Category Archives: Younes El Ayanoui

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Roger Federer was already through to the 2009 Australian Open Finals after defeating Andy Roddick in a relatively one sided semi-final. I was on the edge of my seat, waiting to find out if Rafael Nadal or Fernando Verdasco would join him in the first grand slam final of the year after surviving some of the world’s best players and some of the hottest weather in recent memory.

I wanted what everyone else wanted, a Nadal/Federer final, but it was impossible to deny that Verdasco had also more than earned his chance to contest the final. Verdasco had timed his peak in form to perfection; robbing the man many thought would be the eventual champion, Andy Murray, the chance to claim his first grand slam title.

Much like the 2003 AO when the world watched Andy Roddick wither, unable to recover from the physical stress of his phenomenal match against Younes El Ayanoui, I wondered if Verdasco could recover enough to challenge Federer and prevent him equalling Pete Sampras’ 14 grand slam titles.

Rafa Nadal, the matador from Spain, renowned for being polite and humble off-court and a beast on-court, was in devastating form. He had crushed Rochus in the first round and had continued his blistering form on his least favourite surface but Verdasco was giving as good as he was getting sending 95 winners across the net during the course of the match.

The number and shear power behind Verdasco’s devastating shots would have beaten anyone else, and as I watched I wondered if Rafa’s knees could survive the assault. While there is no-one cooler in high pressure moments, and no-one who has perfected the art of backing up five set efforts like Nadal, I still held my breath as Verdasco continued to fire devastatingly accurate bullets over the net making Nadal scramble to survive.

The match between Spain’s top two, Verdasco finding his feet after triumph in the Davis Cup final, had the crowd, and respective player boxes, alive with activity. As Verdasco started to show the effects of his lengthy efforts against Murray, jokingly hopping on one leg, his father and friend emotionally pumped their fists and cheered loudly to spur their man on. On one change of ends Nadal caught a fluffy dandelion seed that blew threw the air and closed his eyes, making a wish, a wish where content was obvious to a nation, before releasing it back into the wind to ultimately be granted.

For five hours and 14 minutes the two Spaniards fought one of the greatest matches the AO has ever seen, grinding each other down, slowly but surely. The match was so tight that ultimately there was only one point separating the two players with Nadal victorious, collapsing in joy and exhaustion, while the crowd rose to their feet in rowdy appreciation of the efforts of both men, knowing that they had seen a match worthy of a final.

When the two friends met and embraced warmly at the net, all anyone could talk about was could Rafa recover enough in 36 hours to defeat the greatest tennis player of his generation, and arguably of all time, and claim his first major on a hard court. If anyone had the conditioning and the will to do it, it was Rafa as Roger Federer would soon find out.