I was watching CNN International's World Sport: Best of 2007 earlier this evening and, surprise! Federer's amazing between-the-legs shot during his match against Bracialli in the early rounds of Dubai Duty Free Open earlier this year was shown. CNN International had just named it World Sport's Play of the Year! Another perfectly wonderful way to end the year. All bow down to King Roger the Great!
Here's a hilarious video of a few ATP tennis stars singing (or at least trying to sing) Jingle Bells. Be sure to watch it til the end!
Roger Federer took some time out during his exhibition series with Pete Sampras to talk with CNN International's Anjali Rao on Talk Asia over the weekend.
In case you missed it (I watched the original airing and nearly all the replays because I kept getting called away from the tv), there is a transcript of the interview over at CNN's website. Another blog on Federer has also compiled the videos of the interview as well.
For the third year running, Roger has been nominated for Athlete of the Year by the United States Sports Academy.
The winner will be decided by an online vote the USA Today and the MSNBC websites that opened today and will be ongoing until 24 December 2007.
The world number one in men's tennis won the Outstanding Athlete of the Year in the past two years and could win it for a third straight year if he once again receives the highest number of votes in both the Male and Female categories.
Tennis fans unite to vote King Roger the Great for Outstanding Athlete of the Year!
As part of his duties as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Federer has recorded a public service announcement to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. The video which the popular and well-respected Swiss athlete recorded in English, German and French, will be released on World AIDS Day on 01 December 2007.
Last Monday, 26 November, marked Federer's 200th consecutive week as world number one in men's tennis. He has been ranked at the top since 02 February 2004 after he won his second Grand Slam title at the 2004 Australian Open.
The Swiss tennis superstar surpassed Steffi Graf's all-time record of 186 straight weeks as number one last August 27. He also broke Jimmy Connor's record (for men's tennis) of 160 straight weeks last 26 February.
He now sets his sights on the record of 286 weeks for the total number of weeks at number one held by no other than Pete Sampras. Tennis greats Jimmy Connors (268 weeks) and Ivan Lendl (270 weeks) are also ahead of Federer in the record books. But they, like Sampras, accumulated their total weeks at number one over several "reigns"--which makes Federer's accomplishment all the more amazing.
Ever since Federer took the top spot, four ATP players have trailed him as number two: Juan Carlos Ferrero for two weeks, Lleyton Hewitt for 25 weeks, Andy Roddick for 44 weeks and Rafael Nadal for a 123 weeks, which is coincidentally a record in itself for the longest time a male tennis player has been ranked number two.
The ATP Tennis official website has an article that nicely summarizes Federer's achievements since becoming number one and has once again assembled a photo gallery in tribute.
Photo credit:
The world number one has been recognized once more for his achievements on and off the court: he has been named one of the Men of the Year by GQ magazine for the year 2007. Included in the article about the Swiss tennis star is a tribute written by the legendary Bjorn Borg, and yet another stunning photo of Federer.
Honored along with the "Court King" are former US president Bill Clinton, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, Pixar director and producer Brad Bird and several Hollywood stars including Tom Hanks, James McAvoy and Daniel Craig.
Photo credit: Liz Collins
David Ferrer, Federer's challenger for the recent Masters cup title, has just edged out the champion for this year's Golden Bagel Award™. Since both players were tied at seven "bagels apiece--that is, sets won to love--the winner had to be determined by counting the number of "fries" or "breadsticks" (6-1 sets) each had given out: Federer had fourteen "fries" while Ferrer had eighteen.
The award is given "all in good fun" by Side Spin Productions to the top eight player who hands out the most "bagels"during the season. Federer previously won the inaugural Golden Bagel Award™ in 2004 when he had twelve "bagels" and then again last year when he produced a whopping eighteen "bagels".
The Side Spin website now even includes the "bagel histories" of several past tennis greats like Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe.
Goodness! What else is there to say about what this great champion is capable of doing?!
Our tennis superstar capped yet another stunning season with his fourth Masters Cup title in five years. The world number one simply outclassed David Ferrer in straight sets, 6-2 6-3 6-2, in the finals of the season-ending championship held in Shanghai.
