Rafa Nadal - Linking to the Past

I'm still getting through my thoughts about Nadal as a whole, but what's an interesting area I wanted to highlight is just the amount of times I wrote about him. Purely him. Yes, I've written a ton about Peyton Manning, or others, but given tennis is an individual sport, a lot of pieces were truly just about him. This came to me when reposting the "22 memories" article, in that there's a good number of those where I wrote a whole piece around that win. So, for my next Nadal retrospective I wanted to link back to those moments.

2008 Wimbledon - Nostalgia Diaries: https://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2019/05/nostalgia-diaries-pt-17-2008-wimbledon.html

This one is really memorable because I wrote about watching the match with my Aunt who would die a few months later (she was already quite ill), where I learned at that moment that she was not only a big Tennis fan but a Nadal fan. ALso of course it was the greatest match of all time.

2009 Australian Open - Nostalgia Diaries: https://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-nostalgia-diaries-pt-25-2009.html

His last title win before the start of the blog - a lot of talk here about the changing of the rivalry and the friendship between Nadal and Federer that started that day.

2010 French Open - The Changing of the (Swiss) Guard:  https://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2010/06/there-is-man-in-switzerland-today-man.html

I;m honestly a bit sad I focused so much of Nadal's win here to be about the demise of the reign of Federer. Of course, that was largely true - this was Nadal's 7th slam, and since then Nadal would win 15 more and Federer just four more.

2010 US Open - The Reign of Rafa: https://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2010/09/reign-of-rafa.html

All about him being the undisputed king. Of course a fellow named Novak woudl rise up right after this, but at this moment Rafa's future seemed limitless. Of course even I probably wouldn't have thought the best case scenario would be thirteen more titles!

2014 French Open - Rafa Nadal - Reaching the Highest of Expectations:  https://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2014/06/rafa-nadal-reaching-highest-of.html

I;m shocked I didn't write about the four wins in interim, especially during his dominant 2013 season. Oddly, I did write about him in August 2013, when he beat Djokovic in a stellar final in Toronto. Anyway, I did in 2014, the same time I made a bet with a friend that he would exceed Federer in slams. Of course, he wouldn't win for another three years. 

2017 French Open - La Decima: https://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2017/06/la-decima.html

As you'll see, I wrote about basically every slam win from here on out. Being Nadal, most are at teh French Open, and most are actually quite similar. All increasingly slack-jawed at Nadal's craziness of racking up titles at Rolland Garros.

2017 US Open - Rafa's Sweet 16: https://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2017/09/rafas-sweet-16.html

The win over Kevin Anderson was the most lowkey, easy final to watch. There was like zero chance he was losing. Allowed me to get a bit more introspective on teh career and what-not than the match itself. It was a lot about him winning a non-clay slam for the first time in four years.

2018 French Open - La Undecima de Nadal: https://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2018/06/la-undecima-de-nadal.html

Again, it's basically about "isn't it just crazy that we have a guy who has won eleven French Open titles!?" Also will say that the funniest part here is that I actually didn't watch a second of this Final - it taking place early with me being on the West Coast and it being basically a fait accompli that he was going to win.

2019 French Open - Rafa's Dozen: https://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2019/06/rafas-dozen.html

Broken record here - him winning a ludicrous twelfth Roland Garros. Let's just proceed.

2019 US Open - Watching Rafa: Emotionally Drained, Completely Energized:  https://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2019/09/watching-rafa-emotionally-drained.html

This is probably my most introspective article about a single match. It isn't all that much about the career. About the chase of the all-time record (this brought him to within one of Federer). It was about that magical five hour match against Medvedev. Honestly, maybe my favorite piece I wrote about Nadal.

2020 French Open - Rafa: https://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2020/10/rafa.html

Not sure why I went so simple with teh title. This was still during Covid. He throttled Djokovic, who clearly was nipping at his/Federer's heels at this point. It seemed more important at the time.

2022 Australian Open - Rafa Climbing the Mountain:   https://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2022/02/rafa-climbing-mountain.html

If not the 2019 US Open one, this might be my favorite. For twelve years I was waiting to write this. For eight years I was financially wanting to write this (the bet with my friend). On the whole, it was a thrill to jsut be able to. Again, I'll always just love the fact that for a small moment in time, Rafa was alone at the top of the slam leaderboard.

2022 French Open - 14 for Rafa:  https://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2022/06/14-for-rafa.html

In the end, not a surprise this was the last one. For those that remember, there was some weird retirement talk during this tournament, largely squared around the resurfacing of a foot issue that first troubled him in 2006. A month later he would get hurt at Wimbledon, pulling out before his semifinal against Kyrgios. Obviously he came back, but was never really right, so in a way the weird retirement cloud at the time of the 2022 French Open makes this more poignant.

NFL 2024: Week 7 Power Rankings & The Rest

Tier I - The "Is it 2025 yet?" Duo

32.) Carolina Panthers  =  1-5  (103-203)

31.) New England Patriots  =  1-5  (83-143)

Not to beat around the bush, but sometimes it's clear that you have to start looking at next year. For the Patriots, they've started that process by ripping the band-aid off and goign with Drake Maye. Just have to hope it isn't a David Carr situation given how bad that OL is. For the Panthers, they've almost done the reverse in essentially ripping the band-aid off as it relates to admitting Bryce Young is a mistake. At least for them they have their #1 pick this year, which very well may be #1 in the draft again. 

Tier II - The "Schadenfreude at its Finest" Uno

30.) Cleveland Browns  =  1-5  (95-141)

It's just so hilarious how bad the Watson situation is in every way. Of course, screw him all the way to hell. I hope they don't bench him because that ownership group should reap every single awful moment that they sowed, and Watson should doubly so get humiliated weekly. If anything, my only hope is they trade some of the good players away. I don't fault the Myles Garrett's and the like for this disaster.

