The Burden of Success
Categories: General, Social, Tennis
Written By: jaguar
When I first wrote this, I titled it “One Man and his destiny”, but I had to change my mind after listening to another great; Andre Agassi speaking before the finals of the Ladies French Open; of not been driven during his career by the pursuit of records, or making history, yet he was such a hard working and driven man despite all his natural talent. Yet it was so difficult for him, then I had to reassess the enormity of the challenge facing Roger Federer.
I then watched the finals, and witnessed my tip for the ladies trophy; Dinara Safina disintegrate under the pressure of winning her first grand slam and crumble like a cookie under the weight of expectation. And all she was aspiring to achieve is a single grand slam; she is a mere mortal.
Tomorrow, Roger Federer who has achieved almost unsurmountable successes, has achieved greatness that transcends his sport, who has achieved the destiny that was predicted for him from an early age, puts all of that aside in his quest for immortality.
What and how must he be feeling like now, how can he keep all of it in some kind of perspective, how can he stay in control enough to actually swing a racket. But that is what it will take for Roger to perform tomorrow.
It is not going to be easy, because across the net is someone chasing another brand of immortality; the man that stopped Roger Federer from finally winning the French Open, because if he does not win it this time, he never will.
Forget that he has never won againtst Federer in 9 encounters, forget that it is his first grand slam final, all that counts for nothing on this occassion. All that will matter tomorrow is Roger Federer. He wins he becomes immortal. He loses Soderline becomes immortal. However, having played brilliantly and above even his own expectations so far, Soderline is a mere mortal, so will succumb to the burden of his expectation of success and the enormity of the task ahead of him.
In contrast, it has not been vintage Federer so far in this tournament, but come tomorrow, Roger will come good and show us what separates him from the rest of us mere mortals.
