Two apart

With the Grand Slam schedule of 2011 now well and entertainingly underway,the main act remains the Rafael Nadal-Roger Federer rivalry. Past seasons of occasional fragility for both have merely enhanced our fascination with two men whose faceoffs on the court have given mens tennis a golden age thats more than the sum of two great careers.

Athletes measure their greatness by the manner in which they raise their sports profile. And the greats do so in many different ways. Sergei Bubka did so by setting his pole vault records as targets that just had to be surpassed by his future performances. Michael Phelps does so by doing what no one had yet thought possible for a swimmer,along the way igniting debates on human metabolism and physiology. The great cricket Test teams did so by setting new standards the West Indies from the mid-seventies in flamboyant aggression,and then Australia with an American baseball-type professionalism. What,it may be opportune to wonder,could Indian Test cricket manage now? Steffi Graf once did so by winning at a time when an earlier generation of champions was still around,by becoming the first player to take tennis golden slam in a calendar year,and by that proof of perfection,her forehand.

Federer and Nadal would join that list on the basis of their individual careers. That the careers have overlapped is more than a bonus two styles perfected,it would seem,to better take on the other,and to allow our analysis inordinate elbow-room,projecting on one an innate perfection and on the other an uncommon capacity to chase down every point. It must also be marked as extraordinary that Federer and Nadal have honoured tennis and each other with a striking record of civility and quietness.