Was that the best tennis match ever?

Did I just watch the greatest tennis match ever today?

The Wimbledon men’s final between Nadal and Federer today was amazing. Nothing more needs to be said.

OK, I’ll say some more.

I usually don’t watch too much tennis, even though I respect the sport greatly. However, it was Nadal and Federer, I was going to give it a chance.

I tried to wake up early today to watch it, but I missed the first set. When I saw that Nadal won the first set, I thought that Rafa would kind of cruise throughout. Then, Federer was up 4-2 in the second set, he was looking great. However, when Nadal came back and won that set, it looked like it was over. I was wrong.

It was similar to the golf U.S. Open final round that I watched a few weeks ago which was also my first true commitment to watching a sport in a long time.

I thought that Nadal was definitely going to win the match at this point. However, Federer came on in the third set and won the tiebreaker in that one.

The other crazy element to this match was the constant weather delay. That had to affect the play of the two guys in a good and bad way. The good part about it is that they got to rest some and preserve their energy. However, both of them had to stop playing and get warmed back up again which could be bad.

So the match is two sets to one in favor of Rafa and then things got legendary.

The fourth set was ridiculous. Each guy was hitting sick shots and just executing. One guy wasn’t making mistakes in so much the other guy was just executing well. Then the tiebreaker came. Rafa made one of the sickest shots I’ve ever seen to get a match point in the tiebreaker, before Federer made an even more amazing backhand shot down the baseline to tie up the score. It’s in the two minute mark on the video below. Keep in mind that these guys are doing this in the finals of Wimbledon.

Federer finds a way to win the fourth set and then the guys come back out for the fifth set, each with two games and then the rain came again.

The guys come back out after the delay and even played harder. I don’t know how many match points Nadal had that Federer fought off. Roger is the king of Wimbledon and he wasn’t going down easily.

Since there isn’t a tiebreaker in the fifth set, the guys keep playing until Nadal finally wins the set, 9-7.

It was also getting dark outside and there weren’t lights, so they had to finish it right then unless they would have had to play on Monday.

I was rooting for Nadal the entire time. I like Federer and think that he’s amazing, but there’s something about Rafa that wanted me to see him win today. Maybe it’s because he had never won Wimbleton, or that I dig lefties or the hair (which is awesome and I want it) or maybe the shorts (even cooler).

Overall, I was happy to see the competition and that’s why I work in sports. You really can’t find that type of competition in any other aspect of life.

It was the best tennis match that I’ve ever seen and if Luke Jensen, Bud Collins and John McEnroe, three tennis experts, agree with me, then its probably true.

Just like how I’ll watch the British Open and Ryder Cup because of my new interest in golf, I’ll be all over the U.S. Open in August.

Please watch the video below because my post doesn’t do this match justice.

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?categoryId=2378529&brand=null&videoId=3475698&n8pe6c=2

Sunday Reflections

My Sunday Reflections

-I woke up today at 10 am to do some laundry and to catch some of the French Open final between Federer and Nadal. Well, turned on the TV and I literally catch championship point for Nadal. Federer hits a shot wide and the match is over. Nadal just dominated Federer in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3, and 6-0. Sick. I expected to at least catch the final three sets, but Rafa dominated for his fourth consecutive French to match Borg. Now, I’m not the biggest tennis fan out there, but I can appreciate skill and Rafa is a freak on clay. And Borg even said afterwards that he thinks Nadal is going to win Wimbledon in a few weeks. I can’t argue against that after the way he played today.

-Enjoyed all of the college baseball that took place this weekend. I love the super regionals and the World Series even more. I like it when there’s a balance between west coast, Midwest and southeast teams. So far, it’s leaning towards the southeast with the ACC representing strong. But, FSU, Miami and UNC have been the best teams all year, so that’s not shocking. I’ve always secretly been a fan of Fullerton for some reason, so to see them lose to Stanford was a bummer. Rice did its thing and frickin Georgia is going to Omaha. Not a fan of the Bulldogs because they beat Georgia Tech every year. I’d like to see LSU come through against Irvine, if for anything for good karma after that BS hidden ball trick yesterday.

-Looking forward to heading to Atlanta in a few days to see the family. It’s nice to catch up with them.

-Had a good conversation with Daniel at the Beaman today, just discussing life. We talked about relationships with women and family things. It’s always good to have people in your life that you can talk with about things. I’m fortunate to have that in my life now.

-Watched the NBA Finals tonight and it was good. Leon Powe, that was tremendous. I’m going to look up the profile they did of him at halftime and post it on this blog. It needs to be seen by everybody. People talk about all of the negatives when it comes to professional athletes, but there are some good people out there. Watching Powe’s story was amazing and dare I say inspirational. And the fact that he had a career night made it even better. Good job Leon.

-I had my cheat day today and I feel like crap. All week I’ve been eating right, drinking plenty of water and working my butt off in the gym for six straight days. I felt great about it and my body felt so clean and pure. However, I gave myself the day off and decided to lax my diet for one day, aka a cheat day. I had mashed potatoes with butter and salt, baked cookies and chips. Good times, not so much. Its midnight now and I have an upset stomach. Point being, be careful with your cheat days. I’m looking forward to going to the gym tomorrow and getting back to work.

-I think that lesson applies to life as well. If you lead a clean life, continue to do it. Don’t have a “cheat day” moment and ruin it all. Don’t have that drink. Don’t take that drug. Don’t do that crime. Don’t have sex with that person, especially dirty girls. Please, please watch out for those dirty girls. Many of us lead good lives but we sometimes reach that moment of truth where we can continue to be good or cheat. However, the biggest person you’re cheating is that you end up cheating yourself in the end.

-If you need any more advice, I’m available for a monetary fee.

-I didn’t watch the UFC pay-per-view this weekend because it honestly didn’t inspire me. I guess its good Alves won, even though he needs to stay away from the buffet and make his weight before he gets another big fight. I heard Matt Hughes looked average, but that’s been the case for the past year. I respect Hughes, but I’m not his biggest fan.

-Finally saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall and was disappointed. It had one or two laugh moments, but it just felt flat to me. I love the movie series from the producers and writers of FSM, but this one was just a whiff for me. And my top-five girl Mila was in it. She did look hot, but that only goes so far in a movie.

Post to look forward to this upcoming week:
-Is this Supposed to Offend Me, Part 3
-Brothers don’t like rock music, really?
-Obama vs. McCain, broken down ‘Pancakes’ style
-Analysis of the NBA Finals so far
-Probably something about a girl, hopefully not
-etc.

Have a good week, peeps.

I leave you with Fade to Black, maybe my favorite Metallica song ever. This song will make the wedding music rotation when I get married and will be played at my funeral. No lie.