Tier III - The "Just Bad Football" Quadro

29.) Las Vegas Raiders  =  2-4  (109-163)

28.) Jacksonville Jaguars  =  1-5  (113-178)

27.) Miami Dolphins  =  2-3  (60-113)

26.) New York Giants  =  2-4  (96-121)

As we'll get to in a bit, I actually think the upper end of the league is quite strong this year, but the converse is there's a good set of bad teams. The Raiders changed QBs but that hasn't changed their offensive outlook at all. Can they just go and trade Devante Adams please!? For the Jags, it's jsut a top to bottom disaster. I guess there is always a chance Trevor Lawrence starts to play better, which is the one thing keeping me from having them even lower. Similarly, I guess Tua could come back at some point? It is amazing though how awful that offense looks without Tua though. I do wonder if there is a view that the crazy offense has to some degree been very much foudn out. For the Giants - the defense remains quite good but to no one's surprise Daniel Jones cannot lead a fully functional offense. I like a lot of what the Giants have built outside of the QB, but that is irrelevant if they don't cut the cord.

Tier IV - The "Better Luck Next Year" Duo

25.) Los Angeles Rams  =  1-4  (94-139)
24.) Tennessee Titans  =  1-4  (96-110)

Both these teams are probably better than one-win through five games. The Rams are definitely better if they didn't have a cascade of injuries reminiscent of say the 2020 49ers. Technically I guess that 49ers team lost their QB as well, but Stafford is hanging in there. For the Titans, it's been depressing to see how far Will Levis has fallen this year compared to the sprightly QB who could throw a gorgeous deep ball last year. Given it's year one in a new regime, I'll cut them some slack that this is very much not a finished product.

Tier V - The "Depressingly Poor" Duo

23.) Dallas Cowboys  =  3-3  (126-168)

22.) New York Jets  =  2-4  (113-108)

The Cowboys are truly bad right now. Yes, their defense has been fairly decimated by injuries. But still they should not be giving up 40+ in two of their three home games so far. The offense is also a shell of itself, and this is all after their big extensions to Lamb and Prescott. I think we're super close to this being a situation where they missed their chance in 2022 and are playing out the string. My ranking of the Jets isn't really impacted all that much by the Devante Adams trade because the Jets main problems to me aren't materially solved there - their OL stinks and the defense is already showing some holes post Saleh. Maybe it was one game, but the run defense was pathetic. That is a bad combination here.

Tier VI - The "Middling Middlers" Quinto

21.) Arizona Cardinals  =  2-4  (133-163)

20.) Indianapolis Colts  =  3-3  (139-139)
19.) Denver Broncos  =  3-3  (112-96)

18.) New Orleans Saints  =  2-4  (157-147)

17.) Seattle Seahawks  =  3-3  (146-150)

The soft underbelly is a monster at the moment with these five. The Cardinals are still exciting, and I believe in Kyler again but that defense needs a lot more in the DL to make them passable. The Colts are doing basically what they did last year - playing awful football but somehow stringing together a few wins. The Broncos defense will keep them in games, but Nix's lack of progress should call into question a bit Sean Payton's QB development skills in teh 2020s. For the Saints, they have to hope Derek Carr gets back soon, and more than that the defense can start tackling again. The underlying stats will still be good, but that was a very, very troubling game. The Seahawks run defense has to get better or they'll never head above .500. With teh 49ers slow start that division is there for the taking, but the defense that started out well has really started to sag the last few games.

Tier VII - The "Upside Potential" Duo

16.) Philadelphia Eagles  =  3-2  (106-112)
15.) Cincinnati Bengals  =  2-4  (157-152)

The Eagles seem like a mess, what happens when you end 1-6 the year prior and have things like the head coach jawing at home fans. But they're getting the calvary back - Hurts looks good. If not for the freak block FG that was a calm, cool win. They haven't solved a lot of their issues coming into the year, but remain talented enough to sneak a wild card (or the division if Washington cools off...). The Bengals would be a lot easier to get behind if they didn't fool around and lose to what has revealed itself to be an awful New England team. Their schedule remains easy, and the upside is still there. It will be interesting to see if they can build anything off their first decent defensive performance to date.

Tier VIII - The "Better than Middling Better than Middlers" Quadro

14.) Atlanta Falcons  =  4-2  (149-135)
13.) Pittsburgh Steelers  =  4-2  (124-86)

12.) Chicago Bears  =  4-2  (148-101)
11.) Washington Commanders  =  4-2  (178-145)

The biggest development to me of the Falcons in recent games has been the rediscovery of Kyle Pitts. Now, let's see it against teams not named the Panthers and such, but there's some life there. For the Steelers, I could write the same thing but replace the name "Kyle Pitts" with "Najee Harris", and similarly so the Raiders taking the place of the Panthers in the sense of "prove it against a real team". For the Bears and Commanders, it's all about the rookies. Caleb Williams has feasted against bad defenses these last few weeks - but in reality so has Jayden Daniels for his best games (Bengals, Cardinals). Both are clearly good enough that it is almost assured they won't be busts, but I think there's a chance both come back towards the mean QB performacne for the remainder of the season. Not that this should be seen as anything other than a positive first season for both.

Tier IX - The "They Might Be Great" Duo

10.) Los Angeles Chargers  =  3-2  (91-66)

9.) Tampa Bay Buccaneers  =  4-2  (178-141)

I don't think either of these two are great yet, but have some underlying strengths if they can remain healthy. Particularly, the Chargers defense has played great so far. Granted, against some truly awful offenses, but their starters should be good if they can stay healthy. A big if to be sure. The Buccaneers similarly have such frontline talent if they remain all on the field. The offense is playing like it did at the peak of the Brady years. The defense needs more teeth but some of that is the style they employ under Todd Bowles, especially needing more blitzing to generate consistent pressure. 

Tier X - The "They Are Great" Quadro

8.) Green Bay Packers  =  4-2  (162-121)

7.) Houston Texans  =  5-1  (143-135)
6.) San Francisco 49ers  =  3-3  (162-130)
5.) Buffalo Bills  =  4-2  (165-126)

I don't know what it really says, but my Top-8 teams have seven of the eight teams that played in the divisional round last year, and the other 5-0 team. I'm sure we'll get more variance as we go, but so far these four have all done well. The Packers finally gave Love some protection and it looked all better. The defense has also started getting more pressure. For the Texans, it's a good sign that there are some weaknesses to point to (protection, some accuracy issues) and the team is still 5-1 and clear in that division. For the 49ers, that was a get-right game, while they await even more reinforcements. Purdy is playing great, and I count at lease one of their losses (primarily the Cardinals one) to flukes. For teh Bills, that was a heartening game in the sense they lose that in recent years, with teh hail mary, the bad penalty calls. The heartening part is while they're dealing with some injuries, those aren't long term. More than that though, Amari Cooper is a great fit for what they need on offense for Allen.

