when champions cry

Sunday, Feb 1, 9:48pm

Just finished watching Federer lose the Australian open championship. I'm sure you all feel what I feel now.

Yesterday, I told my baby after feeling so down last Friday with the effects of the recession, I needed a beacon of hope. I did say on a whim that if Federer wins, there is no recession, there are no problems with the world, and everything will be alright. I didn't have TV so today I was getting live updates from my baby on the game. I was thinking I was not going to watch it and just wait for the good news instead. But luckily I got to a site that streamed live so I watched the game from near the end of the 2nd set until it was done. It was 2.5 hours well-spent.

1st set -tie break, 2nd set 6-3 for federer, crucial 3rd set ended in a tie break, and another 6-3 for the 4th set. The 4th set I think was his best moment. I don't know what happened but the last set was simply lackluster, and I think he was tired or worse, his spirit gave up and he believed he would lose. And so he did.

I was even telling myself "never say die", "it's not over til it's over", when the chips were down and he wasn't holding serve.  What happened was he had so many unforced errors, even double-faulted on his serve and it just didn't flow for him. Nadal was more intent, I guess he was so much more eager to win. But everyone loved Federer, and we cheered him on until the last point of the match.

So yeah even if you get a feeling he'd lose, you still stick by him and sway your head from side to side and say and try to convince yourself that it will better. Sometimes it does not. I guess we really have a recession at this time. Our champion lost. And we really have to deal with it.

It was supposed to be his 14th grand slam win. One for the books. The one that will say "I am a superstar and legend-to-be in tennis, I am Roger Federer, and although I am not no.1, I will come out on top".  He was the underdog in this match after hacing lost twice last year. He needed to win. But I guess Nadal just got lucky in the last set. Federer had more winners than him. And this time, the underdog doesn't come out on top.


But this tournament ended with a touching note, he cried and wasn't able to give his speech.
He just looked up at the crowd and cried. And I swear I felt the whole stadium felt like crying too. We all wanted to cry with him. In moments like this, we have no other thing to do really but cry. We cry when we are defeated, when we did everything we can and still we lost.


The Aussie Open Tournament president aptly described the feeling of the crowd when he said "you are everyone's favorite, and everyone wanted you to win .." That is true. Even Nadal in his speech, said to him  "I'm sorry..."..this victory is not so sweet for him I suppose, how can you when everyone is crying for Federer?..


I guess there's no question why Federer is our favorite tennis player out there. He is a great athlete, but more than that, he has charisma, he has finesse, and he has true passion for the sport. And maybe best of it all, he is human. He shows his pain, he's not afraid to cry in front of the whole world. Maybe because he knows we understand, and we will cry with him.


There are good things though that came out of it:

1. I have convinced my baby that Federer is cute, even more so without the headband, and we cheered him on together..thanks baby :)..

2. after watching online i chat with a dembud in YM and we share the same sentiment..inuman na sana ito..

3. even champions cry. sometimes we really have to feel defeat so that we will strive to win again.. in Federer's words, "see you next year..." somehow i know that he will get that no. 14. am sure of it. yes it's difficult, for sure it will be. but there is always hope..

4. and yeah even if there are moments when we're sure that he's not going to win it, we still don't give up, we still cheer on, we never stop believing..we cry when we need to cry.. hurrah for us true fans..

5. i guess i was being stupid and scared of this recession hitting us now..maybe that's why i thought i could wish it won't happen based on the outcome of a tennis game..
what do we do now but face it..go meet it head-on like a true champion..just do everything we can do and never stop fighting..we should never let our spirit give up and we must never believe we will lose..