Quick, who said this: “The beauty of this experience is not knowing when or where brilliance will appear.” Was it A) Deepak Chopra; B) Pema Chodron; or C) Wayne Dyer? Baaaap. Time’s up. Okay, trick question. It was D) ESPN commentator Chris Forrester remarking on the 2009 Australian Open at the close of the Men’s Final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Of course we do expect brilliance from Nadal/Federer. (Can I refer to them as a a single entity? Because to my mind they are flip sides of a single coin—neither can exist without the other.) But what of the rest of the week? Who would have expected Australian Jelena Dokic, on a comeback from debilitating family and emotional issues, to come out of nowhere to make it to the quarterfinals? And what of Fernando Verdasco, fellow Spanish lefty who gave Nadal the run of his life in the semis?
What I have come to love about tennis is that it’s a microcosm of life itself, served up in the crucible of the arena. It all plays out in front of us—the struggles, both mental and physical, the intangible energy that ebbs and flows during a match, the uncertainty of the outcome, and yes, the grace of upwelling brilliance appearing where we least expect it.
One of my favorite matches recently happened in the second round of the US Open last year. American Ryler DeHeart, ranked 261, played Rafael Nadal, and though outplayed and ultimately defeated in straight sets, he seemed to relish every moment of his opportunity, occasionally glancing up at the stands as if drinking it all in. With amazing poise he took two games off Nadal in the second set and four in the third and won the hearts and admiration of the crowd, who cheered his exit as if he were a Top-10 champion. Those moments can’t be scripted.
There was also no script for the raw emotion we saw from Roger Federer as he tried to accept the runner-up trophy for the Men’s Final last night. Tears flowed from the man who seldom shows more than a mild fist pump during play. The one who would be the Greatest of All Time showed us his humanity, as did the Yang to his Yin, Rafael Nadal, as he put his arm around Federer’s shoulder on the platform.
Brilliance indeed.
