A Slice of Bacon

It didn’t matter on Sunday that Roger Federer didn’t win his second French Open, or his 17th Grand Slam, adding to his legacy and a record number. It just mattered that he got there, and fought, doing everything that has made him not only a legend in sports, but one of the few dominant sports figures in the history of games that make it easy to root for. 

Don’t worry that at 29 most people were acting like Federer was nearly hospice-ready or as the third ranked player in the world, most experts looked past him as a finalist on these courts, his Achilles heel if Roger has ever had one. Clay isn’t what gets Roger going, and for most athletes, when a surface or a golf course or a condition doesn’t suit them, they go out and show as much fake hustle as possible before slipping out the back door, hoping nobody will remember them. 

Not Roger. The ultimate competitor, playing on clay is his favorite challenge. This isn’t a surface he is supposed to win on. His only French Open came in a finals without Rafael Nadal, the juggernaut on the sliding stuff. For Federer, it’s more than just legacy; it’s about winning, and enjoying that feeling.

On Sunday in Paris, it looked like Roger might finally buck Rafael, especially during a first set that showed the best player to ever pick up a stringed instrument go up 5-2 with a set point at his grasp. 

For some reason, watching that first set, I couldn’t help but think of Andy Roddick at Wimbledon two years ago. The ultimate mold for grass tennis, Roddick had battled and battled again to overcome the fact that Roger Federer’s parents decided to consummate nearly the same time Andy’s did, and thus forcing Roddick to look up at the Swiss magician that was always a step faster, and a forehand defter. But in 2009, it looked like Andy might finally do it. 

I must admit, Roddick has always been one of my favorite American athletes, and for no real reason. Maybe it was the fact that he lives in Austin, or his honesty in interviews, or the fact that he somehow tricked one of the hottest females on the planet to marry him, even with that goofy Lacoste hat always taped to his head. Roddick was just always American to me, someone that thought he was better than he was but could never really overcome his opponents, and I liked that. 

But in ‘09, things were different, and he showed it with a first set win over Federer. Then, another tiebreaker in the second, and Roddick was thisclose to taking Roger down two sets, but a loss there, and things started to slip. Sure, he took it to five sets, and sure, he had a chance to win the longest fifth set in Wimbledon history, but it sure seemed the entire time that when he failed to close out that second set tiebreaker, there was no chance he would win at the All England Club.

The same feeling blanketed me as Federer let that first set slip away. You can’t spot the best clay court player in the history of tennis a set and expect to raise the big cup after. Federer knows this. He’s lived by that mantra his entire career, taking out people at the end of a close first set and never looking back. We all knew after that who would win, but it was still intriguing to watch because Roger never quit. People talk about the “never give up” mentality of Nadal during points, but the same could be said for Federer. He hustled and fought and tired and wowed us for four sets until he finally couldn’t do it anymore. 

Nadal is faster and stronger and hits the ball with more spin. He’s now what Federer was three years ago to most in the game, a force that is nearly impossible to defeat when he’s into a match. 

It’s now 10 Grand Slams for Nadal, and he’s won six of them against Federer in the finals. I sometimes daydream about how awesome it would have been to be a kid in the 70s and 80s, and watch all those battles Jack Nicklaus had with legends like Tom Watson, Lee Trevino and Johnny Miller. I would have loved to see those in real time, and experience the drama of that golden era of golf. But then I realize that some young tennis fan will be thinking that in 20 years, when they look back and see that Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer were both playing tennis at the same time, against each other, and they’ll be just as jealous. And they should be. Two like this don’t come around often.