Reflections on the Final That Wasn't

I never realised before today how anticlimactic a Slam final without Federer can feel.

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I know I shouldn't complain about it. I love tennis outside of Federer, even if he really is the reason I got into it in the first place. As Erin frequently tells me, I am spoiled. Before now, Roger had been in the previous ten Slam finals. Which, you know, was nice. And he won eight of them. Which was, you know, nicer.

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Maybe it's good for tennis to have someone different in the final for a change. I'm pretty fixed in my position of not liking Djokovic, but he was always going to break through sometime, and really, when it comes down to it, I am glad it was here and not at Wimbledon. The Australian Open is important but Wimbledon really is the most important tournament of the year, from a sentimental perspective anyway.

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Normally, in a tennis final, I am on the edge of my seat. My heart is in my mouth, and with every ball that flies long or careens into the tape I wince; with every winner I clap. But this match left me cold, really. I like Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and I like the way he plays, but I haven't seen enough of him yet to induct him into my hall of favourites. And we all know where I stand on Djokovic. So, yeah, I watched it, and yeah, I enjoyed it, but my heart wasn't in it. I was cheering for Tsonga, but let's just say I shed no tears over this match... which makes it the first Slam final I have not cried over since the US Open '05, which was before I really became a hardcore Federer fan.

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I make no pretences at being unbiased. If Roger Federer won every match he played in straight sets, that would be fine with me, though I'm sure the greater tennis world would find it boring. It was hard to see Novak Djokovic hoisting up the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, when it has such deep emotional connections for me - the Australian Open '06, the famous Open of the crying Roger, was when I fell in love with tennis. I am a tennis fan. But I am a fan because of Federer. I mean, sure, there are other players I like and like a lot - Tursunov, Safin, Moya, Gasquet, etc, etc - but when it comes down to it, it's all about Roger, really. I love what he brings to tennis. I love the way he plays tennis. And I love his attitude to tennis. 'You can never be bigger than the game,' he once said, 'and you have to remember that.'

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That's the mistake I make, I think. In many ways, for me, Federer is bigger than the game. Hell, he is the freaking game. Basically, he is my hero, and it is very difficult for me to see my hero not at the top of his game.

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So, for a blog that's supposed to be about tennis in general, I talk an awful lot about Federer, hey?

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This was meant to be a blog purely for the Australian tennis summer, which would make this the last post. However, thirty-odd posts in, I still have a lot to say (probably because I've spent most of my time writing about what a great guy Roger Federer is instead of, you know, actual tennis.) I'm not going to write it daily any more - mainly because I have no way of watching tennis now that the tour has moved onto the South American swing - but I'll write a weekly roundup of the week's tournaments... and see where that takes us!

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Next week is Vina del Mar, a claycourt IS event in Chile. The top seed is Fernando Gonzalez, but this tournament also marks the comeback of Guillermo Coria, former French Open finalist, so it could be very interesting! Also, Peter Luczak (Milkshake) is playing, so it'll be fun to see how he goes on clay!

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And also Roger isn't playing, so I might make some actual observations about tennis, which could be fun...

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Australian Open Results - Day #14

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Men's Draw

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Novak Djokovic def. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 4-6 6-4 6-3 7-6 (7-2)