Warning, this is a fan-girl post. I will understand if you'll skip this. 

Anyways, this postcard, sent by my very good amiga Ana over My World of Postcards, is a tribute to my tennis favourite Rafael Nadal, who was a runner up in the recently concluded Australian Open. It was an unforgettable, epic finals match, dubbed by a tennis expert (I forgot, was it Steve Tignor?) as the Melbourne Massacre. The five-set match lasted for nearly six hours, the longest ever in the men's finals singles history in the open era, and it left both players almost dead in exhaustion, barely able to stand during the awarding ceremony and stay awake at the presscon after the awarding ceremony.

2011 was the year when Rafa lost three grand slam titles to the same man, Novak Djokovic, and unseated him off his number one ranking. Djokovic, the player who attributes his success to the gluten-free diet, beat Rafa again...in this year's Australian Open.

Despite this loss, my admiration for Rafa grows more and more. There is no other tennis player I've seen who pushes himself, crawls back into the game and gives himself chances again and again. He definitely has all the tools - in fact, all the tool bags there is - to beat Novak. He was so close and I think the tennis gods got it all wrong!

While Novak roared (my golly, his mouth is huge, second only to Andy Murray's!) and ripped off his shirt in delirious celebration, I saw the hurt in Rafa's eyes. Right then I was heartbroken. When Rafa accepted the runner up plate his speech is truly something many athletes should take a cue from, drawing the positives (in his particularly most heart-wrenching defeat) and sincere words for the winner.

“That's nice be there fighting, trying to go to the limit, bring your body to the limit of his chances,” he said. “Something I really enjoy, and I always said is good to enjoy suffering, no? So when you are fit, with passion for the game, when you are ready to compete, you are able to suffer and enjoy suffering. So today I had this feeling, and is a really good one. I suffered during the match, but I enjoyed all the troubles that I had during all the match.  I tried to be there, to find solutions all the time.  I played a lot with my heart.  I played a lot with my mind, and is something that is nice to be around and not just play tennis.”

“I didn't have mental problems today against him,” he said. “I had in 2011 all these mental problems.  Today I didn't have.  I compete with normal conditions against him, no? So that's another positive thing.  Probably never say that many positive things after I lose.”  - Source.

He truly is a classy athlete...and which is probably why he is the most-loved tennis player by fans all over the world.


This is why I feel so lousy about his loss up to now.