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Tennis has been on my mind a lot lately.
The French Open is one reason, especially the quarterfinal match between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic which became an instant classic. The astonishing slugfest between two of the sport’s greatest ever lasted nearly four-and-a-half hours, not ending until the wee hours of the morning.
59 times the two men have met in what is the most prolific and arguably greatest rivalry in the history of professional tennis. Djokovic leads, 30-29. This week, he lost, probably to the only man who could have beaten him. The other member of the Big 3, Roger Federer, isn't even in Paris because he's nursing a long and stubborn illness that prevents him from battling to reach the top in total major tournaments won.
Spain's Rafael Nadal and Serbia's Novak Djokovic shakes hand after their quarterfinal match at the 2022 French Open. Nadal prevailed in four sets. (Photo credit: @rolandgarros/Twitter)
Loss is defining in tennis, as it is in life. Sayings about the importance of learning from losing have become clichés, but that makes them no less true.
My son lost last week too. He’ll be mortified that I’m using his pictures and mentioning him in the same breath as the sport’s giants, but his tennis journey, like that of so many others, has brought lessons for a lifetime.
His competitive journey likely ended when he lost a tough three-setter at the NCAA D3 National Championships in Orlando, fifteen years after the adventure began with his first tournament match on an indoor court in Chicago. It has taken him to more than 20 states and many dozens of cities and towns to play more than one thousand matches.
My son, Antonio Daniel Mora, serves in the quarterfinal round of the 2022 NCAA Division III National Championships at the USTA National Campus in Orlando Florida. HIs Emory University team lost to the University of Chicago. (Manuela Davies/USTA)
Tennis taught him to be a tough and fair competitor, forging his character, leading to lasting friendships, and to deep bonds between him and the family members who traveled with him and shared in his toughest losses and most exciting wins.
Fortunately, he earned many of the latter, from small local tournaments, to multiple state and national titles as a grade-schooler, and two team national championships as a collegiate.
From a temperamental kid (although always fair and honest player on the court), he developed into a disciplined and gracious young man who has learned to fight through adversity in both victory and defeat.
I was honored to be there at the beginning and end of my son's competitive tennis journey. (Photo by MG Joshi)
The list of benefits that sports bring to young people and their parents is long, but it is a great shame that tennis has not managed to fully seize the American imagination.
It may be the sport's individualism and the deep dedication and struggle involved, a struggle the athlete bears alone, helped by none.
Ash Barty and Pete Sampras are among the very few who ended their pro careers with great wins, in a sport that can be cruel and lonely, greatly defined by loss.
To those points, I wrote much of the following after Roger Federer and Djokovic’s historic five-set match in the 2019 Wimbledon final:
Tennis is the cruelest of sports. Never more so than on Centre Court at Wimbledon when two of the greatest men to play the game faced each other in a marathon match that history will record as one of the most dramatic ever. For almost five hours, Roger Federer played the better match, but it was Novak Djokovic who claimed the crucial points that secured him his fifth Wimbledon title.
Tennis is not only cruel, it is lonely. Despite tens of millions of people watching on television and 15,000 sitting steps away, Federer and Djokovic were on their own, no coaches, no teammates, no caddies to advise them, just two players dressed in white and isolated in a sea of grass, fighting a brutal battle not only against their opponent, but also physical and mental fatigue.
Andre Agassi wrote that “Tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love - the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday existence, because every match is a life in miniature.”
Even more than life, tennis forces you to deal with failure. 128 players qualified for the main draw at Wimbledon. 127 lost.
Like life and the sea, the championship match ebbed and flowed, from joy to sadness, highs to lows, hope to despair, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, with both players, at different times, seeming to be the certain victor.
Those fortunate to have seats to witness the classic match overwhelmingly rooted for Federer, the most beloved player ever. Author David Foster Wallace wrote one of the best-known essays on tennis, titling it “Roger Federer as Religious Experience.”
Roger Federer of Switzerland plays a forehand in his men's singles final against Novak Djokovic of Serbia during day 13 of The Championships at Wimbledon 2019 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 14, 2019 in London. (Andy Cheung/Getty Images)
Federer’s faithful worshiped at the Centre Court altar, the site of his greatest victories, exploding with excitement when their hero seemed on the verge of making history, yet again. But Djokovic broke their hearts, fighting off match points when Federer’s serve, one of the most effective of all-time, failed to seal the match at 8-7 in the decisive fifth and final set.
And so it continued, all the way to 12-12, when history stepped in to put an end to the longest championship match ever played. For the first time ever, a new Wimbledon rule demanded the battle be decided by a tiebreak. And tiebreaks were Djokovic’s friend, needing them to take all his three sets.
In fact, Federer won more games, 3% more points, broke serve more often, and hit more winners than Djokovic.
Still, he lost, because tennis is cruel, a sort of electoral college of sports. As in a US election, what matters is where you win those points, and Djokovic managed to do it when they mattered most. Federer made 11 unforced errors in the tiebreaks. Djokovic made none.
Tennis has also been cruel to the three men who could claim to be the greatest of all time, because they have had overlapping careers. Despite that and in further evidence of their greatness, Federer, Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal have still claimed more majors than any other player before them.
Only eight have managed the career grand slam, and just four, the Big Three and Agassi, have done so on three different surfaces. Tennis fans today are privileged to be seeing the greatest grass-court player ever in Federer, the greatest clay-court player in Nadal, and possibly the greatest hard-court player in Djokovic.
Can you imagine how many majors each would have won without the others? Of course, we will never know. They may have made each other even greater as they continue to do what few did before them: Conquering major tournaments well into their thirties.
Novak Djokovic of Serbia shakes hands with Roger Federer of Switzerland, after winning Championship point in their men's singles final match during day 13 of The Championships at Wimbledon 2019 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 14, 2019 in London. (Andy Cheung/Getty Images)
Tennis is especially cruel to Djokovic, who may win everything, but knows he will not win the hearts of tennis fans, as long as Federer and Nadal are on the court with him.
In tennis, failure is the rule, success the exception. It demands speed, strength, agility, and the mind of a chess master, as it exhausts the body and spirit of the lonely gladiators.
Tennis is the cruelest sport, but, for all those reasons, it’s also the greatest.
Cover photo: My son, Antonio Daniel Mora, plays in the round of 32 of the singles draw of the 2022 NCAA Division III National Championships at the USTA National Campus in Orlando Florida. He lost to Case Western's James Hopper, 5-7, 6-1,6-2 (Manuela Davies/USTA)
Update for those who read my prior article: I'm going into surgery at noon, but I wanted to finish this piece for reasons of timeliness and because it provides a good distraction! See you on the other side.
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