Rule of life: Some are lucky, others aren’t

By Al S. Mendoza

SOME guys have all the luck. Some lack all the luck.

Novak Djokovic had the luck to survive Roger Federer in the semifinals and won.

Serena Williams didn’t have the luck to have a Greek for an umpire in her finals match with Sam Stosur and lost.

I cite the two in lieu of the recent 2011 US Open tennis championship in New York.

Djokovic was twice down on match point but, incredibly enough, survived both and went on to whip Federer, the winningest active player in tennis today.

Williams was ahead 2-1 against Stosur when she was assessed a “hindrance” violation by a lady umpire from Greece, lost her focus, and went on to lose in the Finals in the most shocking upset in the recent US Open.

Williams’s alleged rules infraction?

She said, “come on,” before her return shot could land.

Eva Andreaki, the imperious Greek umpire, deemed that a “hindrance” and called it a “distraction” to Stosur.

Williams reacted by saying some unsavory remarks, and eventually lost the crown she had also lost in 2009 when she bitterly contested a foot-fault violation assessed on her by a lineswoman.

She was suspended and fined $82,000.

After beating the ever-dangerous Federer, Djokovic easily defeated Rafael Nadal to win his first US Open title.

It took Djokovic four relatively easy sets to capture the crown won last year by Nadal, who had himself ridiculously routed in the fourth set, 6-1, after staging a rally of sorts.

Down two sets to nil, Nadal mounted a comeback and won the third set with some outstanding display of remarkable tennis.

But in so sudden a fashion very uncharacteristic of him, Nadal collapsed bizarrely in the fourth.

The Spaniard stopped chasing shots and contented himself, horribly, with virtually watching every return that Djokovic made.

It was a final match that he had no trimmings at all of a championship battle.

The New York  crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium, known in the tennis world as the noisiest ever in the world, were always yelling and if they were short of booing Nadal in the fourth, thank your tennis gods.

I thought Nadal would complain about a painful shoulder or something, because his usually powerful serves weren’t there.

If he kept it to himself—the injured shoulder—then he displayed sportsmanship of the first degree.

With the victory, Djokovic is now 6-0 (win-loss) over Nadal but, more importantly, he has won three of the four majors in tennis, including the Australian Open and Wimbledon.  He missed winning the French Open that Nadal won in June.

At times, even the luckiest can’t win them all.

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