Ferrer had come into the finals as the only undefeated player in the tournament. He had defeated the likes of world number two Rafael Nadal and world number three Novak Djokovic in the round-robin stage and American number one Andy Roddick in the semifinals. But at the finals he had the misfortune of colliding with the tennis world's version of the Great Wall of China.
Indeed, the Spaniard's dazzling game showcased in his four previous matches seemed to have quailed in the presence of greatness across the net.
Both players had nervy starts with each falling behind on their first service games. But it was Ferrer who first succumbed to the pressure as he immediately fell behind after losing serve to love in the third game. After that, it was fairly routine for Federer to take the opening set.
The second set was no different although Ferrer began more confidently only to lose serve in the seventh game. Federer himself provided the highlights of the match during this set with an acutely angled backhand in the fourth game. He also produced a similarly brilliant backhand winner after a long exciting rally in the ninth game on the way to a second break of serve to take the second set, much to the delight of his cowbell-ringing fans.
Federer could have taken the crown at that point had this been a best of three but as this was a best of five match, Ferrer had at least one set to look forward to.
Egged on by flag-waving fans and a trumpet player in the crowd, Ferrer held three break points on the Swiss' serve early on in the third set but a supremely steady Federer fought them all off. And so instead of providing the hapless Spaniard more opportunities to get back into the match, the third set only served to prolong his agony. The defending champion was only too happy to put his opponent out of his misery as he converted a beautiful cross-court forehand from the baseline at match point and roared in triumph as Ferrer helplessly watched the ball go past him.
Federer was clearly delighted with his performance--and it was obvious as well as he signed the camera lens after the match--and rightly so. He had hit 30 winners to Ferrer's 10, 29 errors to Ferrer's 38 and he won 83% of the points when his first serve went in.
This 53rd career title for Federer was a fitting way to salvage a tournament that began so disappointingly with a shock loss to Fernando Gonzales in his opening match. His tenth loss of the season had come in the wake of two consecutive losses to David Nalbandian and caused many to speculate that the world number one was finally coming to the end of his reign.
The Masters Cup title also his eighth title for the year and brings his total winnings for the year to a record of over US$10M. On top of that, he was given yet another new car, a Mercedes--which I suppose he can easily exchange instead for "more CDs"!
Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Defending champion Roger Federer has just taken down arch-rival Rafael Nadal 6-4 6-1 at the semifinals of the Masters Cup in Shanghai to earn the right to face David Ferrer for the final title of the season.
The sixth seeded Ferrer had thumped Andy Roddick 6-1 6-3 in the earlier semifinal match.
This most anticipated match of the year-end tournament between the top two players on tour at least began as a nailbiter. Both players played solidly to hold serve--Federer at one point fought back from 30-40--and bring the score to four games all in the opening set. But the Swiss made timely adjustments to his game to break Nadal's serve in the tenth game and take the set.
That crucial break of serve must have broken the Spaniard's spirit as well as his game completely crumbled thereafter. A now confident Federer put his vast repertoire of shots on display and stormed to a 5-0 lead in the second set all the while limiting Nadal to a total of three measly points. (Nadal eventually won just six more points.) Only then did the runner-up of the Gold Group pull himself together to salvage a game on serve before Federer wrapped up yet another comprehensive straight-sets victory--this one in just under an hour--in his sixth Masters Cup appearance.
After witnessing Federer's annihilation of Roddick yesterday, Nadal had earlier predicted that he had no chance against the world number one if he (Federer) continued his flawless form. Federer himself, mindful of the many tough matches they had previously contested, expected the match to be "entertaining".
The dejected Nadal must have been undoubtedly the least entertained by the one-sided affair as Federer practically duplicated his imperious performance against Roddick: He landed 83% of his first serves once again, fired eleven aces, lost just eleven points on serve and committed sixteen unforced errors.
This latest victory against his long-time rival is Federer's fifth in their last seven matches and brings him closer to leveling their career head-to-head which now stands at 6-8.
On the other hand, Federer's head-to-head with his opponent in tomorrow's final is 7-0 making him the clear favorite to collect a fourth Masters Cup title in five years.
For his part Ferrer who led the Gold group with no losses in the round-robin stage hopes to clinch his very first Masters cup title and win the $1.5M promised to an undefeated champion.
