From the Grind to Sublime – Missing Roger

I miss watching Roger play competitive tennis nowadays.  Yes, this is the season for Nadal and he’ll win every tournament  that he enters.  He truly is the king of Clay and deserves all those victories on clay this year.  Then why is Roger so dearly missed by many?

Roger makes the battle look beautiful

Nadal is no Roger and I for one miss tennis as an art form.  Nadal, and even Djokovic, can give me a great battle with all that fist pumping and chest thumping to watch and we certainly love watching that wonderful stuff but Roger will actually look graceful while battling, and we miss that.

Roger makes me believe that I can do it too

Many marvel at the beauty and effortless flow of his forehands and backhands, however to me the most visually aesthetic  aspect of Roger’s tennis is his balance.   Whether on hard, grass or clay, Roger always seems perfectly balanced and even his stretches and lunges are executed with so much poise and balance, and nowadays we miss watching that on the court.  In fact, it is Roger’s balance while executing shots and running to reach balls that makes his tennis look so effortless and easy.   Watching this 35 year old play so effortlessly makes me believe that I could do it too.   After all, this dude does it without even breaking a sweat!

From the grind to sublime

Yes that’s exactly what Roger’s presence does to clay court tennis!  He turns this retriever’s and grinder’s surface into an arena for displaying aggression and purposeful action by maneuvering  to end points from the get go.  And I, for one, would like to see the endless clay court grind transform into sublime.

So here’s to hoping and wishing that Roger joins the clay court fray soon.