It's the one day of the Australian tennis season I hate most - boring Sunday. The day between the end of the prelim tournaments and the beginning of the first grand slam of the season. No tennis is played. Nothing happens. Channel 7 has their usual crappy programming. In fact, I think that they might deliberately make it crapper than normal on Boring Sunday, just to irritate people.
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But the thing is, as a blogger, Boring Sunday actually provides me with a great opportunity - especially in the type of blog I hope I'm writing. There are no matches to distract me, so here goes. The big discussion. Why I love tennis.
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There are a number of reasons, many of which I've discussed at length, but really, when it all comes down to it, it's one name, one man.
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Roger Federer.
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I've been following Roger for a long time. My earliest memory of him is when he played the bronze medal match at the Sydney Olympics, and he lost. I've never seen anyone look so crushed. That kid - because he was a kid then, only nineteen years old - that kid wanted to win.
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The next Federer match I remember seeing was that epic in the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2001. Federer vs. Sampras. The only time they ever met on the ATP circuit. Five sets.
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Federer won.
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That match, though no one realised it at the time, was emblematic. That was the changing of the guard. That is, if you ask me, the beginning of when Roger Federer became great.
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I watched Roger for many years - watched him at that awful Davis Cup match against Hewitt, where he had match points but Hewitt ended up winning, watched him win his first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2003, watched as his temperament changed from Safin-esque fury to implacable, unflappable. I watched him become great, but I didn't realise what I was watching - and, to my shame, I didn't care enough.
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And then the Australian Open happened in 2006, and because of Roger, I fell head over heels in love with tennis.
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That is one of the most compelling Grand Slam tournaments I have ever seen. Roger played some awesome tennis - the third round against Max Mirnyi comes to mind, where he only made 10 unforced errors in the match - and then it was like the wheels fell off. Five sets against Tommy Haas. Another tight match against Nikolay Davydenko in the quarters. I clearly remember the commentators saying that this was the game of a man who was well out of form. He was coming back from the Masters Cup '05, where he basically played on one leg. He didn't play especially well at Kooyong. Roger Federer was not all there.
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And he still found a way to win.
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I remember, very clearly, watching that fourth round match against Haas. I can't remember ever being so nervous during a tennis match. I was sitting in my little room on the third floor of my college, and when the fifth set rolled around, I just couldn't take it any more. It was a hot, sticky night, and I was sweating with nerves. I couldn't watch it. I couldn't watch this man, whom I had been watching and admiring for years, lose.
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So I left. I walked around the college - not far, it probably only took me ten or fifteen minutes - and then came back. It was two all, I think. It was tight, it was close, and I was digging my fingernails into my palms. I remember telling myself to calm down, that my life would be totally unaltered if Roger lost here. This was a man I had never met, whom I probably never would meet.
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But the facts remained the same. I cared - so much.
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And then, when Roger reeled off a double break to win the match, I felt like he had won that match for me.
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That year was the year of the rise and rise of Marcos Baghdatis, and Australia as a whole was much more occupied with him to notice the best player in the world grinding through his matches. I watched Marcos too. I was going for him in those matches he won against Roddick and Ljubicic and Nalbandian. I like an underdog as much as the next person. But for me, Australian Open 2006 was all about Roger.
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He beat Haas. He beat Davydenko - God, I was nervous in that match as well! He beat Kiefer. And then it was time for Baghdatis.
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Marcos, to his credit, played phenomenally in the first two sets. He won the first and was up a break in the second. And then it was like someone hit the Roger Federer on-switch. Errors became winners. Everything was fluid. This was the game that he had been missing. He's implacable on the court, but I still thought I could see it in his eyes. He didn't have to grind any more. The King was back in town.
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The final score was 5-7 7-5 6-0 6-2. That third set is one of the most beautiful displays of tennis I have ever seen. But what was more beautiful was afterwards.
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He cried.
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Roger Federer, undisputed king of tennis, was so proud and relieved to have come through, even though he wasn't all there, even though he wasn't playing his best - Roger Federer, the best player in the world, wept, because he was overwhelmed by victory.
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I am not ashamed to say that I cried too.
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That, for me, is one of the greatest sporting moments of all time. I had always liked tennis, liked Roger before that point, but that is when I fell in love with them both.
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It is incredible to me that a man in Roger's position - the best player in the world and genuine celebrity - can maintain such humility. Because that's one of the things that's best about Roger. He's modest. He's humble. He never makes excuses for himself. He never takes anything away from the other guy. In fact, I think I read about him saying something like that once, after he lost a match: 'you should never take anything away from the other guy, because I was trying my best.'
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This man, this amazingly gifted, talented man, could be forgiven for being an arrogant arse. He's undoubtedly one of the greatest, if not the greatest, tennis player ever to play the game.
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But he's still humble.
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I still get nervous for Roger. Whenever I watch him play, my heart is in my mouth. It's a double-edged sword, really - I love to watch him play, but I get so nervous that it's sometimes hard to appreciate the beauty of his game. But often, he puts that to rest. That semi-final at the Australian Open last year comes to mind. He was playing Roddick, who was in the great form. Roddick had actually beaten Federer at the final of Kooyong the week before. Everyone was talking about how this could be the match where Roddick dethroned the master. 'When you're talking about Federer and Nadal,' I remember Jimmy Connors saying, 'you can't leave out Roddick.'
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Federer won, 6-4 6-0 6-2. It is the best tennis match I have ever seen. A lot of people - including me - like tennis because of the tussle, the struggle of personality. But this match was different. This was a total display of dominance from a man who plays the best tennis ever.
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One shot in particular sticks out in my mind. Roddick was serving, Federer returned, then Roddick slammed the ball down the middle of the court, right on the baseline. A winner, surely. Federer had been pushed out into the corner by the serve. If he could even touch it, there was no way it'd go in.
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Federer played a running volley off his toes. The ball bounced in the right-hand baseline corner on Roddick's side. A clean winner.
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The expression on Roddick's face was priceless. If I wasn't so wrapped up in Federer's amazing game, I would have felt sorry for him. That moment, I think, is where Federer broke his spirit.
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I've been worried about Roger this week. He's had stomach flu, which put him out of Kooyong and disrupted his practice. Channel 7 - those wise gods of tennis - have been talking about there being a question mark over his health. The newspapers have been all over the fact that his side of the draw is incredibly hard. I've been getting nervous for him - and he hasn't even started playing yet!
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But then I read his press conference from this afternoon. Someone asked him if he was one hundred percent. Roger said he was happy with his form, that physically he was fine. Yeah, he said, he was a hundred percent.
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And I believe him.
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If Roger says he's fine, then I am not going to doubt him. I'm getting excited again about the Open (where I'm going tomorrow and Tuesday!) and not just nervous for him.
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But you know what? Even if Roger doesn't win - if he never gets the French, never gets Sampras's record - then it doesn't matter. I don't doubt for a second that he can and will achieve these things, but if he doesn't, then it doesn't matter. Because this man is a lovely, honest, humble man. This man has kept his head while those around were losing theirs. This man is man enough to cry. This man is the model of what a celebrity - or, indeed, a person - should be. This man is an exceptional human being. And whether he's ranked #1 for the next fifty years or whether he gives tennis up tomorrow, I will always follow his career, and I will always, always be thankful to him, because this man, Roger Federer - this man is why I fell in love with tennis.
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