Djoker Beats King









Okay, so the headline wasn't exactly original (I've seen many variations on the web), but the shock is palpable nonetheless.

I mean, Roger Federer was not playing his best tennis, we all know that, but all of us (including, I'm sure, himself) were expecting him to win his 13th slam, especially considering the fate of his nemesis Rafael Nadal.


Novak Djokovic has the game - that's never been in doubt - but as evidenced by his unravelling at the end of his match against David Ferrer (the Energizer Bunny of Tennis) his mental and emotional faculties have always been in contention.

That is until his tight, straight-sets win over the Greatest Player Who Ever Lived.

Great, just bloody great.

I like Djokovic, I really do. He has a big game. He is a wonderful shot-maker. He has gained some amount of notoriety thanks to his YouTube videos of tennis impressions. People in the US have somewhat heard of him (a miracle in and of itself).

But the only thing keeping Tennis in the general consciousness here is the unparalleled genius of Federer (and, um, the unparalleled "commercial" genius of Maria Sharapova...but more on that later). If this truly is the end of Federer, then Tennis is finished.

Yes, I said that Tennis is finished.

Without widespread American support, Tennis cannot survive at the highest level, even internationally.

Great, just bloody great.

On top of that Shriekin' Sharapova took out the poor, sweet Ana Ivanovic in straight sets to win the Australian Open (Ivanovic gave a very emotional, heartfelt speech that transcended her broken English - apparently they don't give media training in war-torn Serbia).

It looks like the gutless Tiger Woods is going to run away with the Buick Invitational (Is it any accident that his first tournament of the year is sponsored by one of the companies he endorses and it just happens to fall on an NFL-dark weekend so he gets all the sports headlines? I think not.)

Great, just bloody great.

At this point nothing is going to stop the New England Cheat-riots, Bill "Spygate" Belichick, and Tom "The Boot" Brady from completing their perfect season.

Great, just bloody great.

And there is that voice inside my head telling me that somehow, someway, India is going to lose the deciding Test against Australia.

They may have come back from a soul-shattering defeat to inflict a thrashing on the mighty Aussies (and keep them from setting their own Consecutive Test Victory record) and put up a big first innings in this last match (which included a century from Sachin Tendulkar when it actually mattered - imagine that!) but India, as we all know, is the master of that oft-used term "Flatter to Deceive" (applied to such sports entities like Marat Safin, Peyton Manning, the Phoenix Suns, Amelie Mauresmo, David Beckham, Gabriela Sabatini, Tiki Barber, the 2006 - 2007 USC Football Team, the 2006 French Football Team, the New England Patriots' Super Bowl Competition, Terrell Owens, Jelena Jankovic, Alex Rodriguez, The National League, Andy Roddick, Barry Sanders, etc.)

Great, just bloody great.

LINKS

ESPN: Patrick McEnroe
ESPN: Bonnie D. Ford
SI: Jon Wertheim
The Times: Neil Harman
The Guardian: Steve Bierley