An open letter to Rafael Nadal - Confessions of a Federer fan

Hi Rafa,

I am a Federer fan and I am here to confess something to you and to all your die hard supporters. Let me be frank in admitting that I have never been a fan of yours. On the contrary, I have always abhorred you. Frankly, I should have no reason to hate you since both of us hardly know each other and have never met. You are a tennis professional and I am a tennis fan – Roger’s fan to be precise. Oh wait! Probably that was the reason why I have treated you so far with so much animosity. Though it is foolishness on my part to say that, this is what the truth is all about.

It all started in the year 2008 when Federer was a 12-time Grand Slam champion and was just two victories away from equaling Sampras’ record tally of 14 majors. Both of you had a disastrous start to the year, losing out in the semifinals of the Australian Open itself. I knew you had been in some sort of discomfort throughout the tournament and perhaps that was the reason why you lost to the eventual runner up, Jo Wilfred Tsonga, so easily. In fact, prior to the “happy slam” that year, you capitulated cheaply to Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny in the final of Chennai open, who did a rare bagel on you in the process.

The only person who I used to consider a threat to Federer during those days was you. Though your victories against the Swiss maestro came mostly on clay till 2008, I was still apprehensive of him facing you anywhere. However, when Federer defeated you for the second time in a row in Wimbledon 2007 and outsmarted you in the World tour finals the same year, I felt that he would go on to improve his head to head record against you. The head to head between him and you was something like 8-6 in your favour at that time and it looked pretty decent to me. In fact, when he confidently gave an interview that once he beat a player couple of times he would start dominating him, I felt that he had understood the nuances of vanquishing you. That’s when the year 2008 started and your downfall in both Chennai and Melbourne misled me to assume that your days at the top were numbered. As a result, I started feeling more secure as a Federer fan for the first time then.

I did not foresee the disaster which was due to happen on the clay courts of Roland Garros that year. I had no clue of your mental strength which has made you what you are now. You destroyed the legend of Roger Federer in the final of French open, losing only four games in the process. You did not give him even the faintest of chances to surge ahead during that match. It was heart break for the millions of Federer fans like me and even before we could come to terms with it and face the reality, you trounced him in his own den, ousting him in the final of Wimbledon in one of the best grass court matches ever played. We were totally shocked to see the way you dominated him on both clay and grass, back to back. It was then my hatred towards you began to gradually shape up. Instead of giving you due respect for the way you had outplayed him, I began treating you with animosity. I could not tolerate the fact that you had ended Fedex’s five years long reign at Wimbledon. When the dominance was carried forward to the next year where he was knocked out of the Australian Open by you, I was totally dejected. When your fans continued to take advantage of Federer’s losses by hailing you as a better player than him, I was unable to digest it. Besides, I had no strong point with which to counter those arguments simply because his head-to-head record against you was always on the decline.

I used to tell your fans that Federer was a better player than you because most of your titles had come only on clay and not elsewhere. I was completely oblivious of the fact that if the same logic was applied in rating Federer, I would land nowhere since most of his victories were attained on harder courts only, let alone Wimbledon – the only grass court major. Even though the playing surfaces should never be highlighted as reasons for defeats, my blind love for Roger made me proceed with such irrelevant arguments. Plus, when finally Federer went on to win his first French open title in 2009, I was ecstatic that he had achieved his “Career Grand Slam” – something which you were yet to accomplish till then. However, that argument was rendered meaningless in the very next year as you went on to complete the “Career Grand Slam” by defeating Novak Djokovic in the hard courts of Flushing Meadows.

In fact, you were able to win three Grand Slams in a row on three different surfaces in 2010, starting from the French Open. As a Federer fan, I ran short of reasonable points to rate him above you during arguments. I was totally frustrated and dejected, so to say. I kept on praying for your loss all the time, fearing that you would displace Roger Federer as the all-time record holder in Grand Slams one day. So, when Novak Djokovic started owning you in 2011, dismissing you in seven straight finals, the last of which happened in Melbourne 2012, I was totally elated thinking that you were to going to have a taste of your own medicine. When you yourself admitted that the Serb had gotten into your head, I was totally convinced you had become his ‘bunny’. Little did I realise that there was no word called “quitting” in your dictionary. Showing no signs of your previous debacles against him, you came back strongly, winning three matches in a row on clay, including the 2012 French Open final. Just when I started worrying a bit upon seeing you at the top of your game, I saw you making an early exit in Wimbledon, having been beaten by a 100th ranked individual called Lukas Rosol in the second round. It is hard to describe in words how excited I was on seeing you disappear so early from the tournament.

Then when you finally quit the rest of the year due to injury, I am ashamed to say now that I was jubilant. Instead of viewing you as a sportsman who was fighting for his own survival to earn his daily bread, I was looking at you as some sort of a villain. Is it not a crazy thing to do? Yes, it was and I fully knew what I was doing. But still my love for Roger’s game drove me to think so. I thought tennis was synonymous with Federer and he was playing it better than anyone. The grinding game of yours hardly impressed me and I thought extracting unforced errors from the opponent’s racquet was not the way to win matches. I was too adamant to look beyond Federer’s game. When you finally came back this year after a seven month lay-off only to taste your first loss in the final in Chile at the hands of Zeballos, I presumed that you were done and you were never going to be the same. But you surprised me by reaching the finals of all the tournaments which you had contested so far, winning six of them.

And what you did yesterday was completely unbelievable. Though it was the first ever Grand Slam semi final you were playing after your brief sabbatical and that too against the best player in the world, I could sense no signs of rustiness in you. When you were totally down and out in the fifth and final set and Novak was serving for a 5-3 lead, you did the impossible by breaking him. What sort of mental stamina do you have? Some mind blowing shots were played by you yesterday. You took everyone by surprise by playing scintillating forehand winners off the deep returns of Djokovic with which he used to trouble you before. Finally, you showed tremendous character by breaking your ‘best buddy’ again and winning the set 9-7. You are now into your 8th Roland Garros final in nine years and for obvious reasons you will be the overwhelming favourite going into the final this Sunday against your compatriot, David Ferrer.

Now, I understand one thing. It is not fair on my part to throw tantrums any more, degrading your efforts. You may not be as gifted as someone like Federer but at the same time you have done so well with whatever resources you have. Your mind is so strong that you can come back to win any match and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Instead of honoring you for your killer instincts and never say die attitude, I was unnecessarily finding faults with you, criticizing you for the way you play and develop injuries.

It is not going to happen anymore. I have started admiring you nowadays and am beginning to like you better, particularly after yesterday’s match. I do not have any hard feelings against you and even if you overtake Roger Federer in the Grand Slam count, it will not affect me. It is not that I have become your fan suddenly. I am very much a Federer fan even now but your victories are not going to bother me as much as they had before. You win matches because you earn them. If at the end of the day you finish your career so well that people call you the greatest of all times, who am I to dispute that? If you are called better than Roger Federer by someone, I am not going to enter into an argument with him. You deserve every eulogy you get.

I wish you all the best for a wonderful and safe career, Rafa.