Tennis is a sport dominated by great hand-eye coordination, innate timing, impressive physical conditioning, and incredible heart. Few sports, maybe none, can match the influence of heart and soul on the outcome of play more then tennis.
In history, there have been a select number of matches that have embodied this mental and psychological strength, like the Budge-Von Cramm Davis Cup match, the Pancho Gonzalez-Charlie Passarell match at Wimbledon, the six-hour Davis Cup marathon between John McEnroe and Mats Wilander, and the two WCT finals between Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall.
Arguably, any of these could compete for greatest match of all-time, and each would have its claim on the players with the most heart. I would like to add two to that now the 2004 Athens Olympics men's singles and doubles.
Nicholas Massu and Team Chile were not even supposed to make it past the first- or second-rounds in Athens. Based on rankings and recent play, I would have expected the Chileans to have been heading for the U.S. just after the Olympic Torch was lit.
While both Massu and countryman Fernando Gonzalez are great players, and have shown great promise, neither is known for their prowess on hardcourts and clearly the strongest players coming in were Nicholas Kiefer of Germany and Andy Roddick of the U.S. And I almost forgot that Roger Federer was also in the mix.
In summoning the great Olympic spirit, and showing that national pride still counts for something, the Chileans swept both the doubles and singles golds and the men's singles bronze, as well.
Massu played three gripping matches back-to-back-to-back in winning the gold, culminating with what can only be called a Herculean effort in coming back from cramps and exhaustion in the final to win in five very, very hotly contested sets.
This following the doubles final the previous day, where he and Gonzalez fought of the German team in five grueling sets to take an unlikely and unprecedented doubles gold. Heck, Gonzalez came back to win in three sets the Bronze, taking the final set to 16-14 against American prodigy Taylor Dent. How did these otherwise minor players do it?
HEART! I was glued to the tube all weekend, even though normally matches between Mardy Fish, Taylor Dent, Nicholas Massu, and Fernando Gonzalez would usually send me looking for programs like "The Look for Less" to watch. Each match started with great tennis, stayed close, had incredible points, and with each set, grew more and more interesting, important, and addictive.
I rooted for Dent when he had three Bronze medal points in his consolation round, but I have to tell you that I was just as happy to see Fernando gut and claw his way to the win. The Lleyton Hewitt Leg Mason final seemed to be the better match, but I watched just about every point of Fish and Massu going for the gold. It's been quite a while since we had a match like this, one that showed tennis at its best ... tennis played with guts and heart!
I've lamented here many times how I long for better times, and this Olympic tournament gave me just that. If only men's and women's tennis could sustain such a great level of play, with such incredible drama, on a regular basis. Athens is clearly special, but there is plenty of talent to go around both tours to give us this each and every week.
Okay, enough said. Tennis is at its best when the best comes out of the players, and the 2004 Olympics will forever embody all that tennis is and can be, at least for me. I hope and pray that it was for you, too.
See you guys at the Open!
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