Since you desi cheapos would never dream of spending $6 on a newspaper, it falls upon us to tell you the interesting news.
Folks, Nadal has made it to the cover of the New York Times Magazine.
Unless you’ve lately come in from Mars or just got off the Villupuram fast passenger, y’all know we are referring to the tennis legend Rafael Nadal.
Yes, we’re talking about the man who makes young girls tremble, grownup girls palpitate and even women of an indelicate age swoon.
For those not familiar with the Nadal story, the NYT piece serves as a nice apéritif.
Here are some interesting excerpts from the NYT story:
* Federer thrills people, too, but the Nadal thrill is so different from the Federer thrill that studying the two of them is like a gorgeous immersion course in the varieties of athletic possibility. Federer is elegant and fluid and cerebral, so that his best tennis looks effortless even when he is making shots that ought to be physically impossible. Nadal is muscled-up and explosive and relentless, so that his best tennis looks not like a gift from heaven but instead like the product of ferocious will. His victories and his taped-up knees and his years as a very good No. 2 in the world all resonate together, as though the rewards and the wages of individual effort had been animated in a single human being: if you hurl yourself at a particular goal furiously enough and long enough you may tear your body up in the process, but maybe you can get there after all. People have loved watching Nadal create trouble inside Federer’s head. This is how they characterize it in tennis, that Nadal makes Federer crazy, that Nadal’s refusal over and over to be beaten by Federer in Paris was the one problem that Federer — who usually has uncanny on-court telepathy about what his opponent plans for three shots hence and exactly how to wreck it — was unable to figure out.
* Every tennis lover would like, someday, to play like Federer. But every man wants to be Rafael Nadal. Which is different. – French writer Philippe Boui on Nadal.
Nadal on NYT Magazine Cover added by SearchIndia.com on
View all posts by SearchIndia.com →
every boy wants to be Rafa.
every man wants to be Safin playing like Federer.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We like Safina better. 😉
Safin is not even a has-been. More like a wannabe has-been.
that’s part of the charm, you see.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Oh, we see. Actually, we don’t.
Safin seems to be the Ilie Năstase of our era.
Since when has Nadal been a “legend”?????? The guy was #1 in the world for less than a year.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
The legend of The King of Clay owes more to his charisma and a certain mystique and slightly less to the #1 ranking.
The last lines are very true, perhaps.
Nadal’s physique is something most men can only dream of.
While Federer’s grace can not be matched, Nadal’s mental strength is even hard to match.
Nadal has got such a grip over Fedex over the last three finals (French & Wimbledon 2008, and Aus Open 2009) that Fedex was in tears at the Aus Open, bemoaning, “its killing me”. Although Fedex has won French in 2009 and is likely to remain unchallenged in Wimbledon 2009, he knows that he needs to beat Nadal on clay, at least, to really convince the critics, fans, and most importantly, himself.
BTW, there is a Nadal Tennis School coming up in Ananthapur district of Andhra Pradesh, India.
It has already received 1000+ applications (I read this in The Hindu, a few days back).
Nadal is known to be a humble guy, and a man who prefers his native Mallorca any day, over the more glamorous pleasures of life.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. Nadal Tennis School in Anantapur!
Thanks for sharing that interesting piece of information.
Here’s the link from the Hindu newspaper for those (like us) who may have missed this story.
2. On Nadal’s humility and preference for Majorca, the NYT piece yesterday makes a reference to that and also the role his extended family has played in keeping him well grounded.
It is hard to not to love Nadal even though I have been on the Federer express for long.. Two of the greatest(top 5? or maybe the top 2) players ever playing during our era.. very nice.
Safin isn’t a wannabe-has been.. he won the US Open.. his sis is a choker (no, not the sadistic type).. lost badly in this year’s French Open. Năstase comparison is probably not accurate.. Although I have never seen Ilie play, from what I have read, I think he was a much greater player and much nastier person than Safin. And of course Safin can’t match this..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilie_N%C4%83stase#Personal_life
SearchIndia.com Responds:
True, a win at the U.S. Open is something but in the context of our post on Nadal and Federer, Safin is way out of their league.
Talk about wanna-be has-beens… We’ve got one in our own country. Andy Roddick anyone? After so much hype, one U.S. Open title and a whole lot of nothing is all he has to show for it.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Andy Roddick is a founding member of nonentities anonymous. 😉