Photo credit: Andrew Wong/Getty Images
The Swiss world number one pulled out all the stops yet again to defeat Andy Roddick in round-robin play at the Masters Cup in Shanghai. This is Federer's fifteenth win over Roddick in sixteen meetings.
The American number one had confidently gone into the match expecting to finally notch a second victory over Federer in four years after the defending champion looked uncharacteristically vulnerable in his two previous round-robin matches. But Federer apparently put all that behind him and proved that he still owns Roddick.
Almost from the outset, Federer showed that he knew Roddick's game inside out, effortlessly returning Roddick's rocket serves and ruthlessly hitting sublime winners past the frustrated American. The top seed handily won the first set 6-4 and then promptly romped to a 4-0 lead in the second before Roddick finally held serve to avoid a bagel. Federer just allowed him one more game before wrapping up the match.
It was quite a treat to see the vintage Federer of old playing at the top his game and dismantling his opponent's. But not so for poor Roddick who could do nothing but shake his head with a wry smile on his face as he suffered yet another humiliation at the hands of the tennis genius. Federer had hit 33 winners to Roddick's 14 and put in an amazing 83% of his first serves.
We Federer fans have to give Roddick credit though for this gift of a match: he always seems to bring out the best in Federer every time they play against each other.
Having won the Red Group by virtue of this victory, Federer will be facing the runner-up in the Gold Group, long-time rival Rafael Nadal, in the semifinals. This will essentially be a rematch of last year's semifinals where Federer defeated Rafael Nadal in two tight sets 6-4 7-5. Nadal has a 8-5 overall head-to-head record over Federer but the two have split their four meetings on hardcourts.
Photo credit: China Photos/Getty Images
Defending champion Federer has qualified for the semifinals of the ATP Masters Cup in Shanghai--and without having to win his match against Andy Roddick.
But he has Nikolay Davydenko to thank. The Russian has just defeated Fernando Gonzalez in straight sets to eliminate the Chilean from the year-end championships and send both Roddick and Federer into the semifinals. (A naughty thought: perhaps Davydenko was bribed to win the match?)
One thing that is at stake however is the top spot of the Red Group. The winner of this last round-robin match will determine who will meet Rafael Nadal in the semifinals while the loser will go up against David Ferrer who won the Gold Group.
For sure Roddick will also want to break his ten-match losing streak to the world number one. On the other hand, Federer will naturally not just want to maintain his 14-1 dominance over the American number one but also earn a second round-robin win in this year's Masters Cup.
What a relief! Federer has won his second round-robin match against Nikolay Davydenko 6-4 6-3 at the Masters Cup in Shanghai. This win, coming after a shock opening match loss to Fernando Gonzalez, brings the defending champion back into contention for a slot in the semifinals of the season-ending tournament.
Although he won in straight sets, the top seed's performance was still far from being perfect. His game was a odd mixture of flashes of brilliance and seemingly unexplainable lapses in concentration. In fact, after going up two breaks in the first set, he was broken just when he was serving for the set. The same thing happened in the second set when he was serving for the match at 5-1.
Nevertheless, a win is a win which is what often counts in round-robin play.
He will now meet Andy Roddick in a final but crucial round-robin match. The American against whom he has a 14-1 record was the first of the eight players at the Masters Cup to secure a semifinal slot after winning each of his two round-robin matches in straight sets.
Given his recent unimpressive form--unimpressive at least according to his standards--the Swiss' match against an in-form Roddick promises to be a nailbiter. (Time to bring out the bottle of Tums from the medicine cabinet!)
Bad news: The Swiss world number one has tasted defeat for the very first time in round-robin play at the Masters Cup courtesy of an in-form Fernando Gonzalez.
Playing against the Chilean whom he has defeated in all their previous ten matches including at this year's Australian Open finals, Federer looked to be cruising toward just another routine win as he handily took the first set on a single break of serve. As usual, the top seed volleyed brilliantly and fired winners on both sides.
But Gonzalez began playing out of his mind in the second set to hold off Federer. With neither player earning a break point, the second set went on to a tie-break which Gonzalez played to near perfection. An unusually lackluster Federer went down 0-6 before saving face by salvaging Gonzalez's first set point. But there was nothing he could do as Gonzalez got back into the match on a second set point.
