beauty that is strong as steel. That is, till you
started wielding the racket.
It is
impossible to write the beauty of your shots as you glide across the court,
caress the ball to different parts of the court and make every player on the
other side look pedestrian. The unique combination of toughness and beauty,
maybe, only a diamond possesses.
You are to
the sports fans, the diamond. The diamond that adorns our hearts. In your
timelessness and purity you help us transcend into a different world whenever
you play.
Thank you Roger
Federer, thank you for being there.
