We found ourselves at a sports arena for the second time on this trip. The first arena was the Colosseum - where gladiators killed each other for sport 2000 years ago. This time around, the contestants channeled their aggression through a racket at the All-England Club - and we actually got to watch rather than imagine the sport :) We were at Wimbledon!
The first complete match we watched was the Ladies' Singles Finals, and Serena Williams took an early lead - breaking Venus' serve in the very first game. However, she could not close out the set and Venus ended up winning it by breaking Serena's serve in the last game. In the second set, everything was fairly even until Serena was serving to stay in the match when Venus was up 5-4. Serena somehow seemed resigned to losing, played much worse than she had before and Venus won the set - and the 750,000 pounds awarded to the Wimbledon champion. It was then than I first realized that different players with the same skill level in tennis might get very different results based on their ability to wrap things up. I noticed this again in the ladies' doubles. This time Serena and Venus were on the same team, and both seemed somewhat tired after the singles final they had just completed. However, their opponents were not able to break their serve even once despite several opportunities to do so. Thinking back, I suppose that the end-game was even more crucial back in ancient Rome - leaving your opponent simply injured could cost you your life as a gladiator!
The next day we set off for Wimbledon while it was still raining, unsure of our chances of seeing the Men's Singles Finals - the Federer/Nadal match we had been anticipating. By 2:30 in the afternoon, the rain had died down (at least temporarily) and we hurried to Center Court along with everyone else who had been waiting out the rain in a lounge. The match began, and two hours later it seemed like Nadal was going to win the championship quite easily. A rain break at that point probably helped Federer steady himself, and he came out on court after the break to save the third set to roars of approval from an ecstatic crowd. The rain break itself was interesting to watch. First, a dark cloud was seen over the court, then ball-boys and ball-girls came out and stood ready to pull the tarp over the court. When it started raining, the court was covered in a matter of seconds, and the tent was inflated so that all water would run off the sides. The referee predicted how long the rain would last (and was correct!). When the rain break ended, security guards efficiently helped spectators back to their seats as the players warmed up. It was an extremely well-run operation.
Anyway, at the end of the fourth set, Nadal had two opportunities to win the championship. Federer managed to save both these points and went on to win the fourth set. At that point, I started wondering what makes a champion. Excellence, certainly. In fact it seems like excellence needs to be a part of muscle memory - not something one can learn to achieve at a critical time. Nadal's game in the fourth set was much better than Federer's - yet Federer had driven the match to a deciding fifth set. Clearly, excellence isn't enough. Is it hunger, tenacity, equanimity in a difficult situation, belief in oneself, maturity, experience, humility? To some extent I think that it is all of these things. Federer, the more experienced of the two players kept his cool, believed that he could win the set, willed his muscles to display the excellence that he knew they could and held on, preventing Nadal from cinching the deal in that fourth set.
Of course, the fifth set was simply brilliant - and ultimately Nadal did manage to seal the deal, but only a couple of hours after he could have sealed the deal had he been playing a lesser player. Unfortunately for him, he was playing a champion - and he himself had to be mentally stronger to win the Championship. The award ceremony was really beautiful with both players acknowledging exactly how worthy their opponent was. In addition to providing great entertainment, Wimbledon provided me with a valuable lesson - the characteristics Nadal and Federer displayed in the match are necessary in any difficult situation with good competition. I'll have to remember them the next time things get tough and the end-game seems to take forever :)
P.S. The rest of our time in London was great as well, even though it was quite wet. Yesh and I discovered that we liked Nico-D clothes a lot, much to the chagrin of our wallets. Manish and I watched really good improv at
The Comedy Store . We miss Yesh and Pat as they left earlier today. We head to Berlin tomorrow and hope that it isn't raining there.