Tier XI - The "Revenge Tour" Duo

4.) Baltimore Ravens  =  3-2  (177-149)

3.) Detroit Lions  =  4-1  (151-91)

Twelve years ago, the Super Bowl was between teh two teams that lost the prior year's Conference Title Games in heartbreaking fashion. One of those two was even the Ravens. Not to say that's definitely happening here, but we're on our way in a sense. The Ravens really blew that Raiders game, otherwise their record would better match their actual level so far. Jackson looks great, Henry looks great, and the defense is starting to get more dynamic. For the Lions, I'm really hoping they trade for some edge help, be it Myles Garrett (the Cooper trade at least indicates they may be open for business) or Maxx Crosby, or someone else. That offense is humming, but Hutchinson was such a key element of them being a super bowl caliber defense.

Tier XII - The "Resting Up for the Long Haul" Duo

2.) Minnesota Vikings  =  5-0  (139-76)

1.) Kansas City Chiefs  =  5-0  (118-85)

Boring week in a sense where the two remaining 5-0 teams were both on a bye. Both have nice tests coming up, with teh Vikings hosting the Lions and the Chiefs taking a trip to San Francisco. So far, nothing much to report here.

Looking Ahead to Next Week's Games

Byes: Chicago Bears (4-2), Dallas Cowboys (3-3)

15.) New England Patriots (1-5)  @  Jacksonville Jaguars (1-5)  (9:30am - NFLN)

14.) Carolina Panthers (1-5)  @  Washington Commanders (4-2)  (4:05 - CBS)

13.) Cincinnati Bengals (2-4)  @  Cleveland Browns (1-5)  (1:00 - CBS)

12.) Las Vegas Raiders (2-4)  @  Los Angeles Rams (1-4)  (4:05 - CBS)

I call it "Look far away" Sunday, as

11.) New York Jets (X-X)  @  Pittsburgh Steelers (4-2)  (SNF - NBC)
10.) Tennessee Titans (1-4)  @  Buffalo Bills (X-X)  (1:00 - CBS)

9.) Denver Broncos (3-3)  @  New Orleans Saints (2-4)  (TNF - Amazon)

8.) Los Angeles Chargers (3-2)  @  Arizona Cardinals (2-4)  (MNF 2.0 - ESPN)

I call it "There's better things to do on a October weekend" Thursday, Sunday and Monday, as

7.) Philadelphia Eagles (3-2)  @  New York Giants (2-4)  (1:00 - FOX)

6.) Miami Dolphins (2-3)  @  Indianapolis Colts (3-3)  (1:00 - CBS)

I call it "Weirdly interesting...." Sunday, as

5.) Seattle Seahawks (3-3)  @  Atlanta Falcons (4-2)  (1:00 - FOX)

4.) Houston Texans (5-1)  @  Green Bay Packers (4-2)  (1:00 - CBS)

I call it "The beginning of something great" Sunday, as

3.) Detroit Lions (4-1)  @  Minnesota Vikings (5-0)  (1:00 - FOX)

2.) Kansas City Chiefs (5-0)  @  San Francisco 49ers (3-3)  (4:25 - FOX)

I call it "Undefeated, but not Unchallenged" Sunday, as

1.) Baltimore Ravens (4-2)  @  Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-2)  (MNF - ESPN)

I call it "Just good ol' fashioned football" Monday, as

Re-Post: Rafa: 22 Memories for 22 Slams

I'll have a lot more about Rafa in the coming days/weeks. He's the last player that I followed to the degree of obsession that I have painted ont eh blogs side wall. Brodeur and Oswalt retired in 2013. Manning in 2016. Bill Walsh died in 2007. And then there was Rafa, who somehow made it to 2022 as a top player, and 2024 as an athlete. This day was inevitable, and honestly way delayed. You can ask the most ardent Nadal fan in say 2010 and it would seem ludicrous Nadal would be an active player in 2024. But we got that. Anyway, to start, I'll re-post my 22 memories for Rafa's 22 slams. At teh end of the day, I'm so happy that even though it was short-lived, Rafa did have the slam lead for a bit. He was the GOAT for a time, even if he isn't anymore. Anyway, for the first of probably, inevitably 6-8 Nadal posts - here we go.

*****************************************************************************

I admittedly posted this right after Nadal beat Medvedev in the Australian Open. I like the fact that five months later it was already outdated. Let this not be the last entry....

1.) 2005 French Open - def (UR) Mariano Puerta  6-7  6-3  6-1  7-5

I was in Chicago visiting my great Aunt when this match took place. I remember watching it on their small tv in a corner of the guest room I was staying at. Even then something was special about Nadal - mostly his speed and ability to track down ridiculous shots that no one else would even come close to. Overtime many players became as audacious in their defense as Nadal was but then it was new - as were the capris and the muscles and the grunts. The real star match was the semifinal win over Federer in four sets, but here too he was challenged but got his reward: for some reason Zinedine Zidane - a full year before he would rule the world at the World Cup - being the guest of honor handing out the trophy. A great respect and friendship started that day, between those two, and between me and Rafa.

2.) 2006 French Open - def (1) Roger Federer  1-6  6-1  6-4  7-6

By this point Nadal was probably already being hailed as well on track to being the best clay court player ever, but still seeing him lose the first set 1-6 is staggering. He quickly, as in immediately, reversed course rolling Federer 6-1 in the next set. Overtime I came to appreciate this weird foible of all the rivalries of the big-3, that every now and then, even within the same match, one would just randomly put on 'God' mode for a set or two. The last two sets were somewhat forgettable but overall looking back I just love the symmetry of those two 6-1 sets.

