Federer - AO 2016

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We all know – have read about or heard of i.e. – this famous quote that is most often attributed to Einstein. But there’s something in it, isn’t there? The hoping against hope, the doomed foreknowledge and yet the vehement willing oneself on against the imminent inevitability. Over the last couple of seasons, I’ve often wondered if that’s the reason I still tune in to Federer’s matches towards the business end of major tournaments. There is something deep inside me – as it almost indubitably is in all of his fans – that warns of the fatal-stumble-at-the-very-end that has become an almost unavoidable part of Federer’s tournament progresses. And yet, I hope. And yet, Shaunak da hopes. And yet, Saibal da hopes. After yet another defeat, yet another heartbreak, we tell one another that we won’t get so involved again, that we’ll start out on the process of accepting that another Slam is too much to hope for. We tell ourselves the same thing. And come the next Slam, we’re rushing home from work, hoping that the data pack on the network provider doesn’t hang up on us as we frantically follow match scores on mobile handsets. All the while knowing in our heart of hearts that the odds are too heavily stacked against an ageing racquet-magician in a world of sprightly scythe-buccaneers, that it’s always going to be a bridge too far. Probably always. Aah, there’s that goddamned hope again.

In lives as commonplace as ours, this touch of temporary insanity four times a year is perhaps something to be cherished, even if it regularly ends in anti-climax. After all, this too shall pass.

Thank you for the insanity, Roger.

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