Super Dan and Roger Federer

Maj Gen P K Mallick,VSM (Retd)

Two days back I wrote in my FB page: 

Only person who has a realistic chance to defeat Roger will be standing across the net at the finals. The beanpole from Tanda is in impressive form. He is serving bombs, his forehand has the most devastating power in the game. To add his backhand up the line has now added lot of venom, he is not depending on his slices alone in his back hand side. 

But Federer being the supreme artist and craftsman is still my favourite. He has not been at his best in this tournament, though lost only a set in the semifinals where he has again made a Houdini act. But his impeccable serve is bailing him out, 

Best wishes to Roger, sorry Del Potro. 

My premonition has come true. The tall and handsome man from Argentina has beaten Roger in 3 sets. Juan Martín del Potro rallied from three match points down in the third set and beat top-ranked Roger Federer 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 to win the BNP Paribas Open, handing the world No1 his first loss of the year. 

Del Potro held a match point at 8-7 in the second-set tiebreaker, but he lost the final three points on his own errors and allowed Federer to force a third set. They were on serve in the third until Federer broke for a 5-4 lead with a backhand winner off del Potro’s serve. Federer had a chance to serve out the match, holding two match points but del Potro staved both off to force deuce and broke to force a deciding tiebreak. In the tiebreaker, Del Potro raced to a 6-1 lead, helped by two Federer double faults. He closed out the win on his third match point when Federer’s forehand failed. Roger serving 2 double faults in the decider tie break! After all the GOAT is human. 

This year the biggest threat to Roger is the Argentine. Make no mistake about it. Of all the players playing now only he has the game and numbers of Roger. 

Lets see how Roger plans to counter that humungous forehand of Del Potro. 

On Sunday it was All England Open badminton championships in Birmingham. On one side stood the aging superstar, the GOAT, 6 times All England champion Lin Dan, the Super Dan and on the other side the rising Chinese star last year's finalist Shi Yuqi. It was a pulsating match. Lin Dan fought hard in the first game but lost narrowly at 19. The grate man levelled the match by winning the second game. But in the third he was blown away by the power of the young pretender. Shi Yuqi toiled for 75 minutes to beat his senior 21-19, 16-21, 21-9 for his first All-England title. The 22-year-old Shi lost to Lee Chong Wei in the men's singles final last year. 

It was not a nice sight to see one time alpha male of badminton world sprawling on the ground to retrieve the powerful smashes of his opponent though he managed to make winners even from there. 

Old order changeth yielding place to new. Surely. But the great man ( October 83 born) is still good enough to reach the finals! The familiar debate will start. Look at Super Dan’s achievements : 

• He is a two-time Olympic champion, five-time World champion, as well as a six-time All England champion. 
• He won Malaysia open in April, 2017 by defeating Lee Chong Wei in straight sets to complete winning all the major world titles available in the world of badminton. 
• He is the first and only player to complete the “Super Grand Slam” by the age of 28, which includes all nine major titles in the international badminton. 
• Dan was nicknamed “Super Dan” by his fans for his amazing achievements including 5 gold and a silver in World Championships, 2 gold medal in badminton World Cup, 5 gold and 2 bronze medal in Thomas Cup, 3 gold medal in Asian Games, 3 gold medal in Asian Championships and the title of Hong Kong East Asian Games in 2009. 
• He is the only badminton player in history to win the Olympic gold medal twice consecutively in 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics. 

In his younger days fans used to soon over his powerful acrobatic smashes and diving retrievals. Today he is more of a craftsman, uses a cat and mouse game, though the old power comes out once in a while. 

Let’s leave it to the Super Dan to decide when he quits. Till then NJOY his game. 

Is there an uncanny similarity between the two GOATS: Roger and Lin Dan?