3.) 2007 French Open - def (1) Roger Federer  6-3  4-6  6-3  6-4

This was the match that made me, and probably many, think that yeah, at some point he's going to beat him on other surfaces. About a month before this match Federer hammered Nadal at th Hamburg masters. I believe Federer was the betting favorite entering this match for some reason. Instead, Nadal won a calm, if well played, four setter. My memory of the match is somewhat hazy aside from the growing sense that Rafa is just inevitable on this surface and on this court, and finally the French crowd was starting to realize that their favorite boy Roger wouldn't be able to beat him.

4.) 2008 French Open - def (1) Roger Federer  6-1  6-3  6-0

The scoreline 6-1, 6-3, 6-0, will always be my paragon of Nadal's clay dominance. And it was every bit as dominant - with the first and third sets taking abuot 30 minutes each - hyper-fast in Nadal's world. I remember Federer just being passed so easily time and time again, he started going up to the net already with slumped shoulders knowing it was pointless. Rafa ended up winning this tournament without dropping a set -- a feat he would match three more times -- but never at the level of play that he did here. His scorelines against great players is just insane - none much more than when he just eviscerated Federer to a level heretofore unimaginable.

5.) 2008 Wimbledon - def (1) Roger Federer  6-4  6-4  6-7  6-7  9-7

I wrote a Nostalgia Diaries piece about this game, namely how we watched the epic match across the four and a half hours of gameplay, and multiple rain delays, with my Aunt who would die a few months later. She was a Nadal fan. We entered this one confident, given it came a month after the massacre at Roland Garros, and moreso after Nadal calmly won two sets. But of course Federer rose to the occasion and gave us what will always be known by anyone who isn't a Novak fan as the Greatest Match of All Time. Maybe more than any of these pre-2010 major wins, this one is seared in my mind.

6.) 2009 Aussie Open - def (2) Roger Federer  7-5  3-6  7-6  3-6  6-2

I wrote about this one as well, and the lasting moment will be either the best single point the two ever played, where each hit about two winners before Rafa's outstreched actual winner, or of course Federer's breakdown at the end. Seeing Federer burst into tears was a mix of harrowing and hilarious at the time, but you can understand it. Nadal broke him. In seven months he blasted him embarrisingly on clay, stole his glory at Wimbledon and now beat him on hard court. That said, what has now become a truly close friendship probably started that day too, with Nadal consoling Federer, arm around his shoulders, before publicly reassuring the world that he felt Federer would pass the '14 of Sampras.' How little did we know how prescient those words would be.

7.) 2010 French Open - def (5) Robin Soderling  6-4  6-2  6-4

This was the first of many 'Nadal comes back and wins his first slam after a prolonged injury' wins for Nadal, but to me the most memorable. His injury that forced him out of Wimbledon and made him play at about 80% thereafter was novel, it was scary and seemed to confirm many of the fears or projections many had about Rafa's style of play. But then he came back and won the French Open again without losing a set, and this time doing it by exacting revenge on teh guy that beat him the year before. It wasn't his most dominant run - in truth he had more dominant runs where he lost a set or two - but it was maybe the most fulfilling.

8.) 2010 Wimbledon - def (12) Tomas Berdych  6-3  7-5  6-4

For whatever reason, I have this match taped on VCR then converted to DVD. I have no idea why. It wasn't a particularly close match (obviously) and Rafa seemed so preordained to win it seemed a bit ordinary. His real test was the Semifinal against Andy Murray which he also won in five sets. At this point, Nadal did seem like the best grass court player in the world too - winning it for the second straight time he played the event. Little did we know how much of a horror show he would soon become on grass, for what are still inexplicable reasons given how he turned it around in 2018-19.

9.) 2010 US Open - def (3) Novak Djokovic  6-4  5-7  6-4  6-2

I would posit Nadal's peak as a player was this tournament run. He won the US Open dropping just that one solitary set in the final. He maxed out the one 'weakness' of his game, suddenly smashing 130+ mph serves routinely, including three straight service winners to close out the third set. He never really served that fast again (Nadal claims it impacted his shoulder), but in that moment he had no weakness. How good was he? He dropped serve one time period prior to the final. Every now and then I do wish Nadal brings back the huge serve again. It really made him for a two-week stretch the perfect player.

10.) 2011 French Open - def (3) Roger Federer  7-5  7-6  5-7  6-1

This was the tournament where this Nadal fan finally started to come around on Roger - I even think I wrote something about it at the time. Why? Because Roger beat Djokovic in the semifinals - Novak's first loss of the year. Nadal was 0-4 that year against Djokovic losing in the finals of Indian Wells, Miami, Rome and Madrid. I guarantee Djokovic would've won again, but instead Federer took him out - and Nadal beat Federer as he does. This was a treat though I don't think I ever would've imagined it would be the last fnal between the two for six years.

11.) 2012 French Open - def (1) Novak Djokovic  6-4  6-3  2-6  7-5

Honestly, I don't know if Rafa was ever as content and pleased after a win than this one. He had lost the prior three finals all to Djokovic. As good as Djokovic was in 2011-12, Nadal was like 95% as good, but lost the key matches. Here he won the key match getting a bit of help with rain that came right after he lost the third set. He steadied in the 4th, which I followed on my phone on the NJ Transit heading up to my internship. This was before network was nearly as good to watch it on the phone, so I was maddeningly refreshing the French Open's score app. Not a fun way to watch a final.

12.) 2013 French Open - def (5) David Ferrer  6-3  6-2  6-3

This match took place two days after I returned to the US from my 'Around the World' trip. It was a letdown given the real final was Rafa's semifinal marathon win over Djokovic in a weird mirror version of their 2012 Oz Final epic. That match took place the day I returned, and I had my parents DVR-it. For whatever reason teh DVR failed and when I got home, Nadal was serving for the match. That was quite a welcome-home gift after four months away. People talk about that match being this close epic, and it certainly was, but I'll never forget that Nadal had more winners than Novak, less errors, and won way more points.

13.) 2013 US Open - def (1) Novak Djokovic  6-2  3-6  6-4  6-1

The final took place on a Monday which coincidentally was my 2nd day of work as an adult having started the Friday before. We were at a pasta making class & dinner while it was going on. I wasn't the only one very interested, and I do remember we reached back to the hotel the company put us all up in that week in time to watch the ending getting drunk at the bar in the hotel. It was an amazing first week, and while this wasn't the highlight, it wasn't too far behind. I definitely bonded with a few colleagues over our shared love of Rafa, who pulled off a miracle in the 3rd set before just rolling and finishing off his most dominant year yet.