Gonzalez carried his momentum into the deciding set where he managed to fight off five break points. Federer himself successfully saved three break points but was clearly 
struggling to hold serve as Gonzales started returning his serves with interest. With the first-time Masters Cup qualifier hitting sublime winners off his powerful forehand, Federer finally succumbed to the onslaught in the eleventh game. The seventh seed then went on to hold serve easily to secure a major upset over the three-time champion in three sets, 6-3 6(1)-7 5-7.
This loss not only sadly breaks Federer's perfect record in the round-robin phase but also jeopardizes his chances of making the semifinal round of the season-ending exclusive tournament. That is, unless he is victorious over the other two players in his group.
In a couple of days, he will face world number four Nicolay Davydenko who likewise lost in three sets to Andy Roddick in the earlier Red Group round robin match.
Photo credit: MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images
Groupings at the season-ending Masters Cup have been released!
Federer has been placed together with Andy Roddick, Nikolay Davydenko and Fernando Gonzales to form the Red Group while the rest of the participating eight top-ranked players, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer and Richard Gasquet are in the Gold Group.
The groupings look promising for our Swiss hero as he has an overwhelming record against the players in his group: he has not lost to any one of them except once to Roddick way back in 2003.
If all goes according to seeding, the three-time champion should meet Nadal or Djokovic in the semis.
Nadal and Gasquet with face off in the opening match this coming Sunday.
Despite being the second-best player on clay, Federer still makes a striking figure in clay as a terracotta warrior!
This is of course nothing but one of the promotions for the Tennis Masters Cup where a terracotta warrior depicting each of the top eight players participating in the tournament is being created.
This looks like a case of deja vu: Federer suffered two straight losses to the same player within a matter of weeks and in two consecutive Masters Series tournaments no less.
Earlier in the spring it was to Argentine Guillermo Cañas at Indian Wells and Miami, the first two Masters Series tournaments of the season. This time around, it was to yet another Argentine, David Nalbandian, who defeated Federer about two weeks ago to win his first career Masters Series shield in Madrid and then again just yesterday in the third round of the AMS Paris tournament. AMS Madrid and AMS Paris happen to be the last two Masters Series tournaments of the season. Coincidentally, both Argentines were also making a comeback of sorts: Cañas after a two-year suspension for drug use and Nalbandian from a dismal season.
The world number one already had a shaky start in this last ATP tournament of the season as he managed to eke out a three-set win (6-3 4-6 6-3) over Ivo Karlovic in the second round.
Things were hardly different in the third round where Nalbandian broke the Swiss' serve early on in both the first and second sets. Federer never recovered in the first set and although Federer fought back from a break down to force a tie-break in the second set, he still eventually lost in straight sets 4-6 6(3)-7 as Nalbandian pulled away in the tie-break.
All I can say to this is I hope that Federer will bounce back in time for the year-end Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. And at least he has more time to rest and prepare to take on the tour's top players in that tournament.
Hear ye! Hear ye! Our King Roger the Great has been in another photo shoot by renowned photographer Annie Liebovitz and this time it's for Disney's "Year of a Million Dreams" promotion.
In a photo (detail shown at left) aptly entitled "When You're Always King of the Court", Roger looking every inch a dashing knight in shining armor--and a flowing red cape to boot!--poses as the legendary King Arthur as he pulls the sword from the stone. The backdrop was said to have been taken at Tintagel Castle at Cornwall, England, purportedly the birthplace of King Arthur.
The photo is just one in a series that was commissioned by Disney to feature various international celebrities--such as singer Julie Andrews--in fairy tale settings.
P.S.
Don't you think that if the photo were cropped as shown, it would look just perfect in a gilt frame hung on a castle wall?
Photo credit: Annie Liebovitz/Disney/PA
Our Swiss tennis superstar has clinched the number one ranking for the fourth year running after successfully winning a second consecutive title at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel, Switzerland. Federer comfortably defeated the unseeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, 6-3 6-4 in the finals.
Previous to that match, the 6'1" top seed fought off 6'10" Croatian Ivo Karlovic yet again--I wonder what he thought about the size difference this time!--via two tie-breaks in the semi-finals and won a rematch with Nicolas Kiefer, 6-3 6-2, in the quarter-finals. The latter was Federer's 544th career victory, the most for any active player in the ATP circuit.
