The Man Who Cries

I started a new job yesterday - my first ever 9-to-5 office job. And my first ever office conversation? About tennis.
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Everyone in the office had stayed up late to watch the Aussie Open final, and so everyone was tired, but still everyone had wonderful things to say about the match. Because it was a great match. Both players made some spectacular winners - and both players made shots that should have been winners, but the other player ran it down and made better winners (Nadal in particular.) The level of commendation for Rafa was high.

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And for Roger?

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Let me preface this by saying that I'm Australian. This was an-all Australian office. Now, in Australia, the sensitive new-age man-who-cries is a not a phenomenon that we a) see very often, and b) like very much. I was prepared for words like 'crybaby' and 'sook' to be thrown about, as well as imputations against Federer's masculinity, because we all know that real men don't cry. And if it had been any other male athlete, I can pretty much guarantee you that this is exactly what would have been said.

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But not Federer. No one was laughing at his tears. Everyone was crying with him. This man has touched so many people.

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Perhaps it is because the desire to win is so strong with us - sport is our national religion, after all - and we, as a nation, empathised with the bitter defeat of loss. But I don't think that's it. Because it wasn't just Australia that cried with Roger Federer. It was worldwide and international. The world wants Roger to win, to do well.

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Not that the world is anti-Rafa. He's proved his quality - and the fact that he too is a sporting gentleman, with that tremendous show of sportsmanship he made towards Roger. But Roger was first, and Roger is, to the world, special.

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But he has a task ahead of him now. If he wants to be considered the greatest, he has to solve the riddle of Rafa. And he's almost there - he could have won that match. He could have held the break in the first, or won the breaker in the third, or just stayed with it mentally in the fifth. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with his game against Rafa - except perhaps that he has never, to my knowledge, had a high-percentage serving day against him, which is an issue. He can beat Rafa. He can beat anyone. He just has to believe it.

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And he said in his presser that he does believe it, that he didn't spend four-and-a-half hours out there on court not believing it. He is wholly capable of this. And it would be no fun to be the greatest without a serious roadblock to overcome. Wimbledon was the first Rafa trauma match. The Australian Open was the second. Now, Roger will be going for fourteen at Roland Garros - the tournament where Nadal will be a short-odds favourite. I quite like the symbolism of this. There'll be less pressure on Roger - a lot less - and a lot more on Rafa. So maybe, there, in the Slam he has never won, Roger can swing freely. Because he can beat Rafa, and he can do it anywhere. And when he does, when he wins that fourteenth Slam, I don't think anyone will contest his claim to greatness. Some have said the Australian Open will crush him. I think it'll shake him up and make him shake it down and get even.

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Today's Results

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SA Tennis Open (Johannesburg)

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Guillermo Garcia-Lopez def. Bjorn Phau, 6-4 6-3

Rik de Voest def. Ivan Navarro, 6-3 6-4

Leonardo Mayer def. Sergio Roitman, 6-2 6-4

Simon Greul def. Viktor Crivoi, 6-2 6-4

Raven Klaasen def. Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, 6-3 7-5

Marcos Baghdatis def. Andrew Anderson 6-4 6-2

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Movistar Open (Vina del Mar)

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Potito Starace def. Marcos Daniel, 6-4 6-4

Juan Ignacio Chela def. Pablo Andujar, 6-0 3-6 6-1

Daniel Gimeno-Traver def. Alberto Martin, 6-3 6-7 (2-7) 6-6 retired

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PBZ Zagreb Indoors (Zagreb)

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Marin Cilic def. Arnaud Clement, 6-4 6-3

Teimuraz Gabashvili def. Mikhail Youzhny, 6-3 6-4

Antonio Veic def. Guillermo Canas, 4-6 6-4 6-2

Ivan Ljubicic def. Christophe Rochus, 6-4 6-1