From the headlines

Two years ago I happened to be in England at the time of the Wimbledon final and I found myself passionately cheering on Spain’s Rafa Nadal in his match against Roger Federer. Yesterday, watching the final of the Madrid Open, I realised my loyalty had changed sides as I rooted for Federer and celebrated his victory.

The problem is that since that 2007 Wimbledon final, men’s tennis has started to get plain boring with Nadal winning everything left, right and centre.

The intial pride in a Spaniard doing so well started to wear off as he lifted every single trophy going and then bit into them for the cameras. (One of these days he’s going to break a tooth out of over-enthusiasm, I’m sure of it).

Then came Federer’s tears in Australia in February, making many of us think that the Swiss player’s best tennis days were over. That is why, when I saw that he was Nadal’s opponent in Sunday’s final in Madrid, that I decided that he had to win. Rafa Nadal needs rivals with a serious chance of beating him otherwise we’re all going to lose interest in the tournaments to come.

Maybe this was just a one-off. Maybe Nadal is saving himself for Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Maybe Federer was just lucky that Rafa was tired after his close shave in the semi against Djokovic. Whatever the case now the Mallorca star is no longer unbeatable – perhaps I’ll root for him again next time.

Filed under: General by Rachel Haynes