Just when does a person call any match as the ‘greatest
match of all time’? It has got to have what one would call an occasion, setting
and a storied rivalry. Wimbledon final 2008 had all of this. It was the longest
final at 4 hours and 48 minutes
When one chooses to write on the final, you would half
expect them to write a lot about the match, for the match was one such. But Weirtham
treads off the beaten track here as he concentrates on the growth of
Federer and Nadal in his description of each set and talks about the Wimbledon
grass, general health of tennis and also how the games are broadcast from
Wimbledon
The game was one such where Federer found it tough to
break Nadal’s serve and ended up conceding 6 games in every set to Nadal.
Weirtham also concentrates on how Nadal’s game poses problems for Federer. He
reveals in detail the way Nadal tormented the (weak) backhand of Federer
A lot many people will brush away lot of facts from the
book as unnecessary trivia, but in the larger scheme of things, it acts as a
warehouse of facts. Figure this fact from the book- Federer has 27 variants of
the forehand in his arsenal
When he describes the life’s of Federer and Nadal, the
reader wouldn’t feel that the author is veering off from the main topic. The only
jarring note of the book is the fact that it, more than once puts down the
quality of 1980 final
Once you are done reading the book, you will emerge out
of it, with some respect for Nadal, if you are a Federer fan and vice-versa, if
you are a Nadal fan
One of the most appreciated things about the book is
the fact that at no point does, Weirtham try to spice up the proceedings by
bringing in irrelevant topics. He sticks to the basics and ends up creating a
picture in your mind, if you haven’t watched the final. If you did, he makes
you go through the entire experience all over
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