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• Best tennis moments of 2009

  12/10/09 2:39 PM | Cheryl Murray
  Federer and Nadal figure prominently in the best tennis moments of the year.
  
  5. Federer shows us his naughty side
  
  This is my most unusual entry on the list and the most self-indulgent. In fact, I’m probably the only person who would consider dropping the f-bomb at Jake Garner (US Open final) and smashing a racket into pieces (Miami vs. Djokovic) as Great Moments. Certainly those particular matches were not great for Federer; the events that precipitated both outbursts were because he had lost control of the match (and himself). That’s not why I think they’re great. The reason I added them is because for years, the tennis community has thought of Federer as some sort of winning machine, supremely composed and programmed to be…well…the perfect tennis player. One could almost, if one let oneself, be fooled into thinking that Roger doesn’t care overly much. He cares. I shouldn’t like him to turn into a brat on court, but it is nice to be reminded that Mr. Federer is indeed as human as the rest of us – even if he plays tennis like a god.
  
  4. Del Potro yanks the microphone from Dick Enberg
  
  Actually, Dick is lucky that ALL Del Potro did was take the microphone out of his hands after the final of the US Open. Many other players would have been tempted to strike Dick in the head with it (repeatedly) before speaking to the crowd. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, allow me to set the scene for you. Juan Martin Del Potro had just beaten Roger Federer. In the final. For his first ever Slam title. In five sets. And as a reward for his hard work and perseverance, he was told emphatically that NO, there would certainly NOT be time to speak in Spanish. You know….Del Potro’s NATIVE TONGUE. Apparently the Argentine didn’t get the memo about being polite from Rafa and Roger. Thankfully. The look on Enberg’s face when the 6 foot 6 inch Argentine grabbed the microphone will stick with me for some time. Thanks DelPo.
  
  3. Rafael Nadal wins the Australian Open
  
  Sadly, Rafael Nadal’s year was marred by two significant injuries, but before he succumbed to the frailties of the human body, the Spaniard sent a message in 2009 - a powerful one to anyone who ever dared call the man “merely a clay courter”. When he won Wimbledon in 2008, pundits hailed the match as the greatest of all time – and maybe it was. But Rafael Nadal was not done proving himself. Though he was the No. 1 seed for the first time in Melbourne, he was not the favorite to win the title. That dual honor went to Andy Murray and Roger Federer. Murray was knocked out early, a victim of the “Australian Open effect” (the process by which an unexpected player performs about 10 levels above what he’s ever accomplished before - at the AO - and knocks out seeded player after seeded player). The untimely demise of Murray at the hands of Fernando Verdasco left Federer standing alone in the “favored” category. And after the semifinals, there was little doubt that he would again reign supreme. Nadal had, you see, played what would end up being the match of the year against Fernando Verdasco in the semifinals – for 5 hours and 10 minutes. Nadal barely had a day’s rest before he was to come out for the final to take on a fresh-as-a-daisy Roger Federer. As the final wore on – 3 sets, then 4 sets and finally a deciding 5th, few could have thought that Nadal would have enough in the tank to finish it out….but finish it he did. And in so doing, he became the first man ever to be the reigning Grand Slam title holder on clay, grass and hard courts.
  
  2. The comeback
  
  Roger Federer was supposedly on a downswing. After a disappointing spring hard court swing, many argued that he would struggle for the rest of the year. He didn’t, after all, win a tournament until Madrid. But the Swiss maestro stormed back at just the right time. He came back from the brink TWICE at the French Open – and finally lifted the trophy that had proved most elusive. The win gave him a career slam and the moniker of Greatest of All Time. He backed that historic win with another a month later at Wimbledon, where he fought off a surprising and impressive push from Andy Roddick in the final to finally surpass Pete Sampras's 14 Slam titles.
  
  The No. 1 moment was so good, that it deserves it's own article.
  
  
  
  

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