This is Federer's seventh ATP title of the year, his 53rd in his career. He now also joins past tennis greats Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Pete Sampras as the only men in the open era to hold the number one ranking for four consecutive years.
Long live King Roger the Great!
Photo credit: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images
After a rather shaky start at his hometown tournament, Roger stamped his authority with a quick 58-minute 6-1 6-4 win over young Argentine Juan Martin del Potro to move into the semifinals of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors.
Although I didn't get to watch the match itself (no coverage at all of this minor tournament at my favorite cable sports channel), it was clear that the top seed was back into his winning ways raising his game when needed, to the obvious delight of the home crowd in Basel.
However, it seems that the highlight of that event came during the post-match interview throughout which Federer was practically rendered speechless by a fit of giggles after giving a naughty answer to an question posed by his interviewer.
For my part, I was laughing throughout that interview the first time I watched it even if I couldn't understand a word that was being said; Federer has such a funny infectious laugh. Thankfully somebody provided a rough translation so that I eventually found out what the big joke was all about.
Federer failed to defend his title at Madrid as he lost to long-time nemesis David Nalbandian in three sets, 6-1 3-6 3-6.
The Swiss top seed and defending champion appeared to be on the way to another routine win when he easily took the first set on two breaks of serve. Unfortunately he was unable to maintain his form, committing an uncharacteristic 38 unforced errors in the process, as the unseeded Argentine skillfully put into execution an effective game plan just as he did when he defeated Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.
This is only the seventh loss for Federer this season and first to Nalbandian since 2005 where the latter similarly came back from two sets down to clinch his first Tennis Masters Cup title.
Photo credit: Jasper Juinen/Getty Images
Federer exacted revenge on Guillermo Cañas at the AMS Madrid, and how! The top seed and defending champion bageled Cañas in the first set then made a break of serve one more time in the second for good measure. On top of it all, Federer allowed his hapless opponent nary a break point on the way to a emphatic straight-sets victory (6-0 6-3). Just the perfect revenge for back-to-back losses at the hands of the Argentine in two consecutive tournaments (AMS Indian Wells and AMS Miami) earlier this season.
Federer will next play against either Feliciano Lopez of Spain or Stefan Koubek of Austria for a spot in the semifinals.
After winning a record fourth-consecutive US Open men's singles title in September, he took a long well-deserved break before coming out of hibernation to dutifully play two singles rubbers and a doubles match for Switzerland in the Davis Cup World Group tie against the Czech Republic. Then just two weeks ago, he withdrew from the Japan Open in Tokyo, where he was defending champion, to get some more rest.
Now the world number one in men's tennis is finally back in action on the tennis court at the AMS Madrid where he is defending champion as well and where he hopes to earn a 15th career Masters Series shield.
After receiving a bye at the first round as a seeded player at the tournament, Federer went up against the United States' Robby Ginepri in the second and once again thrilled the crowd there with his brilliant shot-making. This fan in particular managed to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to catch the live coverage of the match just as the second set commenced. There were audible gasps, oohs and aahs from the audience throughout that set and especially when Federer hit some amazing shots as he broke the American's serve in the fifth game. Judging from the scoreline of the first set (7-6(2)) and from what I witnessed during the second (which Federer won 6-4), this was clearly another high-quality tennis match where Ginepri himself played well although, as expected, he still failed to break the Swiss' four-year-long winning streak of 38 matches over Americans.
As many of you most probably know, ATP has a wonderful magazine called DEUCE which they launched a few years ago. But I don't think did too well on print because it is now being published exclusively online. Having it online though should be a big plus since it will be more accessible to many (like me) who are interested in reading the articles in the magazine but cannot afford to pay for a season's worth of issues.
This year's summer issue has very enlightening and fun articles about many ATP players like Federer, Djokovic, Gonzalez and Karlovic. It's a joy and refreshing change to read about off-court facts these players.
The article about Federer in particular lists his "last times": the last time he went somewhere and wasn't recognized, the last time he had to hire a tennis court or the last time he flew economy. My favorite was his response when asked about the last time he played a practical joke in the locker room:
Basically everyday with everybody. In Cincinnati we had a fight in the locker room with Dmitry Tursunov. There were probably six people involved, including three or four players, throwing about 50 balls at each other for 15 minutes. I won! [Editor's note: Towards the end of the fight, the Penn ball mascot chose the wrong time to return to the locker room and was mercilessly pummeled.]
