Le Quinte Mousquetaire
Le Qautre Mousquetaires, (The four Musketeers) trophy was won by One Musketeer 4 consequitive times. He seemed to be all the famous 4 French Musketeers rolled into one and more, the quartet after whom the trophy was named. The Fifth Musketeer, many feared, was destined to be a perennial bridesmaid at the French Wedding. The Man, who has been a fixture at a Grand Slam semifinal, without fail, for the last 5 years, finally got his due. His consistency and perseverance meant that he finally got a crack at the trophy with Nadal losing in the earlier rounds.
As fate would have it, Roger Federer equalled Pete Sampras's 14 Grand Slam wins in Paris. One place where Pistol Pete's guns fell silent, one place where he didn't even come close to winning. There could have been no better man to give away the trophy answering to the name of Andre Agassi. The last man to win all 4 slams (one is not counting Nadal, though he is the most recent one to have won slams on all 3 surfaces). Agassi, who was Pete's biggest rival, giving away Federer his 14th was another quirk of fate.
With tears rolling down his cheeks, Roger Federer lifted the trophy. At the Australian Open 2009, it was a tearful Fed accepting the Runners Up plate. An emotional Federer was an image one got used to seeing only over the past year or two. Maybe the realisation that he was human, was dawning on Federer himself, with the advent of Nadal and others. It's nicer to see a champion crying in victory than in defeat. It would have been even nicer if Nadal was standing next to him. But one can't have everything one wants.
The Fifth Musketeer finally conquered Paris. He will be looking to make it #15 at WImbledon 2009. Amen to that!