A Roger Federer fan's letter to Rafael Nadal

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal after the completion of their semifinal match at the 2014 Australian Open

Dear Rafa,

The dust is only just settling from your tilt against Stanislas in the recent Australian Open final, and Federer fans seem to be the ones foremost in ecstasy, celebrating it as a win for their own man. I laugh with them at their wisecracks on your loss, echo in the ribald claims that one Swiss isn’t really all that different from another, sometimes even absent-mindedly nod when they claim that you were faking your injury, and yet in the back of my mind, I respect you far too much to believe that.

I am not the kind of fan whose worship for his favourite player outdoes his admiration for the game, yet I will not stand before you and claim that I have never wished for you to lose. But I will vouch that none of those occasions have been when you have not been up against Roger. You see, to me, you are the best tennis player in the world. The never-say-die spirit that you exude from the first moment to the last on court, the way your forehands race past your disbelieving opponents, the way you chase down balls that are a lost cause for all reasonable men – I admire you for each of these things. I admire you even more for the fact that you do these things time and time again, pushing back the limits of  the possible.

As far as this Australian Open goes, it would be a travesty if you thought of it as a failure. Yes, you did not win the title. Yes, there are a million tongues wagging all around the world, drawing all kinds of melancholic comparisons, distracting you from the game. You must shut them out, Rafa, for the sake of tennis. Tennis, the game you love as you do, can only gain from you shutting out distractions, getting back on that court and working your way past the naysayers.

The media will scrutinise you now more than ever before. You are at the point where Roger perhaps found himself once you repeatedly began to best him, after finally having wrested Wimbledon from his grasp. It hurts me to think back to that moment, and how Roger has never been himself after that, not truly. For you, I wish a different fate. I wish you a sprint back to the summit, and a long stay there.

I wish you this because I know you will continue to commit to improving yourself, to beautifying the game in your own grotesquely attractive manner. I do so because I know you only have eyes for the ball while you are on the court, and respect your opponents off it. I do so in spite of knowing that you will surpass Roger’s record soon if you do return to the top, but knowing that there is no one else I can think of who is more deserving.

In fact, I wish you luck in doing so; I do not even mind if you grunt a bit as you do!