Is there anything this amazing Swiss can't do? I've been a Federer fan for more than four years now but this guy continues to give me the goosebumps whenever he plays. What can I say? He's so ... Federer!
And so it was in the finals of the 2007 US Open which he won in three thrilling sets 7-6(5) 7-6(2) 6-4. The young challenger Novak Djokovic showed why he is someone to contend with in years to come but Federer still proved in the face of that challenge why he is the number one tennis player in the world and why he will be for years to come.
I was lucky this time around: I got to watch live streaming video of the match over the Internet--I hooked up my laptop to my LCD tv!--together with live commentary over the online US Open radio. (The streaming video was that of a Chinese sports channel and commentary was of course in Chinese.) The video's resolution was such that I couldn't track the ball most of the time but to see action on court as it was happening was definitely better than nothing. The video was also one or two points behind the what was going on over the radio but I didn't mind it that much: it was fun listening to what was happening and looking forward to see it on video. (I had the live scoreboard up as well at one point in the beginning but that was a full point ahead of the radio coverage and keeping track of three things at once was a bit too much for me.)
Those first two sets were definitely nailbiters. It was just past 4:30 in the morning here when the match started but I was wide awake from the beginning of the match which promised exciting tennis. What made me anxious early on was that Djokovic was playing very well and Federer clearly couldn't make a dent on the young Serb's serve. But yet again to my relief, Federer showed what makes him a champion. It takes guts and self-belief to fight off all seven set points he faced and eventually win the first two sets in tiebreaks. He wasn't playing at the same level as he did against Roddick two matches ago but he still managed to win. And that, I believe, is what sets Federer apart from the rest of the field. It's not just his consistency in playing well--we've seen him have bad matches more often of late--but his experience in knowing how to win. And the more he continues to win matches like this despite not playing his best, the more he'll continue to believe that he is capable of winning again. Such is the terrifying prospect faced by other players hoping to unseat the Swiss from his lofty throne.
Kudos though to the charismatic Djokovic--who had, intriguingly, Maria Sharapova sitting together with his parents in his box and rooting for him--as well for his performance here at his very first appearance at a grand slam final. I have long been impressed by this young Serb's game that I was expecting the Fed Express would need four sets to dispatch him. Indeed, losing in three sets is, as Federer put it so bluntly, brutal for somebody who played that well but those three sets with the first two going into tiebreaks was for me already like four-sets. But more importantly for us faithful Federer fans, those three sets showed not only how Federer had to fight for the title but how he could still win in the end.
This latest triumph makes Federer the only player to have won both Wimbledon and the US Open titles back-to-back for four consecutive years, a feat comparable to Borg's three back-to-back French Open and Wimbledon titles. He is also tied with Ivan Lendl for 27 consecutive match wins at the US Open. And then that whopping $2.4M prize money, plus a brand new Lexus to boot (not only is his trophy case, er, room getting crowded, he's probably running out of space in his garage too!) was also the most anyone has won at one event in the sport. It also puts Federer just two grand slam titles behind Pete Sampras' record of fourteen grand slam titles which he is in a position to equal at the French Open next year should he win the Australian Open for the fourth time next year.
After that, who knows? Barring injury, this Swiss could continue to keep both fans and players in awe of his talent by breaking records and making tennis history.
Long live King Roger the Great!
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
The great Swiss continues to rewrite tennis history. No sooner had he set a record by making the semifinals of a grand slam tournament for the 14th time in a row when he set still another record by making it to a grand slam finals for the 10th consecutive time!
Federer accomplished this remarkable feat by beating Nikolay Davydenko 7-5 6-1 7-5 in the first men's singles semifinals match at this year's US Open. Again I didn't get to see this match played at all and have simply read reports saying that this wasn't like the high quality match that Federer played against Roddick in the quarterfinals. Still it is certain Federer played just well enough to defeat Davydenko and I feel that Federer wasn't just as revved up for this match as he was for the one against Roddick. He was also most probably was conserving his energy for the bigger event which is the finals. There he will meet Novak Djokovic whom I suppose he views as a bigger challenge and a threat since he had just lost his AMS Canada title to young Serb just a few weeks ago.
