“Until lions tell their side of the story the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter” goes an old African proverb. Today the world celebrates Rafael Nadal and his indomitable spirit. Do I grudge him his success and the accolades he is getting? No! Do, I feel terrible about my loss, yes, for sure. This is my story of what could have been and what should have been.
I came to the Australian Open with the trophy in mind. I was playing well, wasn’t I?
In a 2021 that swung between the extremes, I lost to Djokovic at the Australian and beat him at the US – no mean feat..
This was the first time a wannabe (Tsitsipas, Thiem or myself) had trounced one of the greats ( Federer, Nadal, Djokovic) in a grand slam final.
I entered the Australian open with trepidation and enormous hope. My idol and the likeliest winner Djokovic was deported from Australia, leaving the tournament open.
I knew in my heart of hearts that this was my chance to create history.
I started well staving off challenge after challenge. The toughest one was with F Auger Alliasime where i had to dig really deep to come back from behind.
When I beat my friend Tsitsipas in the semis, the trophy looked alluringly real. But, I had to beat possibly one of the greatest fighters of all time – Nadal to win the tournament. I had the conviction I had it in me to beat him.
The first set was a dream. Though Nadal was not one to give in easily, I won it with just one break.
I knew that the second set was a crucial one. If Nadal won it, I knew the momentum would be with him. He led 4-1 and the game seemed to be running away from me. But, I held, broke, held serve to make it 4-4. In the tie breaker, I served aces and returned with precision to win the set.
At 2-3 Nadal was fighting to hold serve, trailing 0-40 in the third set. The trophy seemed well within my grasp. It was going to be mine, I thought.
That was the first cardinal mistake that I committed in the match. I missed the trees for the wood (not knowing then that the wood does not exist without the trees). I lost focus. And, that uncoiled the serpent in Nadal. His fangs which were idling till then, sprung into action and started spewing poison.
Though weakened, I was still far ahead. But then, I sensed that I was playing two opponents – one across the net and one (the crowd) around the court.
While I had the game to combat the one across the court, I did not have the guile or the stoicism to control the other.
It was disturbing to see my each win being met with a deathly silence and each miss with a raucous celebration. I committed my second mistake here – I let the crowd commandeer my emotions. Under stress, I lost my serving consistency and played drop shots that were cannon fodder for the great man.
With each point Rafa rose one notch, I dropped one notch while the crowd stooped many notches. I was no longer fighting an individual – I was fighting the stadium – and I was not taught how to handle this.
Finally, I wilted. I know what could have been, but you know what should have been – the crowd should never have been allowed to get away with partisanship.
Between the big three, 61 grand slams have been won – it almost looks like a mafia. Their greatness has never been questioned – but, could Tsitsipas, Thiem or myself have won more? I believe yes, if the crowds had not let us down.
