What all finals should be!

Posted by BESS: If you don't follow tennis, you'd see a score line like 6-2, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 and think the 2011 men's US Open final was a fairly straight forward match. Maybe even a little ho-hum. Heck, even if you follow the sport you might think that.

But this was four-plus hours of electric tennis.

Rallies that had no business being as long as they were... with unreturnable shot after unreturnable shot being returned with power and aggression. Constantly one-upping each other.

I lost count of the rallies that extended past 20 shots. I lost count of the times Nadal got to a ball that seemed impossible to reach and then hit a shot that looked like it would never go in, but did. And I lost count of the times Djokovic had the answer to anything Nadal threw at him.

There were several times, especially in that fantastic third set, when I quite literally gasped. Just amazing stuff. That third set--I could watch it all day. And I would pay good money to be at the U.S. Open for a set like that. What an amazing atmosphere!

As Mary Carillo said, the match was an ode to physical fitness. (Not to mention shotmaking). And it was about power and staying power. Somehow, despite a back injury that was clearly beginning to take its toll, Novak outlasted Rafa in the "staying power" department. Something that was unthinkable more than a year ago.

Unthinkable. I'm pretty seriously considering investing in a gluten-free diet and a CVAC egg chamber. Like, tomorrow.

After two weeks of rain delays, self-professed boredom on the part of your favorite bloggers, precious few matches that really made you take note and bratty American players who did, this was a final we all deserved.

They should all be this great.

And in the end Novak Djokovic is the 2011 U.S. Open champion. Congratulations, Nole. You gave it your all, and it's the icing on top of quite a cake--perhaps the greatest year in men's tennis history, with a 64-2 season and three major titles. Nearly unstoppable.

Of course I am sad for my dear Rafa. During the match, my cousin Mike said he can't remember seeing Rafa look slower than his opponent. So true. He was off kilter from the start, it seemed--agitated, a tad argumentative and without answers to Nole's aggression. He was the lesser player today, yet he continued to put up a fight, in true Rafa style.

And he had a real chance--after winning that electric third set, with the crowd solidly behind him (or cheering for more tennis, hard to tell!) and with Novak calling for the trainer, seemingly injured. But it inexplicably slipped away.

As a Rafa fan, it's hard not to be dispirited, but what're you gonna do? Nole beat Rafa in six straight finals this year. Those are the harshest of facts.

What I do know is this--Federer isn't the only one who's going to enter the Australian Open with a true hunger for victory. My guess is Uncle Toni and Rafa are going to "give their best effort" and "try their hardest" (key Rafa phrases) to come up with a plan that will work against Novak.

They've got a couple months to figure it out. But they're 0 and 6 so far this year.
It's going to be quite a test.

Photo by: Philip Hall/USTA