Golf is just a four letter word.

Yesterday, after the better part of a century living on this planet, I played my first round of golf.  While it may be hard to believe that--as a card-carrying upper-middle-class corporate lawyer--I managed to avoid playing this most "establishment" of games.  It is, however, true.  Just to be completely candid, I have played miniature golf, and have hit (erratically) off driving ranges with my late brother-in-law, Dick, who was a avid golfer.  We once were supposed to play four holes, but bad weather intervened.  I suppose the closest I ever came was a round of "jungle golf" on a makeshift course a friend had as his country home.  We only used one club, and it was virtually impossible to putt. When I would go on company golf outings , I'd mess around on the driving range.  A long-ago girlfriend had asked me never to play golf, out of 60's fear that this would irretrievably put me over on "the dark side."  And so, I stuck with tennis, played on both my high school and college teams, and long maintained that tennis was sufficiently frustrating for me so that golf was not necessary to increase my stress level.
  On April 27, 2012, this all changed.  One of our friend's wives was having a birthday luncheon to which my wife, among others, was invited.  And so, one of the other men whose wife was also invited, asked me if I wanted to round out a foursome.  I tried to beg off, saying I really should take a lesson, or at least practice on a driving range (both of which, in retrospect, would have been well-advised), but he would have none of it.  He even had an extra set of golf clubs.  I have played baseball and (as mentioned) tennis, and know about the importance of keeping my head down, my body still, and completing the stroke.  I also am, modesty apart, a pretty good natural athlete, so I figured, "how bad can I be?"  Pretty bad, as it turned out, but not egregious.  I had some incredible luck on the first hole.  After struggling a bit with my initial drive off the tee, I got great distance and height on my next two strokes, landing on the tee.  The other players were astonished, and I accepted their plaudits with appropriate modesty.  Secretly, I was thinking, hell, this isn't that hard.  For the next eight holes or so, I hit more ground balls than flies, and was starting to feel the frustration that has vexed golfers through the ages.  Here's a little white stationary ball, and all you have to do is make contact with said ball.  After all, in tennis, I am able to hit a fast moving ball on the run, and (more or less) control where and how I hit my return.  And yet, as all golfers know, the slightest variation in the swing can bring about unforeseen (and disappointing) consequences.
   Fortunately, the other fellows with whom I was playing were friends, and understood what they were getting themselves into when they invited me along.  Also, fortunately, we were not keeping score, and had to keep moving lest we further irritate the foursomes behind us.

"20/'21: Is Djokovic First Among Equals?"

On Sunday, July 11, 2021, with his victory in the Gentlemen's Singles Final at Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic entered the history books by tying the great Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal with his 20th "Grand Slam" championship. Oddly enough, Djokovic's run to the championship ended as it began--with a dropped first set. In his first match of this most prestigious of tournaments, a British wild-card entry, Jack Draper,  ranked 250th in the world, took the first set off the great Serbian.  Similarly, in the final, the powerful Italian, Matteo Berrettini, overcame a 5-2 deficit and set point against him to win the first set in  tie-breaker against Djokovic.  

Following those two first-set surprises, Djokovic reeled off three consecutive sets in each of his seven  matches, culminating in his third straight Wimbledon crown. Three quarters of the way to the first men's Grand Slam since Rod Laver's sweep in 1969 (Laver's second, having done it before in 1962),  Nole is the first man since that time to win the first three of the men's Majors.  He is also the only man since Laver to have held all four Major titles at the same time. 

After a shaky first set, which he lost to a surging Berrettini in a tie-breaker, Djokovic went on to go about his business as if the first set never happened. He quickly went up two breaks in the second set, breaking at one-all in the third and at three-all in the fourth, never surrendering his lead. The Wimbledon final, despite its historic outcome was not, apart from the topsy-turvy first set, ever in doubt.  As for the turning point, of the match,  it came in the decisive fourth set with the players "on serve" at 2-3.  Djokovic had dropped the first two points and found himself in a love-thirty hole.  The crowd was cheering so loudly for the young Italian that Djokovic could not serve until the umpire calmed them down.  After narrowing the score to 15-30, the two players got into an extraordinary exchange that, against virtually any other player, would have given the challenger a double break point.  After a couple of side to side groundstrokes, Berrettini hit a beautiful down the line low backhand slice which forced Djokovic to race wide to the forehand to return, enabling Barrettini to then wisely pull him extremely wide to the backhand side with a laser-like inside out forehand. Racing across the baseline from right to left, Djokovic managed to power a crosscourt backhand at full sliding stretch, which Matteo returned with a brilliant drop-shot to the forehand side.  Amazingly, Djokovic dashed in and hit a sharply angled ball out of the reach of the lunging 6'5" Italian.  The crowd went wild and Djokovic both beckoned and relished their cheers.  Announcer Jim Courier (no stranger to Grand Slam finals) said that he didn't know of any other player in the history of the men's game who could have played such a point. Point taken.  Djokovic won the next two points to even the score at three-all. One observation made both by Courier and veteran commentator Ted Robinson was Djokovic's remarkable ability to redirect a ball, in this case, going down the line after a series of crosscourt exchanges. In tennis, the advantage often goes to the player who is prepared to "do the unexpected."  This, undoubtedly, is the Serbian's forte.  That, and being the best "big game" player I have ever seen. I don't doubt that this is a point on which both Federer and Nadal would agree.