But of course and as always, I'll be rooting for Federer to win his twelfth grand slam title. There's just no better time to be a Federer fan!
World number one Roger Federer proved that he was still better than a near-perfect Andy Roddick when they met for the fifteenth time in their careers at the US Open quarterfinals.
Since I was at work while the match was being played, I couldn't watch the match live and could only resort to watching the live scoreboard on the US Open website. (Bandwidth was woefully slow that I couldn't even listen to the coverage of the match over the US Open radio.) But I've see clips of the match on YouTube since and have read how this turned out to be an exciting match with tennis played at a high level throughout. After that humiliating spanking he got at the hands of Federer in this year's Australian Open, it is clear that Roddick was determined to restore his dignity and reputation as a tennis player. Still, I can only speculate on how each played based on how the scores progressed on the live scoreboard and on the match statistics. And all these indeed show that this was probably the best that Roddick has ever played against Federer.
Roddick had 71% of his first serves in and hit 42 winners against just 24 unforced errors. That's pretty impressive in itself. The final score 7-6(5) 7-6(4) 6-2 also shows how Roddick managed to hold serve during the first two sets--something I don't think he has done in their recent meetings. Still, he lost to the great one who did even better: Federer fired--as always--more aces than Roddick, hit six more winners and made an six less unforced errors. The Swiss even made a ridiculous return on a 140mph from Roddick, making the ball land right at the feet of the Roddick who was obviously caught by surprise and could only return it long. This was just one of the key points which once again the defending champion proved he knew how to play magnificently when it mattered. The loss of both tiebreaks after playing his best must have broken Roddick's resolve come the beginning of the third set that Federer managed to break Roddick's serve twice to clinch a spot in the semifinals. (It was comical to see how the cameras panned back to Jimmy Connors sighing in relief after Roddick saved a break point in that set. Of course, there was nothing Roddick could do about the second break point.)
One has to feel for Roddick who reportedly returned to the men's locker room swearing in frustration and was in a sour mood throughout his post-match interview. This latest meeting between the two only shows once again what a great player Federer is. With Nadal out of the picture (he lost to Ferrer in the fourth round) I believe that there is probably no one who can stop Roger's relentless march toward a historic fourth straight US Open title.
The witty Andy Roddick's scouting report on the Federer-Isner third round match was almost spot on: Isner is going to be very tall and Roger's going to be very good. John Isner was indeed very tall and he was good as well. Still, that was not good enough against the world number one who was not very good but rather very very good.
With Isner firing nine aces in the opening set, the great Swiss at first struggled against the towering American's solid serve and backcourt game to surrender his first set of the tournament in a tiebreak. But Federer must have picked up something about Isner's strategy and game plan and promptly turned the match around as he broke the 22-year-old's serve twice to go up 4-0 in the second set. From then on, the reigning US Open men's champion never looked back, committing only 11 unforced errors in the entire match (compared to Isner's 42): five in the first set, six in the fourth set and none at all in the second and third sets! He also made an impressive 37 winners including ten aces and a remarkable lob over his 6'9" opponent who could only watch helplessly from the net as the ball landed just inside the baseline. Federer's talent for returning serves also came to the fore as he limited Isner to just another nine aces in the last three sets.
All these contributed to a 6(4)-7 6-2 6-4 6-2 victory in 2 hours and 15 minutes and a place in the fourth round where Federer will face Spain's Feliciano Lopez who also had to overcome a first set deficit to another young American, Donald Young.
Federer easily breezed through the first two rounds at the US Open, defeating two qualifiers in two straight-set matches. Federer's 92-minute 6-3 6-2 6-4 victory over the United States' own Scoville Jenkins was a typical but perfect start for the three-time defending US Open champion. However it was during his match against the 120th-ranked Paul Capdeville that he unleashed his impressive repertoire of shots, firing 45 winners and committing just 11 unforced errors, to clinch a 6-1 6-4 6-4 win in just 89 minutes. I must say that the audience got their money's worth despite the quick win. And apparently it was also his all-black outfit for evening matches that caused quite a stir as well. Personally though, I prefer his royal blue shirt for day matches and still think he looks more classy and elegant in all-white.
