Tag Archives: Rafael Nadal

What Made Roger Federer Special

By Robin Bates | Published: September 27, 2022

Recently retired Roger Federer had a quality possessed by the 17th century Cavalier poets.

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One Equal Temper of Heroic Hearts

By Robin Bates | Published: January 30, 2017

Federer and Nadal resumed their legendary rivalry in the Australian Open finals and played a match for the ages. They are both old in tennis terms and by all rights should have been surpassed by the next generation. Therefore Tennyson’s “Ulysses” seems the proper poem to acknowledge them.

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Fed’s Little Cat Feet, Rafa’s Bullish Force

By Robin Bates | Published: June 29, 2013

The Federer and Nadal era may be over. Here they are described in Flaubert, James Patterson, and Carl Sandburg terms.

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Tennis Playing–and Writing–at Its Finest

By Robin Bates | Published: July 21, 2012

David Foster Wallace’s ode to Roger Federer comes the closest to capturing his beautiful game.

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Portal Fantasies – Nadal Loses, Italy Wins

By Robin Bates | Published: June 30, 2012

Judging by the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision and the defeats of Rafael Nadal and the German soccer team, the world passed through a strange portal this past Thursday.

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Fed, Rafa, Djoker–A Sibling Drama

By Robin Bates | Published: September 19, 2011

Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic are like the brothers in a Dostoevsky novel or a Grimm Brothers fairy tale: the two older brothers focus on each other and then the unassuming younger brother comes in and takes over.

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Spain’s Tiger Burning Less Bright

By Robin Bates | Published: July 9, 2011

Did the god that made the elegant strokes of Roger Federer also make the bruising style of Nadal? Like William Blake gazing at the lamb and the tiger in “Tyger, Tyger,” we can only shake our heads bemused.

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The Prizefighter vs. the Yokel

By Robin Bates | Published: June 5, 2010

Sports Saturday So my tennis idol, Roger Federer, is out of the French Open.  Before the semi-finals.  Federer’s astounding streak of 23 straight appearances in Grand Slam semi-final matches is one of the great streaks in sports and will never be approached.  (To get a sense of its magnitude, consider that Rod Laver and Ivan […]

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