14.) 2014 French Open - def (2) Novak Djokovic  3-6  7-5  6-2  6-4

Five years after Nadal reduced Fed to tears, he reduced Djokovic to tears here - not as pronounced but every bit as real, as for years of getting closer to beating Nadal at the French, he won a set but then was overwhelmed. Of course, just like how Federer would go on to win three of the next four slams post-bawling, so too would Novak. Separately, it was after this win that I bet my friend the $200 that Nadal would beat Fed. Who could blame me, Nadal was three behind having won three of the last five slams, and Federer hadn't won one in two years. It took seven years, and ten combined slams, but finally I was right.

15.) 2017 French Open - def (3) Stan Wawrinka  6-2  6-3  6-1

The fact that there is this two-and-a-half year gap in Nadal's run will never not amaze me. Same with Djokovic's similar gap from 2016 Wimby through 2018 French. But rise like a Phoenix he did. If any tournament has a claim to match his dominance in 2008 it was this one where he won by similarly lopsided scores, admittedly against lesser players. The final over Stan was also cathartic given his loss to Stan in the 2014 Australian Open final. The real memory for me was it was Rafa's 10th French Open, a fact Roland Garros basically assumed would happen given the vast amounts of '10' signage they immediately unfurled when it was over.

16.) 2017 US Open - def (24) Kevin Anderson  6-3  6-3  6-4

The final was fairly routine here - once again the Semifinal was the real test, this time against Juan Martin del Potro. Nadal look flustered early against Delpo, before rolling off 10 straight games while winning the 2nd and 3rd sets 6-0, 6-3. My real memory of this tournament was actually Delpo's win over Federer, which I watched on my computer in a bar in Wallingford, chatting with my friends. I was about 30 seconds behind which they used to hilariously evil impact. For a pretty mediocre project, memories like that night at that bar will always be with me.

17.) 2018 French Open - def  (7) Dominic Thiem  6-4  6-3  6-2

I think this is maybe the only final on this list that I know I didn't watch any of. I was in Vancouver, and given the time difference it was largely over by the time I woke up at 9am or whatever. It wasn't too surprising. Thiem was a great clay court player, but Rafa was on a roll and beat him rather easily. At this point, him winning the French was basically a guarantee, so honestly I was perfectly fine sleeping in my Vancouver AirBNB while this was going on.

18.) 2019 French Open - def (4) Dominic Thiem  6-3  5-7  6-1  6-1

Things seemed a bit more tricky this time around. Thiem survived a five-set war with Djokovic in the semifinal and really played Rafa to a draw in the first two sets. Then Rafa unleashed a level of clay court playing who would rarely match with its brutality. Double breadsticks to end it absolutely encapture just how great Rafa was on the day. I left thinking Thiem would be the next non-Rafa player to win the French. While that sadly isn't true, I do for sure hope he wins one.

19.) 2019 US Open - def (4) Daniil Medvedev  7-5  6-3  5-7  4-6  6-4

I watched this match in its entirety, sitting in the same old chair we brought over one year from India, barely getting up or moving for the run of its nearly five hours. It was a thrilling match because of how new it was. This was the first time (not including 2017 against Anderson which was a fait accompli) that Rafa was facing a serious contender in a non-French Open final that wasn't Djokovic or Federer. Daniil was excellent. He played excellently. He was the fresher guy in the 5th. But Nadal pulled it out. Around this time, an old college friend nad I started chatting mosly around our shared love of Nadal - or at least that is how it started. I remember furiously pinging DMs back and forth throughout this incredible match, easily the best of his non-historic wins (e.g. teh 21st, his first Wimbledon and Australian/hard court, etc).

20.) 2020 French Open - def (1) Novak Djokovic  6-0  6-2  7-5

This was the sequel to his 2008 massacre twelve years later and maybe more brutal in its efficiency. To see Nadal go 6-0, 6-2, against Djokovic was stunning. He was insanely good in this one, that just ike Federer reacted after 2008, I still remember Novak's post-game speech saying 'well, I guess this is why your are the king of clay'. There's no agument, even after the events of the French Open the following year. You can play the French Open in winter, in a closed roof, all things that were supposedly to Djokovic's advantage, and it didn't matter. The king stay the king.

21.) 2022 Aussie Open - def (2) Daniil Medvedev 2-6  6-7  6-4  6-4  7-5

What more to say - I just wrote a few thousand words on this yesterday. The only thing I'll mention is truly how much I expected Medvedev to win. And not even in any weird reverse jinx way. I felt it going in and seeing Medvedev race to a 6-2 first set just compounded that feeling. Which is then to say how gleeful, much like Rafa himself at the end, I was that he pulled it off. The 21st, the 2nd career slam, all incredible memories that can help block out bad ones, and it all crested in the craziest way possible. Insane, as Rafa is, was and will always will be.

22.) 2022 French Open - def (8) Casper Ruud  6-3  6-3  6-0

I'm not going to talk about the injury stuff, or my thoughts on the ludicrous 14. Forget all that. I'm going to talk about Nadal and Ruud, and namely how uniquely excited Casper Ruud was to get hammered. There was a slice of the internet that was upset that Ruud wasn't committed enough and didn't want it enough and all that garbage. You know what? Ruud was right. He's not a nobody, being a top-10 player coming into this tournament. But still, while he will make a good life for himself playing on tour another 7-10 years, he may or may not win a slam. You know what he will have: being the guy who played a French Open Final against Nadal. There is no shame in losing one of those - literally everyone has. He just had the smartness to realize that in losing, you still win because you were there to witness greatness at its highest extent.

2024 India Trip: Amritsar

Amritsar was a welcome change because it was the anti-Lucknow. Granted, that isn't always great - the food was definitely better in Lucknow. But man, Amritsar can bring it with sites. From the famous (the Golden Temple) to the austere (the Jailanwala Bagh Memorial), to the educational (the excellent Partition Museum) to the entertaining (the Attari / Wagah border performances). Amritsar had everything going well.

