Monday, July 7, 2008

sublime

i'm so happy!

after turning a new leaf in his career through his first grasscourt title at queen's club in london, rafa is now the new wimbledon champ! by snapping federer's 6-year grasscourt winning streak, the sublime spaniard is the first (since borg in 1980) to win roland garros and wimbledon back to back. after manolo santana, he's now the first spaniard to win wimbledon after 44 years! more than that, he prevented federer from winning a modern record of 6th consecutive wimby crown.

i was practically frantic last night on my way home from having dinner with ate she, utoy and izhi at sm fairview. i took a quick look and saw from wimbledon.org that rafa was ahead by 2 sets to love, then i went home. bbc reported that the game was suspended due to rain. around 2 pm or so, i was even rattling varbs' tv watching just to see some breaking news about this match. then, i got up early to see cnn world report... rafa stunned roger in 5 epic sets!

his first slam outside paris was very memorable... one for the ages! the great martina navratilova even said at the start of the tournament that her money is on nadal... and her judgment was correct. even marat said that nadal was the one to beat. one stat to note - roger only had 1 out of 13 break points, which showed how improved rafa's game was, adapting his game to grass by staying close to the baseline, as well as improving his slice serve and backhand slice. of course, the volleys were there as well to finish the points in the net. to win this big, your ego could've turned even bigger! but no, rafa was still gracious and humble...

"Well, it is disappointing for me I am in the same time as the best player in history, Roger Federer... I just congratulate Roger, because he always fights unbelievably. I lost the two finals, close finals. But he's still the number one. He's still the best. He's still five times champion here. Right now, I have one, so for me it's a very, very important day."

in addition, venus williams won her 5th wimby crown. i was also rooting for her to win it over her sister coz anyway, they also won the women's doubles titles. nestor and zimonjic won the men's, while bob bryan and sam stosur won the mixed over bob's twin bro, mike and katarina srebotnik.


yeheeey!!! US Open at Olympics naman! (",)

2 comments:

same old kamote on top said...

vamos rafafafa!...i can only say this "time to believe young man!", and im so elated when i got the news that there is a new champion after 5 years at wimby!...nice blog very star sports-like you should be joining them!...cheers to all who have believe what few people thought was unbelievable.....he should be spain's national hero!!!!-undersigned

dyoobshvili said...

hey undersigned! yes, this match was really great... rafa was terrific! sports illustrated will have this as their cover story for their next issue. sana ma-maintain niya yung good play until the end of this year! (",)