Have you ever travelled for ten hours to watch something with friends? I’m not talking about watching a concert, or even attending a game. I’m talking about watching something on TV.
This edition of the 3T’s is about a lot of things. But at its heart, its about passion and friendship. Oh and there’s quite a bit about tennis too!
The Tale
Setting the Scene
This story is from January 2017. January 2017 was an eventful month in my life. For one, I was in Delhi for most of the month. Why? Because like most kids in the penultimate year of law school, I was interning.
My internship was scheduled for all of January and I had planned catching up with loads of friends. My weekend plans were simple. Coordinate between a bunch of busy people to try and schedule a drink. I was hoping that by the end of the month, I’d end up meeting most of my friends.
But, there’s a twist. Two weeks into my internship, I have a job interview. Where? At a competing firm, a place that I had interned previously.
The week after the interview call was frantic. Most of it is a blur involving interview prep and me cancelling on the same plans that I was looking forward to. In the end, it paid off. The interview went well (another story here) and I was offered a great role the very next day.
Now the offer was as good a reason as any to celebrate. And celebrate I did, albeit with the few friends who were ready to party on a random winter Tuesday . But the offer also meant that I had to end my internship pre-maturely and go back to law school (Jodhpur). So while I met a bunch of people, it also meant that I could not meet a few close friends, some of whom I had not seen in ages.
Back to Jodhpur
My train arrived in Jodhpur on an early winter morning. Now usually, the first day back in law school would mean that I would have only one thing on my mind- Dreading cleaning my room. (Things no one tells you about studying in the desert: The sand goes everywhere. Everywhere. Especially when the room is unoccupied for months)
But unlike every other semester, I was not thinking about the mess. Why? Because Roger Federer was playing Stan Wawrinka in an Australian Open semi-final that morning. So here I am, with my legs shivering in a slow rickety auto. Yet, all I can think about is - Can Federer pull off the impossible?
Now Federer fans will probably say that nothing is impossible for the man. I am inclined to agree. But the truth was that Roger came into the slam off his worst year and post-surgery. Injury trouble aside, he was seeded 17th and naysayers were everywhere. Even the most ardent Federer fans would not have bet on him to go deep into the tournament.
But somehow, Federer pulls it off. It’s a crazy five-setter. One for the history books. It probably would be remembered even more vividly, but for the madness that ensues.
The next day, Rafa is playing Dimitrov. But everyone can only talk about only one thing. Will there be a Federer vs Nadal showdown in the final?
Now I was a part of a generation that grew up on tennis in the 2000’s. A Fedal final was the dream. Why? Because, quite simply, it is the ultimate sporting rivalry. The magic of this rivalry will never be captured by the stats. It’s not about the head-to-head. The rivalry is all about the storyline.
On the one hand you have Roger Federer. Federer makes the impossible look effortless. He makes the sport look so easy that it’s almost frustrating to watch for someone who has played the game. The man has left tennis fans speechless for years. And if you are someone like me, watching Roger play has made you question your atheism too. No one has captured the experience of watching Federer better than David Foster Wallace in this classic piece.
The other half of this rivalry is Rafa Nadal. My man. (Shocked?). Nadal has almost cruelly been portrayed as an Anti-Federer. Why? Because for a casual watcher, Nadal is seen as a “defensive player”. He is seen as the evil guy who forces Roger to play one extra ball. Hit one more exquisite odd-forehand to win a point. With the heavy topspin to the Federer backhand, and the incredible defense turned to counter-attack, Nadal did the impossible- Make Federer look human.
You see, for as much seems Federer is god-like, Nadal seems human. Almost too human. Starting from his disproportionate butt-cheeks, to his fixation with the labels on his drinks, Nadal is, and always will be seen as the guy who reached the top through grit. Not to say that he is not incredibly talented himself (everyone is really, especially at that level). But saying that Rafa is an incredible talent does not suit the narrative. It does not suit the rivalry.
This rivalry has given fans years and years of joy. Sure some of us were heartbroken after some matches. But most tennis fans, even casual ones, will have vivid recollections of where and when they watched the classic Fedal encounters.
But back to reality now. So all of social media can talk about only one thing. Will there be a Fedal final?
Ironically, the only man in the way of a Fedal final was Grigor Dimitrov. For non-tennis fans, Dimitrov is called “Baby Federer”. The match would turn out to be an incredible trailer-of-sorts. Another five setter. Another Rafa win. The tennis world is going crazy. Fedal XXXV is what it was called.
Back to Me
So here I am. It’s Friday morning. Rafa has beaten Baby Fed. I can think of one thing and one thing only. Where am I watching the final?
The first option- hostel. Picture seven or eight people, huddled in a tiny room. Four or five people on the bed. One sitting on the ledge of a window. One standing at the door. One on a chair. Loyalties split. Eyes glued to a 22 inch TV. It kinda looks like this.
This sounds far from ideal, right? However, what made watching games in this setting special was the emotion of it all. I have seen entire floors and rooms erupt with joy. Hugs everywhere. A few poor guys getting bantered. One guy celebrating the excuse he just found to get drunk. One smartass coming up with an “I told you so” smirk.
