VAMOS!

Reuters / Michael Fiala
retrieved from Nadal News

Rafael Nadal d. David Nalbandian 3-6 7-6 6-0

This is Rafa's very first victory over the man I affectionately call 'The Shark'. Nalbandian is the destroyer of seeds -- no player is safe. When he was fitter and I was still a tennis neophyte I wondered why he had not yet been to a Grand Slam final let alone won one. The answer: ultimately he is too lazy, too content to display only every so often flashes of brilliance. This makes him dangerous, his unpredictability; it's what makes him a waste of god-given talent. In the last year or so he has allowed himself to go to seed showing a shocking lack of concern for the state of his game. Increasingly seeming more content to get off the court as fast as possible than to scratch out the win. The question every knowledgeable fan asked once the Indian Wells draw was released: which Dave are we getting? 'The Shark'? Or 'Fat Dave'? He wasn't anywhere near the best of shape but it was soon clear that 'The Shark', not 'Fat Dave', had come out to play. He handled every comer in each successive round with skill and arrived in the fourth round on the wings of strong matchplay.

Only twice before in his professional career had Nadal stood across the net from him. Both were three set matches in 2007 (Paris and Madrid). Both times Nadal lost in straight sets. There is no shame in losing to 'The Shark'; many equally good players have lost to him. Federer, Djokovic, Murray; currently ranked No. 2, 3 and 4 respectively (Nadal is No. 1) and were at or near those ranks when they lost to him. He is Cheron and Styx rolled into one: he must be crossed and the one to whom a toll must be paid.

The match was a nail-biter. Nadal was clearly not at his best and Nalbandian was aggressive from word 'go'. He took it to Rafa again and again and again. I would have screamed aloud from the frustration but it was 1 a.m. central and it wouldn't do to wake the household. I finally did let loose with many a "Come on!" and "Vamos!" as the match wore on. Rafa was frustratingly passive with his returns in that first set. The situation was made worse by a slew of unforced errors on shots he almost never misses. The first half of the second set wasn't a picnic either. He had breakpoint chances on Nalby's serve, lost them, then surrendered his own serve the following game. 'The Shark' played lights out, aggressive tennis and though Nadal started to find his serve in the second set, his unforced errors were still a problem.

The turn-around happened during Rafa's serve at 3-5 which, if lost, would have given Nalbandian the set and the match. Nadal clawed his way through four matchpoints (!), cleaning up and gritting out his service game. Now it's 4-5 and Nalbandian's on serve for the set and the match; he tightened as Nadal's level continued to rise. One matchpoint. He faced one matchpoint on 'The Shark's' serve, fought passed it, broke him and went on to win the tiebreak -- yet another nail-biter in which Nadal quickly went up 5-1 only to see Nalby storm back, but not to worry! Rafa won the tiebreak in the end, 7-5. Already Rafa was in new territory: it was the first time in all their meetings he had ever taken a set off of Nalbandian.

Third set. Here is where the stuff outside of skill comes strongly into play, like fitness. Would Nalby's lackluster fitness be an issue in the deciding set? Playing Nadal is as much a tremendous physical feat as it is a technical one. He hits the ball with so much spin and from impossible angles while making impossible gets. It can be a demoralizing exercise, particularly when it appears one has him by the short hairs only to find he's slipped the grip. And so enters some more of the other stuff it takes to win -- the psychological component. Mental fortitude is a part of every athletic competition but it is an incredibly vital portion of tennis. I've seen greatly talented players turned into near journeymen due to a lack in confidence, a crack in their mental strength. One must have a mind like a steeltrap and an unshakeable self-belief to carry one not only through wins but also through disappointing moments. The natural dips and yips and how a player handles them are what winners are made of, the mental stuff is the stuff from which champions are forged.

That mental stuff is something Nadal has in spades. If not, he would have buckled under his own frustration and self-remonstrations in that first set and a half. There is something to be said for gritting out a match, for clawing and spitting out a win. Sometimes it tires a player out, the effort; other times it invigorates. It was the latter for Nadal. He had found the rhythm on his serve; he had found the rhythm in his shots; he had shown himself, his opponent and everyone watching that he can fight his way back even with the odds stacked against him. I won't lie. I was nervous. But the mental stuff, ah, that mental stuff is one of the reasons why I love him so. It is why I am a fan.

I can't remember what year it was but I watched his American hardcourt coming-out. At least that's how all the commentators labeled it at the time. I was in Texas visiting family and that was where they were playing. The headliner? Andy Roddick. He was in his prime, his game at its height. Federer was a problem that still had an answer then, one Andy was confident he would find. This was, of course, before the cumulative losses to The Fed crushed his game and psyche. At the time, Andy was my favorite male tennis player by far, I think my only one (I've always been more of a WTA girl). The tournament showed Andy off but also played out as a showcase for the rising talent on tour -- those wet, new shining stars glistening on the horizon. Amongst them was Rafa. I recall thinking that Rafa's game seemed very well-suited for hardcourts -- a rarity amongst Spanish and/or Spanish-speaking players.

The commentators were trying to decide which of them would rise to the top, ala cream. I picked Rafa. I had a sense that Rafa would eventually prove to be the better of them. So, I tucked the name 'Rafael Nadal' into my "stable" -- players I didn't actively follow but whom I wished well when I saw their names in the draws. As predicted, Nadal rose and rose and rose and rose. His wins didn't make him my favorite; no, that was still Andy going into 2007. It was his loss at Wimbledon that year which made me into an ardent fan.

He pushed it to a fifth. Prior to the final he had played seven straight days of matchplay due to inclement weather and crap scheduling. His opponent in the final (the eventual winner) had nearly that many days off in a row coming into the same match. So he was exhausted and near-broken (his knees, my poor Rafa's knees!). He pushed it to a fifth. Did I mention he was facing the best grass-court player on tour, if not history? And not just the best grass-courter but someone who was hailed (and still is) as The GOAT -- The Greatest Of All Time? AKA Roger Federer, a man who until that bright day in Wimbledon, England 2007, had never faced even a whiff of a fifth set on grass. Rafa pushed him to a fifth. Prior to that fifth and deciding set, Nadal lost his serve but once in a set he ended up winning. It was the gutsiest, most mental performance I had witnessed in tennis in too long a time. Even as he lost that fifth set, Rafa went down snarling and fighting. The loss hurt him deeply (he cried in the shower for 30 mins post-match) but he had won my admiring, unyielding fandom.

There is a certain safety to being his fan. He leaves everything out there so neither the victories nor the losses are ever hollow. One knows he musters his best for every point of every game of every match, that and then some. It's not that losses are easier just that there is a sense of peace there amidst the disappointment. Everything is left out there which is why he wins more often than not. Which is why I didn't give up on him in the face of four matchpoints on his serve, one on Nalby's. Yes, I groaned and yelped but I didn't surrender to the sensation of defeat because I knew he wouldn't. And he didn't. 6-0 in the third and final set. Everything was clicking by then: first serves in, shots cutting angles and kissing lines. Not one game lost by Rafa, not one game won by Nalbandian. Rafa was visibly relieved to have won; it was not his best tennis but it was winning tennis. That is so often the difference between losers and winners on tour, between the Nos. 1, 2, 3, now 4 and the rest of the tour.

Vamos, Rafa! Onto the quarterfinals! Onto Del Potro!


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listening to the sounds of birds
hello early morning