When My Kids Grow Up

I guess I should preface that with if I ever get married and actually have kids. In the event that that does occur, I hope that when my kids grow up that they have the comportment of either Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer.

When last Sunday rolled around, I was actually more interested in the Australian Open Men's Final than I was in the Super Bowl. I didn't really have any investment with either of those teams, but the thing about the Nadal v. Federer rivalry is that it's historic. Roger Federer is arguably the greatest tennis player ever, and Rafael Nadal is the greatest tennis player right now.

I wrote about Roger year or so ago, and about how much I kind of hated him at that time just because the guy is so perfect. Everything he hits is so precise, and at the same time, the guy is the perfect gentleman. He says all the right things and actually seems to mean all of it. What was worse was that he just simply owned Andy Roddick. Still does. He actually beat him in the semifinals of the open.

This is a really great article by David Wallace and how watching Roger Federer is a near religious experience. In the article he talks about having "Federer Moments" thusly:

The Moments are more intense if you’ve played enough tennis to understand the impossibility of what you just saw him do. We’ve all got our examples. Here is one. It’s the finals of the 2005 U.S. Open, Federer serving to Andre Agassi early in the fourth set. There’s a medium-long exchange of groundstrokes, one with the distinctive butterfly shape of today’s power-baseline game, Federer and Agassi yanking each other from side to side, each trying to set up the baseline winner...until suddenly Agassi hits a hard heavy cross-court backhand that pulls Federer way out wide to his ad (=left) side, and Federer gets to it but slices the stretch backhand short, a couple feet past the service line, which of course is the sort of thing Agassi dines out on, and as Federer’s scrambling to reverse and get back to center, Agassi’s moving in to take the short ball on the rise, and he smacks it hard right back into the same ad corner, trying to wrong-foot Federer, which in fact he does — Federer’s still near the corner but running toward the centerline, and the ball’s heading to a point behind him now, where he just was, and there’s no time to turn his body around, and Agassi’s following the shot in to the net at an angle from the backhand side...and what Federer now does is somehow instantly reverse thrust and sort of skip backward three or four steps, impossibly fast, to hit a forehand out of his backhand corner, all his weight moving backward, and the forehand is a topspin screamer down the line past Agassi at net, who lunges for it but the ball’s past him, and it flies straight down the sideline and lands exactly in the deuce corner of Agassi’s side, a winner — Federer’s still dancing backward as it lands. And there’s that familiar little second of shocked silence from the New York crowd before it erupts, and John McEnroe with his color man’s headset on TV says (mostly to himself, it sounds like), “How do you hit a winner from that position?” And he’s right: given Agassi’s position and world-class quickness, Federer had to send that ball down a two-inch pipe of space in order to pass him, which he did, moving backwards, with no setup time and none of his weight behind the shot. It was impossible. It was like something out of “The Matrix.” I don’t know what-all sounds were involved, but my spouse says she hurried in and there was popcorn all over the couch and I was down on one knee and my eyeballs looked like novelty-shop eyeballs.

While watching the final on Sunday, there had to be at least a dozen of those kinds of moments, moments where you can only grunt and exhale because you don't know how else to react to the sheer athleticism and perfection of the physical acts being performed. It's unreal watching Federer have these moments.

It's even crazier when you realize that Nadal has just as many of those moments, and seemingly even more, because the guy has Roger's number.

It's not just the sport that is so amazing to watch. The part I might have enjoyed the most was watching each of the champions speak following the match. I'll let Tandon from ESPN recount Federer's reaction to his latest setback against Nadal:

"I love this game. It means the world to me, so it hurts when you lose," he said after his 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2 defeat to Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final. A win would have tied him with Pete Sampras for a record 14 Grand Slams.

Dramatic as the first four sets had been, and as surprising as the sudden end in the fifth set had been, the most emotional moment came after the match was over. Federer stepped up to the mike to make the runner-up speech, beginning gamely with, "Well, it's great for the sport."

Then he stopped and gulped, trying to fight back his disappointment. "Maybe I'll try later again," he said, finally. "God, it's killing me."

Even Nadal, in his moment of victory, was visibly moved. After receiving the trophy from Laver, the Spaniard stepped back to give his vanquished friend a hug.

Federer had to smile. "I don't want to have the last word, this guy deserves it," he told the crowd, picking up where he had left off. "So Rafa, congratulations. You played incredible, another fantastic final. You deserve it, man."

Maybe you can identify with how refreshing it is to see a professional athlete emote with such class and respect for himself, the sport, and even his most bitter rival. It was so touching to see both his and Rafa's reaction to the whole thing. I had tears well up in my eyes as I watched. Even Rafael's uncle and coach (same person) cried at the scene.

I can only hope that someday my kids will take a page out of either of these guys' notebooks and learn the lessons in class that they show week in and week out as they compete.

UPDATE: I found the video of Roger and Rafa accepting their trophies. Just check out the first few minutes.