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Australian Open 2011: The Futility of a Grand Slam Dream
Published: January 26, 2011
I followed him with an almost manic passion—tracking each and every statistic, ordering merchandise from his foundation and devouring almost every article and tribute to him that I could lay my hands on. He is after all, as Rohit Brijnath writes, "a most imperfect man in the most splendid way."
I believed in him. And he almost never let me down. As a person, as a tennis professional, as a sportsman.
His probability of winning a calendar Grand Slam is now minute, but as the records show, he came close more than once. Just not as close as Nadal.
Let me digress to immediately separate the Grand Slam and the Rafa Slam. There is a difference. Winning all four majors in the same year is different from holding all four at the same time. But only slightly. They're both transcendent ground for the most elite athlete.
They're both almost impossible to achieve.
And that's why, as I switched off the television when Nadal was 2-5 down in the first set, I already knew it was over. Had the fatigue caught up? Had the left hamstring pulled up? I wasn't sure. But I knew the dream was over. It was in his eyes. The fierce competitor in Rafael Nadal had resigned himself to his fate.
Wrong place, wrong time. A simple misalignment of the stars, and there was nothing he could do.
That's how tough four majors in a row is. You can be playing your best tennis and yet that's only part of the jigsaw. There can be no final flourish without those little ones.
There are two reasons why Rod Laver put the pieces together over forty years ago. One, he was brilliant. Two, none of the majors were played on a hard court—which in no way belittles the magnitude of his achievement. It just incr...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis
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