Amritsar also knows this about itself, maybe a bit too much. The are surrounding the main sites are really well laid out, clean, manicured and beautiful - white tile stone streets that are pedestrian only, really nice store signage. It's a glorious center of the city. Go a few blocks outside of that and you get into the bustling, dirty maw of any Indian city. Half of me wishes they gave more of the city that level of attention. But so be it.

I'll reverse the order of how I wrote about Lucknow, to focus on the food first. Punjab is a fairly heavy vegetarian state - some of their most notable restaurants, be it more street food "dhaba" style spots or what gets advertised as fancier versions of classic Punjabi cuisine. Not to say this was bad. Firstly, I had overindulged in non-veg in Lucknow (it is what is best), so getting a couple veg meals was quite welcome. 

The first meal was at Swagtam Dhaba, a hole in the wall type restaurant taht serves basically set Kulcha meals - where you get a Kulcha (regular, or stuffed with onion, cauliflower or paneer; I chose paneer) with two dals, channa and onion pickle. It was a super simple meal, by far the simplest I had on the trip overall. But so good in its simplicity. So many of these Indian street restaurants hide fairly clean, cozy eating areas behind the veneer of dusty, grimy street-faces. You have to see what's within.

The other veg lunch needed no such act of bravery, as I had a meal at Haveli, a reputed fancy, old-style, veg restaurant serving Punjabi classic. The restaurant was a large, two story area, well adorned with classic Phulkari embroidery table runners and tablecloths. The food was graet as well, as I ordered a okra masala fry dish (great, crunchy, spicy), and a shahi paneer curry, which was so smooth and hearty. I can't do veg food day after day, but a couple lunches fit quite well.

Dinner was non-veg (has to be), and it was two similar spaces. Both far out of the city (to which it was a bit tough to get an uber back). Both were large spaces, with tables in lush gardens with ponds, trees, greenery, and a mix of indoor and outdoor seating. It was perfection in terms of a setting. I was indoors the first day, but outdoors the second, under a lovely breeze and fairly cool (for India) night. Both places also had fairly robust menus that combined Western food (e.g. pastas), Chinese food and Indian classics. I stuck, stubbornly so, to Indian food to quite good results.

The first place was called The Bagh, and the second the Elgin Club. The food was probably a bit better at The Bagh, but both were similarly quite strong. At the Bagh, I got a chicken kalbi kebab platter and then a mutton curry - both were presented excellently, with sizable portions as well. The Elgin Club was fairly similar in ordering, getting a mutton chapli kebab, and mutton roganjosh, with a nice roomali roti. The only real complaint was the mutton curry at the Elgin was too bony, but it is what it is.

Amritsar also has a decent nightlife scene, focusing around an up and comign area around Ranjit Avenue - a 4x2 block area Northeast of city center. In that area are multiple developments of 4-5 floors each, packed with restaurants (Haveli was here) and bars and lounges in the like. I went to a couple places, firstly being an outpost of Brewdog (yes, the Scottish craft brewery), which had live music and a really nice tap list. I tried another more local brewery (Brewmaster) which also had live music (seems to be a thing here), and four of their own brews. They were tasty, but contineud the weird aspect of too many Indian breweries serving beer close to room temperature. The final spot was the Liquid Room, which was a nice club, playing pretty great Punjabi music, with cheap, good drinks. Alcohol on the whole is fairly cheap in Amritsar, another plus about the place.

Okay, enough dabbling. Let's get to the sites. The best one is the Golden Temple, a beautiful, pristine, large Sikh temple complex that is one of their most holy places in Sikkhism. The complex has white marble 4-wall exterior, with a large lake with teh Golden Temple (gold leaf over the marble) in the middle. It is gorgeous, it is stunning. It was enthralling during the day, but doubly so when it was perfectly floodlit and I went back during the night (honestly, worth going to it for both). It is a staggering sight, especially with the throngs of supporters chanting, praying and singing, all circumnavigating the square.

Honestly, the site would be architecturally notable even if you remove the actual golden shrine in the middle. The artwork, the detailing, the beauty in the walls and gates and the like on the four sides of the rectangle are nice enough. But then add in the Golden part, and it is really say India's version to the Kinkaku-Ji in Kyoto. Incredible place.

Separately, there are great sights that speak to Amritsar's position as the one of teh first cities on the India side of the India-Pakistan border. Notably, when the British negotiated redrawing borders when India and Pakistan got its independence from the UK, they drove a line right in the middle of Punjab (which exists today as a state in both countries). Millions of Muslims fled to Pakistan, crossing through Amritsar. Millions of Hindus and Sikhs went the other direction. Hundreds of Thousands died. The Partition Museum in Amritsar goes through this in great detail, with rooms talking about the decades of rebellion leading up to Independence and Partition, and then the massacre and fallout thereafter. It doesn't play sides. It tells a true retelling of a harrowing time.

The other notable massacre in the town was at the height of Indian discord with the crown, when they quelled an uprising that killed thousands of Indian rebels in the Jailanwala Bagh area of Amritsar. Today, taht area is turned into a memorial park with more history in four exhibits. These areas are clean, solemn, picturesque and just overall great sights. Amritsar is like that a lot.

The final sight was maybe the most interesting - the Atari/Wagah border (Atari the town on the border on the India side, Wagah on the Pakistan side). Each day there is a demonstration, ran by members of the border guard from both coutnries, right at the border - as in the area near and between two fences. Every day at 5pm, thousands gather (literally, India built a 25,000 seat stadium there - Pakistan is currently buidlign one) to watch the border guards perform, dance, chant, march leading to the joint lowering of the flag. Sure, it is all a bit nationalistic. Sure, the patronage and cooperation in this display here is not representative of the deep fractures between the two countries in reality, but it is still a great time.

