Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (73388)	6/6/2005 2:48:20 AM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 89467

Win-Win Situation for Men's Finalists at Roland Garros June 6, 2005 By WILLIAM C. RHODEN nytimes.com Paris I LOVE afternoons like this and matches like this when the losers are on paper. Everyone gains: players, fans, the sport. The teenage star Rafael Nadal defeated a gritty Mariano Puerta yesterday, but there was no sense of loss. There were flashes of brilliance and great competition. Two players emerged from the French Open with greater stature than when they arrived: Nadal, the 19-year-old Spanish prodigy who was expected to do so much, and Puerta, the 26-year-old Argentine who was not expected to do anything. Nadal completed an awesome journey to the top; he lived up to great expectations, alternately grinding and soaring. Nadal was the better player, the younger man, yet he struggled at times - with his nerves and against an opponent who refused to quit, an opponent who was playing as much for himself as he was against Nadal. This match provided the drama that the women's final lacked on Saturday, when a better-prepared, more focused Justine Henin-Hardenne flattened Mary Pierce. Yesterday's match was a tennis battle. Nadal earned this victory, 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-1, 7-5. He won points that others would not have won. He had answers for every rally. He went after virtually every shot as if the match depended on a return. For every trick the older Puerta pulled, the younger, soon-to-be champion had an answer. This tournament was Nadal's trial by fire. Last weekend, in a grueling, 3-hour-11-minute match against Sébastien Grosjean of France, a feisty Roland Garros crowd erupted in anger over a disputed line call. The Argentine umpire turned down a request from Grosjean to verify a ball mark that gave Nadal a break in the opening game of the second set. Nadal fought back and criticized the French tennis fans for being out of order. Even yesterday, the gritty Puerta won over the crowd with his fight in winning the first set, and again in the fourth set, when he clawed back and appeared to be on the verge of pushing the match to a fifth set. Nadal wouldn't let it happen. Puerta had three set points, serving at 5-4. Nadal rallied with a series of winners and went on to earn his first Grand Slam title. Nadal arrived at the French Open as an 18-year-old on the wings of tremendous hype. He was seeded fourth, even though he was making his first appearance at Roland Garros. He was the young, good-looking teenager with bundles of energy and personality to match. Unseeded Puerta arrived with no expectations and such a low ranking that he didn't make the ATP media guide. Not even a year removed from a drug suspension, Puerta's ranking had plummeted to 440th. He came to Paris with something to prove - to himself. After yesterday's match, Puerta spoke with the soul-searching gravity and expressed the satisfaction that comes from having lived up to one's own standard of success. "It's true that today I didn't win the match, but I won a fight against myself, which was very difficult," he said. A teenager helped him change his view of himself. "Until now I was going to smaller tournaments because I thought that I might be able to win them," he said. "Now, I'm going to be able to face excellent players, very good players. So I will walk into the court with a different state of mind and I'll play differently against those good players." Nadal spoke with the circumspection of a 19-year-old. There would be no cataclysmic changes. "I'm always a 19-year-old boy who will do what he likes and nothing more," he said. "I will continue to be the same way I was before. I'm going to do the same: I will work day after day like I did my whole life and I'm not going to change anything because I won this tournament." Only time will tell about that; we'll see how his family holds the marketing hounds at bay. How will he be marketed to a public ever hungry for fresh young stars? All indications are that his family will do fine. They refused to send Nadal away for advanced training and accepted only minimal support from the Spanish tennis federation. Team Nadal is a solid wall of family: he is coached by his uncle Toni; another uncle is a former pro soccer player. Nadal shares a house on Majorca with his grandmother, his parents and a younger sister. Two years ago, Nadal injured his elbow and missed the French Open; last year he had a stress fracture in his left ankle and came here in a cast. Nadal was so frustrated that he left. Six months ago, he helped Spain win the Davis Cup. Now he leaves Paris with the French Open championship. But this was a day when both players won. Nadal added to his reputation a charismatic star with awesome talent. Puerta simply gave a good account of himself on the greatest stage of his career. When you've establish your own standard, your owns goals, it's possible to lose and still win. And you can also be honest with yourself. "I think he was better than I was today," Puerta said. "There's nothing more to it." The truth, in its powerful simplicity. E-mail: wcr@nytimes.com