Sunday, June 5, 2011

Federer v. Nadal

David Foster Wallace on Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, Wimbledon 2006:

Apollo and Dionysus. Scalpel and cleaver. Righty and southpaw. Nos. 1 and 2 in the world. Nadal, the man who’s taken the modern power-baseline game just as far as it goes, versus a man who’s transfigured that modern game, whose precision and variety are as big a deal as his pace and foot-speed, but who may be peculiarly vulnerable to, or psyched out by, that first man. A British sportswriter, exulting with his mates in the press section, says, twice, “It’s going to be a war.”

Federer as Religious Experience (New York Times)
At the French Open, Federer is down two sets to none as I’m typing.

11:31 a.m.: Federer won the third set.

12:06 p.m.: Nadal won the fourth set and the match.

[Disclaimer: I know zilch about tennis.]

comments: 3

Elaine said...

We headed out to the lake to work on the Endless CleanUp when Roger had won 4 straight games...and I am somewhat glad I did not see him getting unraveled. The unforced errors just killed him, apparently. Maybe Nadal is now the better player...but we'll never have Federer listed anywhere but in the Top Ten Best Ever.

Michael Leddy said...

When I tuned in, during the first set, it was 5-2, Federer. Nadal won that set, 7-5.

I hope your Endless CleanUp really has an end in sight, sooner not later.

Tony Austin said...

Though he lost; (bummer), he did beat Novak Djokovic which was incredible since the beast was seemingly unstoppable and Federer had to play perfect to beat him.