As was Amritsar as a whole. Granted, there is better food elsewhere in India. Secretly, I wish you can combine the food in Lucknow and the sites in Amritsar and you get a top tier city. That said, it isn't like the food is bad in Amritsar. It's fine - the veg stuff is unique. The nightlife is good. The sites are great. Amritsar was a great ending to the trip/

2024 India Trip: Lucknow

I had multiple people ask me why I chose to go to Lucknow. Of all the more popular touristy places I could've picked, I scrolled past all of those and landed at Uttar Pradesh's bustling capital. I don't actually remember the genesis of the plan to come to Lucknow. I geuss it was some combination of (a) wanting to stick in Northern India (where I've had more luck from a tourism point of view), (b) direct flight options and (c) the food. Oh the food - even the people questioning my plan to come to Lucknow admitted that the food, their awadhi cuisine, was spectacular. After two days plus one dinner in the city, I can get all perspectives. It definitely isn't the tourism hub, but yes the food was excellent. 

Lucknow is an interesting place. The part of teh city in theory in its center, near to Gomti River, is quite nice. Cleaner than most parts of India I've been in. Really nice architecture. Some stunnign areas, like the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Memorial Park (more on this later). That area is really pristine. The Center part of the city, which houses some shopping districts, bustling streets, restaurant stalls and the like were about as cramped and sprawling as any I've been to in India (reminded me of Bangalore a bit). The neighborhoods out East with tall buildings are also quite Bangalore-esque. The only real letdown was their main tourist area combined quite nice sights was bustle, gristle and maw outside of it.

The food is quite great. Awadhi Cuisine at a high level mixes some of the Indian food classics - kebabs, curries and biryanis. But they have their own styles - kebabs that feature more minced meat preparations than the normal charred chunks. Biryanis that are flavorful (many other areas take inspiration from here). Curries of the gosht nature that again are mimicked by lots of other parts of India. There are upmarket places, standard places, street places. I went to all three (yes, even teh street places - granted, ones with indoor seating). Lucknow is a foodie paradise - granted many places in India are.

The sites are not bad, just a bit varied. The first I went to was La Martiniere College, which has some nice colonial architecture spaced out across a sprawling, beautiful campus. Again, this particular area of Lucknow is really well maintained. Some ways away is The Residency, an old site that housed British troops and then refugees during revolts in teh 1800s. It's in a way more of a large plot of land with almost Roman style ruins, again just super weird for it being in the middle of Lucknow. As a whole, the site areas within Lucknow are well maintained, quite green an open.

The shopping and commercial areas are totally different. Bustling, cramped, buzzing, just a lifeblood of energy that I'm sure many foreigners like (the "colorful India" and all that) but I'm a bit over at this point. Within it were a few hidden gems. The main handicraft offering of Lucknow is Chikankari embroidery clothing, shawls, etc., and there were some really nice shops in the main market street that also offered air conditioning and fresh lime soda while sampling some kurtas. Another I'll get to in a bit but was just about perfect. 

The main sites of Lucknow are a small portion on the other side of the city from where I was staying, a Muslim-heavy area that houses to the main Imbabara (mosque-sites), along with Hussani's Tower and a few other sites. They are all nicely marked, including a wrought-iron & copper map that adorns a city street side which is quite beautiful. The Bara Imbabara was the first site, the more funtionally operational and larger, if a bit simple in its design. The courtyard is beautiful, and the buildings themselves were quite stately. The Chota Imbabara is the other - more lush of a courtyard, more beautiful calligraphy on the walls and sides. Both buildings are really nice - I just wish teh areas outside them were equally so.

The best site, for me, in Lucknow was a sprawling "park" dedicated to Dr. Ambedkar, the Thomas Jefferson come Roger Taney of India. It is truly a giant complex, befit with three different buildings, all impressive in their own way that could figure to be the main shrine in a complex such as this. The least impressive was a large two-dome building with large statues inside. The medium was a long semicircle of columns, statues and sculpture, with a row of elephants in front of it stretching half a km wide or so. The most impressive a weird geometrical pyramid-like thing. From when I arrived a 4:30 through to when I left at 6:15 the floodlights came on and it was truly impressive. This one site was in all honesty not out of place in any top flight city. 

Enough dilly-dallying, let's get to the food - after all it was the reason I came here. We'll start at the low-brow - my lunch at Tunday Kebabi, a place that I had to somewhat steel myself to enter. On the street it's a small road-face charcoal grill and maw of humanity, but behind it are two floors of indoor, super well AC'd, seating area. Nothing fussy, bustling throughout, and tasty. I got a Galouti Kebab (so soft and spicy), a mutton biryani (really nice rice, if a bit too bony with the meat), and a kebab that came basically as a bowl of chili. It was weird at first, but really tart and solid. Just a nice, old fashioned meal in the heart of Lucknow.

To go middle-brow, there was my meals on my last day, first at Naima Khalat for lunch, and then The Mughal's Dastarkhwan for dinner. The dinner spot was ojne of seemingly a chain of Dastarkhwan's littered across Lucknow - they all have a similar logo, name and menu, and it was quite good. Their specialty was Handi curries - cooked for hours in a clay "handi" pot. I got Handi mutton, which may have been the single best curry I had in my whole time there. The mutton just so perfectly cooked and tender. It counteracted the boti kebab which was made the same way (a chili-like consistency) of my kebab yesterday but not as nice.

Lunch as Naima Khalat was perfect. The place was "cooked from the kitchens of Lucknow" with a really nice menu, and a great decor with nice flowery crockery and the like. There was a great craft store next door - the place I walked arond for an hour through various markets trying to fine: stone work, metal work, books - basically non chikankari stuff. The had some more interesting curries (by name) which I tried two, both excellent if a bit too fatty on the mutton.

The final meal was probably my most fancy, and the best - at Falaknuma, a beautiful restaurant on the top floor of the Clark hotel in downtown. The view was great, the decor was great, the live traditional music was great, and the food better than all of that. I over-ordered (intentionally, planning to take some back) but each of the kebab (a mutton galawi kebab), curry (a great chicken curry) and biryani, cooked in a "handi") were excellent. I can't recommend Falaknuma enough.

Overall, I can't recommend the food in Lucknown enough, but I truly don't know if that outweights the slightly above average sites to make it worth a visit. Certainly if it's part of a larger Northern India swing, or like me you've done some of the main sites (Rajasthan, Agra, Kerela, Goa) then sure, why not. Whatever the matter though is, if you do find yourself in Lucknow, just get your stomach ready.