And now, at three-all, came what tennis commentators refer to as "the all-important 7th game."  While this has become a cliche, it is nonetheless a truism.  Think of it: if the server loses, he is down 3-4 and his opponent gets to serve for a 5-3 lead, with one more chance to serve out the set.  Obviously, if the server holds, the set is deadlocked 4-4.  Djokovic, riding the crest of his come-from-behind hold at 2-3,  broke Berrettini's serve to go up 4-3.  Now on a roll, the Joker held serve convincingly to go up 5-3.  Berrettini, by the way, was dialed in, serving at an insane 83% on his first serve, which had averaged 130 miles per hour over the course of the tournament.   With his back to the wall, Matteo had to hold to force Djokovic to serve again in order to win the match.  But Djokovic denied him that opportunity, and broke the mighty young Italian for a second time to clinch the set, and the championship at 6-3.

I wrote extensively about the classic 2021 French Open (and its implications) just a few weeks ago.  The drama of the incredible third-set semi-final tiebreak against Rafael Nadal was nearly equalled by the Joker's overcoming a two-set deficit in the final against the superb young Greek, Stefanos Tsitsipas. This amazing come-from-behind victory over Tsitsipas enabled him to finally wrest the French title from Nadal, whose losses on the red clay of Roland Garros can be counted on one hand. In a weird way, Djokovic's victory at Wimbledon, however historic, seemed almost anti-climatic after the French.

Now, of course, issue has been joined as to who among Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic is the Greatest of All Time ("GOAT").  Clearly arguments can be made for each of these stalwarts locked in a 20/20/20 tie in Major championships.  That such a tie could even exist would have seemed unfathomable not so many years ago.  For years, the leader in Grand Slam victories was the great Aussie, Roy Emerson.  Emerson, however, won the Australian at a time when its schedule and out-of-the-way location caused many of the world-class players to skip the trip Down Under.  Fully half of Emerson's singles titles were at the Australian Open, a record which stood until Djokovic eclipsed it this year.  When the great Pete Sampras retired following his 14th Major, it was a record most tennis commentators believed would last forever.  Enter the amazing Roger Federer, followed by the equally remarkable Rafael Nadal. 

While I would argue that, with this victory,  Djokovic has become first among equals, it's not unfair to say that the jury is still out on this question as (amazingly) all three are still actively competing.  While it may be easy to say that Federer has lost the proverbial step, let's not forget that he remains--at almost 40--still one of the best players in the world.  To have reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon at an age when most tennis players have been retired from active competition for at least five years, is almost as remarkable  as his other stellar achievements.  Let's not forget that as recently as 2019, he had championship point against Djokovic at Wimbledon, only to lose in the tournament's first ever fifth set tie-breaker.  

Nadal, of course, plays every point as if the match was on the line, and his high-kicking topspin shots have made him almost invincible on clay. Lest we write him off as "only" a clay-court player,  it's important to recognize his victories at the U.S. Open, Australia and Wimbledon.  Along with Federer and Djokovic (who has done it twice), Rafa is among the very few greats who have a "career" Grand Slam. Let's also remember that winning at Roland Garros is the most elusive of all the Majors. Among the many outstanding players who never won the French are all-time greats Jimmy Connors,* John McEnroe and Pete Sampras.  So, happily, for those of us still basking in the glow of the big three's continued dominance (however tenuous), we can look forward to seeing each of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic vie for history in their GOAT race up the magic mountain of tennis greatness. 

*Connors, however, was the odds-on favorite at the 1974 French Open, missing it due to a contractual dispute.  He also won the U.S. Open when it was played on clay, so it is not too much of a stretch to think he might have won the French in '74.  One record of Connors that will likely stand forever is having won the U.S. Open on three different surfaces--grass, clay, and hardcourt.