The Tears, The Hug

Well, as much as I adore Bud Collins, we never got anything like this from HIM. There's has been some debate here and there about whether John McEnroe was being a ham or offering Federer an out to the traditional post-match Wimbly final interview, as Fed was obviously on the verge of...well, let's just call it an emotional moment.

Now somebody has thankfully posted the vid to YouTube so we can all make up our own minds.

Looks to me like Fed was pretty ragged and about to drop some weepage. So who knows, TV does blur such things, as maybe Mac saw that he needed an escape and, being Mac, he just did something goofy. Of course, McEnroe is a connoisseur of emotionalism and sport, both for the best and the worst, and when he told Fed that it was best match he had ever seen, I think he meant it heart and soul. Regardless of what you might think of Mac and his showboating, his egomania, etc. etc., there's no bickering with his record and his place in tennis history. When he says he's seen something special at Wimbledon, he might as well be saying, "Thanks, RF, for outdoing what I did almost 30 years ago when I lost to Borg in the former Greatest Grass Court Match That Ever Was." Think about doing the hugging here: one of the most cussed and ornery SOBs every to bring a inappropriately hypercompetitive nature to the court. PLUS, Mac knows what it's like to achieve transcendent greatness in defeat. I don't think Mac ever felt that he had that much of a connection with Sampras, who was more of a straight-up jock, but in Fed he sees both the opposite of himself and a player who shares some his artistic attitude toward the game.

McEnroe bring SO MUCH to the commentators booth that I think we can let him off the hook for this one.