If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same
These lines are from the poem "If" By Rudyard Kipling and inscribed rightly so above the entryway to Center Court, Wimbledon. Every sportsman who walks through that will realise that there could be no next time. Every time he walks in , he is battling for survival, for walking through the same doors once again in search of the glory. Even the smallest amount of stage fright or butterflies in the stomach could rule out his/her chance . It could even be a cruel turn of fate that forces him to give up his struggle. But not a single guy who has entered the arena would be happy that he never has to step back into it once again.
It takes a lot of courage to keep standing up. Remember Sylvester Stallone from Rocky who kept standing up only to be beaten up again, knowing and hoping that a single punch from him would knock out the opponent. But always the question remained for how long could he keep taking it. Once he gathered enough steam to return the punches that without any surpirses used to be a knockout blow. Only to know he could be called up again to go through all this again but from a different guy at a different place. Could he do the same again? Will the underdog always keep winning ? It was that spirit that I loved the most about the movie.
It will not be the same case for all of us though, we could end up taking the knockout punch even without realising that it has happened. But we will keep turning up for the bout, giving it a shot again. For all of us believe we have it in us to deliver one deadly punch, the ability to win against all odds. The sweet taste of victory, which seems to be elusive forever is what everybody craves to taste.
I started off with Wimbledon and I will end with my favourites who have walked into the center court - Pete Sampras, Andre Aggasi , Goran Ivanisevic and its today's emperor Roger Federer.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, September 5, 2007
at 1:03 PM
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