2024 India Trip: Aurangabad (Ajanta & Ellora Caves)

I'm in Aurangabad because of two legendary (in India at least - but after visiting, I feel confident they should be more known further afield) cave sites, those of the Ellora caves and the Ajanta caves. There are a few other sites sprinkled in, including the "mini Taj" made by Mughal King Aurangzeb (for whom the city is named) for his wife, in a style reminiscent of the great Taj. But I'm here because of those two cave sites.

Leaving Aurangabad today (the day I write this), I can confidently say this trip to a random outpost to see two cave sites is absolutely worth the trek into the middle part of Maharashtra. Granted, a "random outpost" in India terms is still a city of 1.2mm people, but I didn't do much in the actual city of Aurangabad other than go with my hired driver out of the city to visit the caves, or go to a restaurant in the city (twice!). Some of that is the pleasantness of the hotel however.

I stayed at the Welcomhotel by ITC, a high-end Indian chain. The Welcomhotel brand however is their more far afield brand name so while it was perfectly fancy enough, it didn't come with the super luxury (and price tag) of a proper ITC hotels (e.g. the ITC Gardenia in Bangalore). It did however have a nice buffet restaurant that hit the spot arriving at 9:30pm on Sunday night, including a really lovely biryani. It also had a bar that closed at midnight, where I could sip scotch with working wifi and not worry about things like stag entry fees and the like. Anyway, the hotel, including its large king size bed, hit the spot perfectly.

Anyway, let's get to the damn caves. I planned to do the further afield Ajanta caves on Monday (they sit about 110 km away from Aurangabad), and the closer Ellora caves (30 km) on Tuesday, as Tuesday afternoon (4:30pm) I fly out to Lucknow. Of course, I missed one crucial factor, that the Ajanta caves are closed each week on Monday's, and the Ellora caves are closed on Tuesdays. I do a lot of planning for these trips. Granted, less on this trip than others, but I'm disappointed in myself for not picking up on this.

So, both were still doable, but then it made for what won't take a full day for when I have a full day (we compromised by starting at 9:30am), and rushing Ajanta by starting at 7am (the earliest possible, really, since the caves only open at 9am). In the end there was no issue with this, and I enjoyed the relaxed pace of Monday anyway.

I think also this was the right order to see them. Ajanta is a journey - about two hours to get there - but probably the greater marvel, the more enthralling site. I generally like to save the best for last, so in that sense this last minute switcheroo of order, of which I only leanred when my driver explained all this to me when picking me up from the airport, worked out fairly well.

The first site I actually saw was the Mini Taj, which was quite serene, a bit elevated into green lush surrounding Aurangabad. That said, it was very much mini. Not sure if it is the way it was built or just general upkeep deficiencies, but it was nowhere near as glistening white as my mental image of the Taj from my trip in 2001 compares. The place is quite ornate still however, and worth a stop on the way to Ellora, specifically since it isn't really out of the way.

Ellora itself are called caves but the reason we all go there is the giant Kailash Temple which isn't a cave, in the sense there is no roof. However it was a mountain. Both caves are monolithic temples in that they were basically chiseled and then carved out of mountainface. This is almost impossible to comprehend when it comes to the Kailash temple in Ellora. The temple looks like it could sit in any city in teh country and be an attraction by itself - so graet is the carving, the sculptures, the intricacy. We have things like a wall on the outside of the main part of the temple showing all images from the great books of Hinduism. There are four or five different buildings that make up the Kailash Temple, and again all of these were about 1600 years ago part of a mountain. It si truly incomprehensible how they did this. 

There are technically about 20 other caves within the Ellora complex, half hindu, half buddhist. The rest are more like what we think to be caves in that they are actually within the remaining mountainface, with roofs and whatnot, the best of which being a buddhist cave that would really serve as an amouse bouche for what was to come the next day in Ajanta (a fully buddhist monument). Ellora really is the Kailash Temple, but that in itself is probably worth it for how astounding it is.

Ajanta is quite different. First off, they are all caves. Second off, they are all buddhist. Third off, they are either quite a bit older (7th Century for Ellora, vs either 5th and 6th Century or 300-200 BC for Ajanta), and fourth they are way more uncovered. The story goes that a British soldier was tracking a tiger thruogh the jungles of Maharashtra when the tiger took a hideout in one of the caves that were at teh time unmanned for 1200 years, full of growth and muk and whatnot, and this Briton "discovered" them. Of course, the locals were well aware of these thought to be decrepit old relics of a bygone time, but it was still a great discovery, seemingly for the world.

Ajanta has 26 caves, about half of which are important and stable enough to enter. About a third of them are from the first incarnation of Buddhism, from around 200 BC. These are more solemn caves, with vaulted ceilings, and with large Stupas in the middle (basically giant urns). The rest are more "modern" in that they're from 450-600 AD, and have more intricate paintings with all the caves having a buddha in the center. The whole thing is a bit overwhelming.

I've often talked about Machu Picchu, and the weird take my family (mostly my Mom) has that it is super unimpressive given it was built largely in the 1400-1500s or so. She often went straight to the temples in India that are way older and more intricate as an example of why. Well, Ajanta is her greatest asset in that fight. This is also in the hills, the mountains, the jungles. Maybe not 8,000 feet up like Macchu Pichu, but they are deep in the jungle. And they required amazing amount of ingenuity for their day.

The caves have intricate painting work, quite good sculpture work (for their time) and incredible lasting ability - at least assuming the guide wasn't lying about how little of it was restored over the years. It is just an incredible place with such amazing history. It is hot as hell - humidity was about 95% - to the point that I saw Indians sweat (which is rare), but so well worth the drive, the heat, the trek, all of it. Ajanta is truly a special place.

Aurangabad is really as well because it is the entry point for Ajanta and Ellora. It isn't a major city (though has an airport - the one requirement for all the stops on my trip). It had some interesting road, was friendly enough, and the Great Sagar Restaurant had some nice curries and kebabs (honestly, a very nice spot). I hope more people come there, and it returns to the level of tourism it had in the pre-COVID days (the biggest issue is it got a lot of buddhist pilgrims - people who are from countries who have been slowest to open themselves back up). IN the end, I really thank my Mom for pushing Ajanta and Ellora endlessly on me - it worked, and it was worth it.