For some strange reason, its a feeling that has been hard to re-create. For you see, what made watching a game in hostel special was the people. I have gone to loads of sports bars with huge TVs serving the fanciest drinks. You’d think the experience is much better. But the truth is, there’s nothing like watching a game with familiar faces in familiar settings.
Now let me add one final bit of context. Unlike football or cricket, I usually watched tennis in the hostel with a smaller sub-set of guys. Most of them played tennis. They were also the kind who would not only watch a Fedal final, but also a first round at Halle.
But these guys had graduated. And remember how I started off with how I could not meet some friends in Delhi. These were those guys . You can probably tell where this story is going.
You see on that Friday morning, I decided to head back to Delhi. The final was on a Sunday morning. The only way I’d make it in time would be is if I left the same night.
There were no tickets available. But I boarded the Mandore Express anyway. Thankfully, I found an empty berth. The ticket conductor asked me for my ticket. I sheepishly tell him the truth. Now here’s the funny part. The guy starts laughing. He told me something I still remember “Maine jitne vakeel dekhe hain, woh apbi insaaniyat bhool jaate hain”. For those unfamiliar with Hindi, that loosely translates to how “most of the lawyers he knows, have forgotten what its like to be human.” By the end of the conversation, I had a free train ride to Delhi and a quote that stayed with me for a lifetime.
If you have come this far, you probably think I am crazy. But I’m not the only one (Couldn’t help myself with this one, guys).
The group watched Fedal XXXV together on that Sunday morning had a friend who had flown in on a two hour flight, another who had come down in a four hour bus and me taking an overnight train. All from different cities. All for one reason.
Now the only thing that’s honestly left for me to write about is the match itself. The match was incredible. It lived up to the hype and more.
I was only guy there who was rooting for Rafa. One of my friends, (lets call him D) is a Federer fanatic. I use fanatic for a reason. Now D hates Rafa. Why? Because he thinks of Rafa as an Anti-Federer. He believes that the way Roger plays the game is the right way to play tennis. It’s like he thinks of the beauty in Federer’s game as a moral virtue.
Cut to the fifth set. Federer takes a medical timeout. So when Federer takes a timeout, D has lost hope. He thinks the game is over. Why? Because according to D, strategic medical timeouts were a Rafa thing to do. If Federer had taken one, he must be in deep trouble. This was what D pictured.
So D leaves the living room. A short while later, Rafa is up a break. I am ecstatic. Everyone else is commenting on how its inevitable. It was a familiar feeling for a Federer fan. And not a nice one. Rafa, up a break in the fifth. A lot of people would wager their house on Rafa winning the match at that point.
That did not happen. For those of you who have not watched the last five games- Or rather, if you do not remember it as vividly as I do; Here’s a recap.
The match ended with this enduring visual. It’s also a visual that D missed live. Why? Because he just could not bring himself watch the final set. Sounds mad? I agree completely. Here you have a fan who missed arguably the greatest moment he could have witnessed as a fan in ten years. But I also understand.
Now unlike most stories, there is no definite end to this one. Or rather, no end that would do it justice.
For in a living room in Delhi, a bunch of fans travelled from all over India to watch a Swiss maestro defeat a Spanish artist in the Australian heat. It’s the same bunch of people who otherwise live very busy lives. But every once in a while, sport can bring people together in a way few other things can. And it is in that moment, nothing else matters.
The Take
My friends have often told me that I am incredibly romantic about sport. When I hear this, I try and respond like Brad Pitt.
But here’s another thing I realised. Sport is marketed badly. Not the kind you see on TV. But rather, its about how kids are told to play a sport because its good for our physical health.
But people often forget to say that sport is incredible because (a) it makes you a part of a community; (b) its incredible for your mental health too; and (c) someway along the way you learn about a million other things (from probability to decision making).
The Trivia
This section of the newsletter should have been the easiest to write. I have loads of random tidbits about both these guys. But choosing one proved incredibly hard.
Ultimately, I wanted to leave readers who got this far with a really cool idea. It comes from a book called Range, by David Epstein. Here’s David summarizing the introduction of the book with Malcolm Gladwell.
Range begins by comparing two of truly great athletes. Roger and Tiger Woods. Roger started golfing at age 3. All he ever wanted to do was win Majors. Unlike Tiger, Roger played dozens of sports as a kid. He loved football and loads of tennis prodigies had a huge headstart over Roger. While Tiger dreamt of winning majors, Federer just wanted to play Wimbledon.
Federer is always spoken of in reverential tones. But loads of people do not know that his path to success is not extremely streamlined. He started tennis late. As did Leander Paes. Epstein writes the whole story beautifully (the book isn’t about sport, and is one that I whole-heartedly recommend).
The fact that he started tennis (relatively) late is something I did not know. It’s also something that is not heard too often. But it’s something worth knowing.
Until Next Time,
Sanjay
I hope you enjoyed this edition of the 3T’s. The format will remain the same. Takes, Tales and Trivia. The takes may get more outlandish and the tales will keep changing. The previous editions were on the power of cold emails and the future of food.
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