Whenever I watch sports, as long as India as a team is not involved, I tend to side with the underdogs...Maybe it's because it is a win-win situation..if they lose, it's because they were the underdogs anyway...and if they win...well that's great too....or maybe there is a mysterious romance of an unfancied side taking on much more established opponents and winning....
Right from the time David fell Goliath with his slingshot, the joy of an underdog win has been something else...It has the story of hope...it has the charm of the fight against the odds...it has that few moments of disbelief when they finally pull it off....it just makes my day...
Right from the time David fell Goliath with his slingshot, the joy of an underdog win has been something else...It has the story of hope...it has the charm of the fight against the odds...it has that few moments of disbelief when they finally pull it off....it just makes my day...
So when I rooted for Greece in the 2004 Euro cup finals or when I was step in step with the most unfancied team of the IPL to their pinnacle of glory or when I desperately wanted Lewis Hamilton to win the F1 Championship on his debut, I was siding with the underdog....
Same was the case why I chanted "Rafa..Rafa..." when Rafael Nadal took on Roger Federer in the finals of the greatest grass court tournament in the history of Tennis. Before this final, the turf division was clear...Nadal rules the clay and Federer reigns over all that is grass....if the World No.2 has to go in to a final as an underdog, it just has to be Roger Federer across the net....They met 2 times before in the same situation and Roger's crown was not disturbed...But this time, there was an impending feeling....that something has changed....
So when Federer, who hadn't dropped a set on grass since the last Wimbledon final, dropped the first 2 sets, that impending feeling was getting an aura of certainty....then again the story twists....showing why he is World No.1, he wins the next 2 sets....even the rain gods dropped in from time to time to check the score....But at the end of the heart stopping 5th set..it was the underdog who took a bite out of the World No.1's aura of invincibility...
This might be the beginning of an exciting new era in Men's Tennis....where the World No.1 status switches hands quite often....each of them biting on other's heels constantly....the status of the underdog being traded from tournament to tournament.....Well, interesting times lay ahead....and as always, I'm with the underdog...
