Monday, July 7, 2008

Wimbledon

Did you guys see that game yesterday?

It has been a long time since I have watched tennis and I forgot how stressful it is. It is really great for the first hour or so, but after that it starts wearing me out. It seems to me that tennis is one of the few sports where you can just as easily lose the game, as you can be beat. That right there is what makes me so nervous for the people playing. It can all come down to a mistake you will play in your head over and over again that cost you the game. Maybe its just me, but that feels like a lot of pressure.

After the second tie breaker in the 4th game, Josh and I took a break. Josh went out in the 90 degree weather with another Josh and actually played tennis while I went out with his wife shopping for stuff for our newly finished bathroom.

After that brief interlude (5 hours) we sat back down to finish the game because our friends have some version of Tivo. It looked like it was never going to end. I was secretly hoping the sun would set in London just to find out what would happen.

Then finally, literally 10 minutes before the sun was gone, it ended the way I was afraid it would. Federer lost the game. Nadal won by perservering but Federer hit the ball into the net and lost. It was painful to watch. You can tell it just killed Federer and the interviewers asking "Is it any consolation that your loss was still an amazing game of tennis and a record setting match here at Wimbledon?" were not helping one bit. I think if he hadn't just played 6 hours of strenuous tennis and was using what little energy he had left to keep the tears back, he would have punched one of them in the face.

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