So the ATP World Tour Finals is starting in London’s O2 Arena. It is always a ‘joy’ to see sportsmen in suits. They either look awesomely smart (because we seldom spot them wearing so ’smart’) or they look completely out of place. I think they fared rather well, maybe with this exception of first time Grand Slam winner Juan Martin del Potro who looks rather slouchy in this photo. I think Roger Federer exudes that charisma, as usual.. and Andy Murray trying to stand really straight, in hope to be taller than Nadal (wait.. he is taller than Nadal, isn’t he?) Don’t forget Nikolay-looks-botak-Davydenko who looks really small amongst the guys.

Excuse me.. these guys are multi millionaires! They earn millions just being fit and hitting tennis balls. Make me feel rather lousy holding the retractors and watching my consultant cut out lymph nodes?

I am sure it means the world to be able to hold up the trophy standing amongst what people coined as ‘legends’ who have been there, done that.

The unspokeable joy! Oh hey, Mr Laver, why are you not holding the trophy?

No wonder, this man is saying that tennis is crazy, this year has been crazy and what-not. With that painful five-setter loss in Australia earlier this year (dang! if he had won.. he would have a chance to make it a calendar Grand Slam!), then the Mirka pregnancy announcement and later the sudden out-of-blue-but-we-exptected-it-anyways wedding leading to the clay court season..

I mean, it is a whole lot to grasp, right?

With Nadal out of picture, you wonder if anyone could ever be better and beat him. You see, some people say Nadal is the greatest because he has leading head-to-head record against the greatest, ie. Roger. I refuse to dwell in that simply because I see tennis as such as subjective subject. You cannot compare player to player and match to match. The game is just like that. One painful loss does not mean his entire career is over.

Alright, alright. This is very unlike me to say so but I think this Spanish tennis player, also currently holding the number one ranking and most probably would hold it ’til the rest of the year deserves to be the COTD.

He is Rafael Nadal, 22, from Mallorca, Spain. He just won the Australian Open 2009 and even many more hearts of tennis fans worldwide. He is humble tennis player. Not even an air of arrogance. Though he was usually called ‘King of Clay’, this man has proved himself to be good on grass and hardcourt as well. Currently, he has something like 6 Grand Slam titles - of which 4 French Opens, 1 Wimbledon and 1 Australian Open.

I registered to chat live on the Chat-Rafa.com by Babolat but I completely forgotten! Argh!! Missed it. Not that it is that important, anyway.

Hey, I didn’t get to watch live.. but according to this photo…

Nadal is no more wearing his usual signature sleeveless top? He is with a polo shirt some more. And loads of strapping around the fingers.

If you are educated under the Malaysian national syllabus and if you are born after 1984, you should remember Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” in the English Komsas.

Guess what?

This shall be a very interesting way to appreciate this poem.

[IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

–Rudyard Kipling