The magic of Sports
I want to write about a topic that hasn’t left my mind ever since Nadal’s Australian Open unprecedented comeback. It’s about top athletes and their mindset.
This last Sunday, I reserved my schedule for two top sporting events that I knew were going to be great. Golden State Warriors were playing the Brooklyn Nets in NBA and Rafael Nadal was playing against Daniil Medvedev for his 21st grand slam. To be clear, I’m an occasional sports fan, usually watching big matches or youtube highlights or much worse reading memoirs/ oped articles. Nonetheless, I’m a lover of sports and everything that it offers. And Sunday proved to be a testimony of why sports are so much more than the skill and strength at play.
Earlier in the day when the Warriors defeated the Brooklyn Nets, both my fav players; Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were having their most terrible outing. Having missed so many shots, It came to a point where I wanted them to be benched or if around then somebody else to be taking the shots. My disappointments were short-lived and they both returned strong in the last quarter. In fact so good that Klay hit a clutch 3-pointer, securing the winning basket. It ended well and now I was even more excited for the Australian Open Final.
For Tennis, I have been a long Roger Federer fan, an essay for him on some other day. But after Roger, if there is anyone I’d cheer for it has to be Nadal. Djokovic is too good to require a cheer and apart from that, I don’t know anyone.
The match started on a rather bitter note with Nadal being two sets down and Medvedev playing as if the title wasn’t a trophy but some Ukrainian territory. With my hopes crashing, I took a nice Sunday afternoon nap. Now that I had no plan, I went for a long bike ride and returned an hour later. All drenched in sweat, drying myself before the shower I thought I’d check how badly Nadal lost the game. But wait, I was done but Nadal wasn’t. The match had been running for 5 hours and Nadal was onto his championship point. Rafael Nadal was scripting one of the most historic comebacks of all times. With goosebumps and tears down my eyes, I watched Nadal win his 21st Grandslam. Tears didn’t stop for Nadal had shown the world that never ever give up on a champion. (I felt guilty)
Nadal's historic comeback is a story for ages. A story that is often repeated by top athletes now and again. Their relentless faith in themselves, years of mental training and an almost non-negotiable attitude of never giving up are what makes them so loved and successful.
So as I think about chasing my goals, during my weakest hours, I will be reminded of this Sunday and what Nadal pulled off. A lot of people will take a nap on me but I will not give up.
