King Rafa’s last stand – tennis times and tides

Has it been 20 years already?!

still feel sad looking at this picture

The 2004 Roland Garros final was memorable because it was painful to watch Coria disappear in that match, and sadly, after a while, he disappeared from tennis. Couldn’t have been too many who would have bet on Gaudio becoming RG champion. To his credit, he reached round 4 the next year, where he lost to 23-year-old Ferrer, in the early stages of his career!

2005 turned out to be the turn of tides and times, memorable as the 19-year-old boy’s year, and who would have known then that it would be the start of HIS illustrious 14-RG-trophies – and more besides – career.

we're just pleased to see him play

2024, then, becomes memorable, when the inevitable happens. Everyone knows a body will be worn out at some point and pity it had to be Zverev who got to deal the final blow (Zverev supporters will think it is poetic justice). Still, it was Nadal’s match and the warrior with all his injuries and battle scars did not disgrace himself, had nothing to prove, and deserved to be uproariously feted by the crowd, and everyone else. There were more than enough moments of Rafa magic and he “fighted to the end”, no?

Whatever the new times and tides have in store, it is fitting that his legacy lives on this year in Princess Iga (“self-professed superfan”) and Prince Carlos (who idolized him)!

Vamos, all!

photos from Reuters and Getty Images

Comments

True train school

‘Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.’ How would you like to have such a headmaster? I finally re-read (read it first as a teenager) Totto-chan, The Little Girl at the Window , a ‘school story’ by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, translated by Dorothy Britton. Totto-chan is the name Tesuko Kuroyanagi called herself, and the book is about her life during her school days at Tomoe Gakuen. Totto-chan was expelled from her first elementary school because of her ‘disruptive’ behaviour, which included constantly opening and closing her desk top (because she was so thrilled by it), ‘vandalising’ her desk (because there wasn’t enough space on the piece of paper to draw) and standing by the classroom window waiting for street musicians to pass by or talking to swallows. Her mother, although probably alarmed about the ...

No wonder

According to a poll of about 300 people, reported in yesterday's Sunday Times, (how come nobody ever asks me these things?) , the Seven Wonders of Singapore are (in order of merit): 1. The Esplanade (a whopping 82 votes) 2. Changi Airport (53 votes) 3. Sentosa 4. The Merlion 5. The Singapore River 6. Food 7. Mount Faber and LKY (tie - 10 votes each) Some 'offbeat choices' which didn't make it to the top 7: aunties selling tissue paper at coffee shops, Singlish, kiasuism, 4D-Toto outlets and Newater (said someone of Newater: 'We are probably the only country with branded recycled sewage.' Well said, ha ha.). Maybe it's a personal bias but I feel that a 'Wonder' must also have strong historical and cultural/social value (so I'm rather miffed that Angkor Wat didn't make it to the 7 Wonders of the World; in fact it was never in the running for the top 7). Therefore, these choices are a little too modern for me. The Esplanade, for example, is a...

True train school - a bit more

I realise I didn't give the context of Totto-chan's story, so here it is: Mr Sosaku Kobayashi, the headmaster, started Tomoe Gakuen in 1937. Totto-chan was in school during the WWII years and the school was destroyed during the Tokyo air raids, before she completed elementary school. Here is something from the last chapter, entitled 'Sayonara, Sayonara!' "The school that had been the headmaster's dream was enveloped in flames... In the midst of it all, the headmaster stood in the road and watched Tomoe burn... 'What kind of school shall we build next?' he asked his university-student son Tomoe, who stood beside him. Tomoe listened to him dumbfounded. Mr Kobayashi's love for children and his passion for teaching were stronger than the flames now enveloping the school. The headmaster was cheerful." Indeed, a man ahead of his time. The school was never re-built, and Mr Kobayashi passed away in 1963. In her postscript, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi explained ...

my ajumma notes

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