But the Australian Open final on Sunday night was certainly epic entertainment. It also lasted five sets and more than four hours. It also featured plenty of abrupt reversals of fortune and unexpected breaks of serve. And it also ended with Nadal triumphant and Federer devastated.
Federer, the 27-year-old Swiss star, needed just one victory to match Pete Sampras’s career record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles. But he faded badly in the final set and was then unable to keep his composure after Nadal’s 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2 victory.
경기후 시상식에서 페더러는 자신의 우상이었던 로드 레이버로부터 준우승 플레이트를 받은 위 감정에 북받쳐 목이 메이는 모습이었고 몇 마디 말을 잇지 못하고 흐느끼기 시작했다.
"아 도저히 안되겠네요."라고 말한 페더러는 결국 마이크 뒤로 물러났다.
하지만 스포츠 역사상 최고의 라이벌인 이 두 선수는 경기중에는 네트를 사이에 두고 온 힘을 다해 공을 주고받으며 서로를 이기려 하지만 언제나 서로를 존중하는 우정어린 경쟁자 관계를 유지하고 있다. 스페인 선수로서는 처음으로 호주 오픈을 우승한 나달이 페더러와 어깨동무하고 머리를 맞대며 위로한 뒤 페더러가 준우승 소감을 마저 끝마칠 수 있도록 충분히 배려하는 모습에서 이러한 두 선수의 우정이 또한 느껴졌다.
"시상식 소감의 마지막은 제가 아닌 나달이 해야 할 것 같네요."라고 페더러가 말했다. "나달의 우승을 진심으로 축하합니다. 그는 정말 멋진 경기를 펼쳤고 우승의 자격이 있습니다."
(In the postmatch ceremony, Federer choked up after receiving the runner-up plate from one of his idols, Rod Laver, and was unable to get more than a few sentences into his speech before he began to cry in earnest.
“God it’s killing me,” he said, eventually backing away from the microphone.
But this historic rivalry, one of the best in any sport, is also a friendly rivalry, despite all the power and spin these two well-mannered men use against each other when they are on opposite sides of a net. So it was no surprise that Nadal, the first Spaniard to win a singles title here, was soon putting his left arm around Federer, putting his head against his and helping him pull himself together long enough to finish the speech.
“I don’t want to have the last word; this guy deserves it,” Federer said. “So, Rafa, congratulations. You played incredible. You deserve it, man.”)
It is difficult to argue with that. To reach the final, top-seeded Nadal had to win the longest match in Australian Open history in the semifinals, defeating his compatriot Fernando Verdasco in a five-set, 5-hour-14-minute classic. He then had one day fewer than No. 2 Federer to prepare for the 19th installment of their rivalry. The 22-year-old Nadal underwent intense physical therapy in an attempt to recover the freshness of mind and body required to stop a man on a mission.
“I knew it was not going to affect him a lot,” Federer said of Nadal’s shorter preparation time. “It did not have any role to play in it, so I was ready for that.”
Nadal was not nearly so certain that he would be in fine shape. After getting to sleep at 5 a.m. Saturday after his marathon semifinal, he woke at 1 p.m. He practiced lightly that afternoon and again Sunday afternoon.
“I was having a bit of trouble practicing,” Nadal said through an interpreter. “I felt a little lightheaded when I practiced yesterday and today. I was pretty concerned, not being sure whether I could be at my best. It’s tough feeling that way when it’s your first final in Australia and you’re not sure you’re going to be 100 percent. But in the end, everything worked out well for me.”
The process was hardly straightforward. Nadal needed 4 hours 23 minutes to finish off Federer, who actually won one point more than Nadal did. He rallied from 2-4 in the first set, breaking Federer in the next game with the help of two phenomenal winners on the run.
Nadal needed to save all six break points he faced in the third set, when he twice received treatment for a tight right thigh during changeovers.
“Winning the third was vital,” Nadal said. “It would have gotten very complicated if I had lost that set.”
He also needed Federer, the Australian Open champion in 2004, ’06 and ’07, to serve much less convincingly than usual. Federer put only 52 percent of his first serves in play, by far his lowest percentage of the tournament. One of the most remarkable statistics was that Federer managed to win the second set with a first-serve percentage of only 37 percent.
“Perhaps I should not have been out there in the fifth set at all,” Federer, still red-eyed, said an hour after the match. “I should have won the first set and the third. The rest of the story, we all know it.”
Early in his career Nadal, like many Spanish players, was considered a clay-court specialist. But he is now well on his way to becoming a great multisurface champion. He has won four consecutive French Opens on clay, the 2008 Wimbledon title on grass and, now, his first Grand Slam title on a hardcourt.
