Surprisingly, Rafa was ousted by his compatriot Ferrer in the quarterfinal match of Australian Open. Even more surprisingly, the defeat was in three straight sets. The bickering for "Rafa Slam", that is, Nadal to hold all four Grand Slam trophies at one time, could be put to an end.
Nadal was not in the top form throughout the tournament. It could be seen from his comparatively high figure of unforced errors, as well as his abnormal sweating on the court. According to the post-match interview, Nadal seemed to have a hamstring, though he refused to talk much on it. Instead, he chose to praise his opponent.
This is sportsmanship. I just have not seen Rafa to find excuses when he is beaten, which rarely happens. Tennis is an individual sport, which winning or losing could only count on oneself. And tennis is brutal, which victory could come from a mere break point. Thus, players are animal, otherwise they could not tear their prays apart. It would be of huge difficulty for an animal to tune back to human-being after the match. Rafa does it graciously.
沒有留言:
張貼留言