Australian Open Tennis from Ajijic, Lake Chapala, Mexico
Australian Open Tennis
Many people in Ajijic, Lake Chapala enjoy playing tennis at the many courts available in the area.
I also played tennis for years here until my knee gave out. I still happily play golf but I do miss tennis.
Fortunately, because of the great reception we receive here in Ajijic, Lake Chapala including cable, Direct TV, Star Choice and various other satellite options, I am still able to watch tennis on TV.
My favorite player is Rafael Nadal who was able to wrest the #l title from Roger Federer in 2008 winning for the 4th time The French Open, Wimbledon and of, course the Olympic Gold in singles among many other titles on hard courts and clay.
I have been watching the Australian Open on Star Choice happily and the semi-final match between Nadal, a left-hander from Spain, and Fernando Verdasco also a left- hander from Spain aired at 3:30 am this morning. I toyed with the idea of staying up to watch this match but decided the result on my computer later this morning would get the job done nicely.
When I woke up this morning, to my delight, the match was still in progress and it was the fifth set of what became an epic over 5 hour match. They had just begun the 5th set and three out of the 4 previous sets had gone to a tie break. There is no tie break in the 5th set of Australian Open so I settled in for a marathon 5th set.
Both players were clearly exhausted but continued unbelievable shot making and the stands were filled to capacity. No one was going anywhere.
Nadal managed to prevail in the 5th set winning it 6-4. He will now go on to meet his arch rival Roger Federer on Sunday, again at 3:30 am, for the final.
This is purported to be the most exciting rivalry in sport today. They showed the epic 5 setter when Nadal won at Wimbledon in 2008 and there is similar anticipation for this final which is the first on hard courts. Nadal leads Federer 12-6 in head-to-head so it should be a most interesting final.
Nadal only has one day to recover from his semi-final win whereas Federer has been resting quietly after his 3 set win over Andy Roddick yesterday.
I think the deciding factor will be heart. Both players respect each other and have a great friendship and take very seriously their ambassadorship of the game. When asked who he would rather play in the final Federer said all the right things about how far Verdasco had come in the last year but noted it was always exciting when he and Nadal were in the final match of a major.
Nadal is young and wants to start off this season with a major win but Federer is very eager to regain his title of #1. Although I don’t play anymore I hugely enjoy these historic matches between these two lions of the game.
I don’t know where you will be Sunday morning but I will be watching tennis which is a good thing as the Super Bowl airs later that day and I would have been out of luck convincing the males in my family that tennis was more important. Highly anticipated Super Bowl commercials notwithstanding.