“I’ve worked very hard the last, well, all my life to improve the tennis outside of clay,” said Nadal, who won the Olympic gold medal in men’s singles in August on a hardcourt in Beijing.
하지만 나달은 그렇게 화려한 경기를 펼치는 챔피언이지만 언제난 페더러가 역사상 최고의 선수라고 칭찬하는 겸손한 플레이어이다.
우승 소감을 위해 마이크를 잡은 나달은 두 손으로 트로피를 든 채 제일 먼저 페더러를 위로하는 말로 소감을 시작했다.
"먼저 마음이 아프다는 말을 하고 싶습니다." 라고 나달이 페더러를 돌아보며 말했다. "지금 페더러가 어떤 기분인 줄 알고 있습니다. 정말 마음이 아플 것입니다. 하지만 페더러는 훌륭한 챔피언입니다. 그는 역사상 최고입니다."
나달은 이어서 페더러가 샘프라스의 커리어 메이저 타이틀 우승 14회의 기록을 경신할 것이라고 말했다.
(But Nadal, for all the flashiness in his left-handed game, is also a self-effacing champion, one who continues to affirm that Federer is the greatest player ever, even as he continues to defeat him.
Once he took the microphone, with the trophy in his hands, his first words were for his opponent.
“Well, first of all, sorry for today,” he said, turning to face Federer. “I really know how you feel right now. It’s really tough. Remember you are a great champion. You are the best in history.”
Nadal then said that he was convinced Federer would beat Sampras’s record. )
Perhaps Federer will, but for now Nadal, however respectful, keeps blocking his path.
Nadal has won five of the seven Grand Slam finals they have played, including the last three. He is 13-6 against Federer over all, and the only surface on which Federer still holds an advantage is grass, at 2-1.
Nadal said, “I always have tried to go on court believing I can win and giving my best, thinking that if I don’t give my best and play my best, I’m not going to beat a player like Roger.”
This final was the first to go five sets at the Australian Open since 1988, when Mats Wilander beat Pat Cash. But the roar heard at Rod Laver Arena when Federer held serve to even the match at two sets apiece was soon replaced by the groans and awkward silences that accompany an anticlimax.
Federer, suddenly looking sluggish and off his rhythm, was broken in the fourth game of the final set, blowing a 30-0 lead on his serve by losing four straight points — three with unforced errors from the baseline and another with a double fault.
That gave Nadal a 3-1 lead. With Federer serving to stay in the match at 2-5, he quickly fell behind by 15-40. Although he saved two match points on uncharacteristic backhand errors by Nadal, he could not build on that brief reprieve.
At deuce, Nadal hit a backhand winner; Federer appeared distracted by a shout of “out” from the crowd earlier in the rally. On the next and final point, Federer knocked a forehand long and Nadal immediately fell on his back, in celebration and relief.
하지만 나달은 페더러가 매우 마음아파하는 모습을 바라보면서 승리의 순간에 다음과 같이 배려의 한마디를 덧붙였다.
"당연히 누구나 그럴 수 있습니다."라고 나달은 페더러가 시상식 도중 울음을 터뜨린 것에 대해 말했다. "감정이 북받치는 순간이었습니다. 훌륭한 챔피언인 페더러 같은 선수가 자신의 감정을 솔직히 드러내고 인간적인 모습을 보여주는 것이 스포츠(테니스)를 한층 멋진 것으로 만드는 것이라 생각합니다. 경쟁자이지만 또한 같은 테니스 선수인 동료가 그런 모습을 보일 때 승자는 겸손해집니다."
(But as Nadal began to grasp the degree of Federer’s emotional distress, he added a moment of reflection to his moment of triumph.
“Of course it can happen to all of us,” he said of Federer’s breakdown during the ceremony. “It was an emotional moment, and I think this also lifts up sport, to see a great champion like Federer expressing his emotions. It shows his human side. But in these moments, when you see a rival, who is also a comrade, feeling like this, you enjoy the victory a little bit less.”)
첫댓글 아 정말 언젠간 꼭 가서 볼꺼야..ㅠㅠ 아~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
페더러의 눈물....잊을수 없을꺼 같아요....정말....저도 결승전 보고...시상식 볼때 살짝 울컥했는데... 나달로 의외로 멋진 구석이 있네요....나이에 비해서..ㅎ
그나저나....저 KIA CEO 라는 사람 영어 연습좀 하든가,,,,개인지도를 받든가.....진짜 TV 보면서 쪽팔려 죽는줄 알았어여...내가 다 조마조마해서....어쩜....그렇게....영어를.....아휴..영어 잘 되는 임원을 내보내든가..승질나서 증말..ㅎ