Nike also salutes Roger's 14 grand slam titles

I laughed even harder at this Nike commercial which someone posted on YouTube. And it features a cute ___--well, I'm not spoiling things so you better watch it yourself--whom I've never considered cute at all. Federer is ever so much more good-looking. Ha ha ha... [Oh, my mom's gonna kill me for this.]

NetJets Commercial pokes fun at Roger's trophy haul

I had a good laugh when I saw this ad which was aired by NBC right after match point at the Roland Garros men's finals last Sunday. It's obvious they taped this some time ago in anticipation of the great event. I hope they didn't have to wait too long to finally run it on television.

Apologies and explanations

I'd like to apologize to my readers--if you're still there--and offer a couple of explanations as to why I have been unable to maintain this blog for the past year or so:

• Since July/August last year, my after-office hours have been increasingly devoted to other activities primarily those associated with my parish here. Moreover my workload at the office has increased considerably. As a consequence I now come home late or am too exhausted to do anything else beyond grabbing a bite for dinner when I get home.
• I no longer get to watch tennis matches live on television. The sports cable channels that used to air the main ATP events like the grand slams and the Master Series tournaments here in my corner of the world have apparently decided to not buy the rights to show the tennis matches. Nowadays I have to resort to either (1) watching live streaming video of matches which more often are of poor quality as I can't afford to pay for a subscription with a higher bandwidth; (2) watching live scores online which while extremely suspenseful is totally boring; or, worst of all, (3) reading about the outcomes of the tennis matches afterwards.

As you can see, it's not because of Roger's "failures" last year. I remain a devout fan and try my best to keep tabs with Roger's progress through the season. It's just that so many other things beyond my control have cropped up since then that I simply have had little time to work on this and no longer have the resources to produce the kind of material that I would like to post to this blog. Nevertheless, I hope to be able to come up with something once in a while--especially when there's a lull at work.

Besides, there's Wimbledon to look forward to and Star Sports will start airing that in two weeks! Yipee!!

Mission accomplished, at last!

I thought I'd drop a short note about our beloved Roger Federer finally fulfilling his dream of adding the Coupe des Mousquetaires to his already large collection of Grand Slam trophies. Not to mention equaling Pete Sampras' haul of 14 Grand Slam titles and completing a career Grand Slam. Talk about hitting three birds with one stone!

The Swiss champ dismantled opponent Robin Soderling in straight sets 6-1 7-6(1) 6-4 in the finals yesterday to win the one Grand slam title that has eluded him for the longest time, thanks to longtime rival, Rafael Nadal's incredible feats on clay in the past four years.

A clearly relieved Federer said of this historic win:

I think that now and until the end of my career, I can really play with my mind at peace, and no longer hear that I've never won Roland Garros.

Now that that gap in his already impressive resume has been filled, one can't help but look forward to the rest of the season and the years to come.

All hail, King Roger the Great! Long live King Roger the Great!
Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images (Top) and AFT/Getty Images (Bottom)

Mission still unaccomplished

Roger Federer here looks utterly dejected after seeing his quest for a first title at Roland Garros effectively crushed this year by Rafael Nadal in straight sets 6-1 6-3 6-0.

The world number one's error strewn game simply could not hold up under the relentless shotmaking of the Spaniard who with this latest victory has matched Bjorn Borg's record of four straight French Open titles.

Federer who has twelve grand slam titles to his already illustrious name will just have to put this dismal loss behind him and consider that the great run he had to the finals--for the third year in a row no less--was no mean feat. Then there is of course the coming grass court season to look forward to and where he can continue working towards a thirteenth grand slam title and a record breaking sixth straight crown at the prestigious All England Club in Wimbledon.

It is there after all where the grass is much greener for him, literally and figuratively, than it has ever been in Paris.
Photo credit: Julian Finney/Getty Images