Ten best shots of Roger Federer or the ten best goals of Lionel Messi on YouTube are dumbfounding. Google them.They are a thing of beauty. You know for sure they cannot be replicated. They are one in a billion. Genius is the word to describe them!
Sometimes we are dazzled by the Genius, since they transcend us from the monotony. From the pain and the suffering. Like a Michael Angelo painting. Like Mozart on the keys. We are made to forget the daily rumblings of the humankind and takes us to the seventh heaven, the state of intense happiness and bliss! The Sachin Tendulkar straight drive, the Michael Jordan air time, a Tiger woods Putt, a Usain Bolt dash! That is what makes sport the greatest live entertainment available.
Yet, there are others who also enthral. Not because of their greatness but by the sheer ability to conquer the mind and will your way to the top. They come across as ordinary human beings, like you and me. The 'WOW' factor is often missing. They huff and puff; They revel in the monotony. They sweat. Fail. Lose. Fail again. Sweat more. Fall down. Get back again. And do it one more time. Till the mind wins the battle. The unforgiving sport has a place for them also.
When Sachin was doing his art, on the other side the great Rahul Dravid often stuttered and stopped. The cover drives often went to the fielder. The boundary balls were not belted. Yet, often at the end of it all, Dravid stood still. The shirt drenched in sweat. The eyes gleaming. Concentration intact. The man in a trance.
Rafael Nadal is of the Dravid ilk. You hit him to death, he will wake up eyes open. He will run down every ball, every game in every set. Till death does him apart.
Rafa does not have the wicked Andy Murray backhand or the Wawrinka forehand. He does not float around like Federer nor sting like Djokovic. Yet he wins! And he has won the physically most demanding grand slam a record ten times. Ten times! In the modern era, I doubt anybody can ever break this record.
That, makes me think he is the greatest athlete of the millenium. For an athlete, the greatest achievement is to maximise whatever was given; And in the physically demanding world of modern generation sport, to conquer the mind and by that conquest, conquering the world is the greatest of athlete.
And no doubt, Rafa is the greatest athlete this side of the twenty first century.
Sometimes we are dazzled by the Genius, since they transcend us from the monotony. From the pain and the suffering. Like a Michael Angelo painting. Like Mozart on the keys. We are made to forget the daily rumblings of the humankind and takes us to the seventh heaven, the state of intense happiness and bliss! The Sachin Tendulkar straight drive, the Michael Jordan air time, a Tiger woods Putt, a Usain Bolt dash! That is what makes sport the greatest live entertainment available.
Yet, there are others who also enthral. Not because of their greatness but by the sheer ability to conquer the mind and will your way to the top. They come across as ordinary human beings, like you and me. The 'WOW' factor is often missing. They huff and puff; They revel in the monotony. They sweat. Fail. Lose. Fail again. Sweat more. Fall down. Get back again. And do it one more time. Till the mind wins the battle. The unforgiving sport has a place for them also.
When Sachin was doing his art, on the other side the great Rahul Dravid often stuttered and stopped. The cover drives often went to the fielder. The boundary balls were not belted. Yet, often at the end of it all, Dravid stood still. The shirt drenched in sweat. The eyes gleaming. Concentration intact. The man in a trance.
Rafael Nadal is of the Dravid ilk. You hit him to death, he will wake up eyes open. He will run down every ball, every game in every set. Till death does him apart.
Rafa does not have the wicked Andy Murray backhand or the Wawrinka forehand. He does not float around like Federer nor sting like Djokovic. Yet he wins! And he has won the physically most demanding grand slam a record ten times. Ten times! In the modern era, I doubt anybody can ever break this record.
That, makes me think he is the greatest athlete of the millenium. For an athlete, the greatest achievement is to maximise whatever was given; And in the physically demanding world of modern generation sport, to conquer the mind and by that conquest, conquering the world is the greatest of athlete.
And no doubt, Rafa is the greatest athlete this side of the twenty first century.
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