Wednesday’s 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 quarterfinal beatdown at the hands of Novak Djokovic was far less surprising. Nadal has been struggling on clay for the first time in his career, while Djokovic is playing the best tennis of his life.
“It’s a special thing, it’s a special match,” Djokovic said looking happy but weary. “Playing against Rafa on a court he has lost only once, it’s not easy to execute the plan you prepared for the match. But I did that. It’s definitely a big win. It’s a match I will remember for a long time.”
The funny/sad thing? Nadal — the ultimate fighter — almost seemed to quit in the ragged third set. The match ended with a double fault. Nadal, who has one of the most feared forehands in the game, had exactly three forehand winners. Djokovic had 20 more. The match required 2 hours, 26 minutes, but it felt much, much faster.
True atheists don’t really bother me (apart from the fact that as Christians we should worry because they are lost).
But my experience has been that the most virulent atheists are not atheists at all, but rather Christ-haters. If you were a true atheist you wouldn’t care what other believe about a Supreme Being. But our atheist group here is infamous for targeting Christians, and only Christians, in anything they claim violates the “separation of church and state.” Including such things as having any public Christmas display or services that mention Jesus, allowing schools to rent vacant auditorium space to churches for worship on Sundays, or having the word God or Jesus mentioned in any prayer or statement. But they have never gone after Buddhist or Shinto structures on public property, or symbols of other religions.