GOAT

 I am sure you would have guessed it, this GOAT   is part of the lexicon of the Gen Y, I am referring to the title of GOAT conferred upon Roger Federer, Greatest of all Times. That he is a legend and will remain one is beyond doubt. But 'Greatest'!!  Well we have had Muhammad Ali, "the Black Superman"who also proclaimed his greatness, so was Sir Don Bradman in Cricket or even Sir Garfield Sobers. We had Dhyan Chand in Hockey, Nadia Comaneci in Gymnastics, Pele and Maradona in Soccer. I know I am treading a treacherous path here as Roger's fans even in my own family will treat a doubting Thomas like me with utter disdain and even contempt for not knowing my serves and volleys. Yes I indulge in Tennis very occasionally and am not really very good at it, but not that bad either. After all I was struck by the glamour of the game rather early and that too without watching the spectacle on screen. We didn't have the luxury of TV in our parts of the country those days. By merely reading about it in newspapers, Sports magazines and watching the Club version of Tennis where oldies indulged in their pastime trying to connect the two important pieces of equipment essential for the game, the racquet and the ball. Once they managed to connect the two, the next big challenge remained of sending this trajectory across the net. But to be fair, even in a remote place like Dhar which is near Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Uday Ranjan Club could boast of a Pune University champion in Hamir Chand Chaudhary with his mastery in the baseline exquisite strokes, he could mesmerise any casual onlooker also. Of course there were others, the local talent who could mount a challenge on their chosen day, where their street smart antics won the day against pure class. My father too dabbled in Tennis and thus we got to witness these duels. The who's who of the town were there, The Maharajah Dhar, his sons, leading advocates, businessmen and of course some Govt functionaries also spent their evenings in this passionate pursuit. 

My tryst with Tennis started when I joined RIMC, Dehradun. Having watched the game from the sidelines only, as an eleven year old was considered rather young to be baptised into this game, the school provided me the opportunity to get on the court with a small racquet which was my size, I still recall it was "Hitway", some Jalandhar company but it did get me hooked. So I played for a while but with hardly any players of our age, switched to Squash as that was considered to be the forte of Rimcollians. I played both in later years, but Squash became the preferred sport, owing to its easy availability in Cantts and more sparring partners. But Tennis was always the more glamorous cousin and with extensive TV coverage of the Grand Slam events, we had our own idols, Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe were the stars those days and with six consecutive Wimbledon titles; Borg was considered the GOAT then. It was the firebrand McEnroe who ended his reign and Borg just retired and disappeared from the scene. Then there was this sixteen year old  unseeded German who by his sheer athleticism and daredevilry upset the Top seeds on his way to his maiden Wimbledon. Yes it is Boris Becker, I am referring to. Swedes continued to reign supreme in the 80s with Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg et al, till Agassi and Lendl appeared on the scene. Indians had our own stars with father-son duo of Ramnathan and Ramesh Krishnan, the Amritraj brothers, Anand, Vijay and Ashok till Leander Paes emerged on the scene, who also refuses to sign off and is an ageless wonder. Pete Sampras was also the cool cat who was finally dislodged by Roger finally. It's been two decades since then, we have greyed, are on the verge of retiring ourselves but this man defied all odds and just played on and on, reminding me of "petrol khatham hi nahi honda hai!" A popular old  Maruti ad where a cute Sardar kid is playing with his toy car and when asked to stop, he says Petrol just doesn't run out. The gas appears to have finally run out, reducing everyone to tears, in a fitting tribute a very emotional arch rival Nadal another GOAT by any means bid him a very tearful farewell. I dare say there aren't many sports where two rivals are so deeply connected that their bond is not just of two sportspersons but that of two wonderful human beings. So Roger tussi great ho, tofa kabool karo!