Meanwhile, Federer's closest rivals for this year's US Open title didn't have as much as an easy time as the defending champion did. Nadal with his knee tendinitis was lucky to eke out a 4-set win over Alun Jones from Australia in the first round. He was even luckier in his next match when he faced Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic who also was nursing a knee injury and had to eventually withdraw in the third set after hurting a rib. Then while world number three Novak Djokovic made an emphatic start with a 6-2 6-1 6-3 win over Robin Haase in the first round, he had to endure a marathon of a match against an in-form Radek Stepanek in the second round. (All the more I'm ruing the fact that we're not getting any tv coverage here at all!) Lleyton Hewitt, who I thought was a threat as well to Federer in this year's US Open, was not so fortunate. After a good straight-set win in the first round, the hapless Australian fell to Agustin Calleri in four sets just last night (I watched the live scoreboard online and listened to US Open radio). What an irony. Hewitt was clearly looking forward to another opportunity to face Federer declaring he was ready to face Federer again but this shock loss shows that he's just not ready to face other players. It's a pity also though that he lost this early. I was looking forward to seeing him play Djokovic in the fourth round. That would have been exciting. Oh well.
Anyway, back to Federer. For the third round, Federer will be going up against John Isner, the 6-foot-9-inch giant from the US. Isner will definitely have the crowd behind him and a big serve that could trouble Federer. Although Federer has had no trouble returning big serves like those of Andy Roddick and Ivo Karlovic, Isner will be playing with nothing to lose. Still, the big occasion might overwhelm Isner and I expect Federer's experience should pull him through.
Federer has yet set another record today: He has now held the number one ranking for 187 consecutive weeks. This surpasses Steffi Graf's all-time record for the longest reign at the top spot for both men and women tennis players.
Long live King Roger the Great!
Another grand slam tournament is about to start and what's new? Nothing much really. Federer is once again favored to win a grand slam title, this one to be his 12th overall. Quite honestly, Federer winning a fourth consecutive US Open title seems to be the most reasonable prediction if one is to look at his performance in grand slams in the past three years: 14 consecutive semifinals and nine consecutive final appearances.
On the other hand, his performance this season has been rather shaky--that is, at least compared to his superhuman feats in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Having lost to Canas twice in March on the hard courts of Miami and Los Angeles and struggled against lesser players in other hard court tournaments, Federer may have to really slug it out this time around to defend his title, especially against those who have long been working hard to wrestle a title away from his grasp.
Of course, there has always been Rafael Nadal who has lately proven that he can play on the fast courts of Wimbledon and has one hard court title this year. As number two in the world, he'll always be on the other half of the draw from Federer so it's natural to hope for another Federer-Nadal final. Then there's Andy Roddick who's seeded to meet Federer in the quarterfinals. But with a 1-13 record against the Swiss and a game that has evolved just marginally over the past few years (compared at least to Nadal's), who's to say that the result will be different this time around?
If there is anything new, then it would be those players whose names have been added to the list of those who have the potential to upset Federer.
And one of them is the resurgent Lleyton Hewitt who now seems to be more of a threat than Roddick given that he nearly upset Federer in the semifinals of last week's Cincinnati Masters Series. With Federer's former coach Tony Roche in his corner, he may give Federer some trouble. Even more dangerous is the promising 20-year old Novak Djokovic, who as everyone knows by now defeated Roddick, Nadal and Federer on the way to a second Masters Series shield this year in Montreal. That kid has a solid game and has shown that he has the confidence to back it up as well. But then, Djokovic and Hewitt are all in the bottom half of the draw with Nadal and can only stand in Federer's way if they make it all the way to the final. So who else is there?
Included in Federer's half of the draw are hard hitters Tomas Berdych and Ivo Karlovic and the talented but injured Andy Murray. But it is Australian Open 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis who I believe has the best chance of causing an upset in Federer's half of the draw. After all, he nearly did defeat Federer in the quarterfinals in Cincinnati last week. But for me, he does have the game to match Federer but simply lacks consistency and the stamina to outlast Federer in a best-of-five-set match.
Then they always say the best chance to beat Federer would come in the early rounds. Federer is drawn to meet qualifiers in his first two round matches. It does sound like an easy start for Federer but a qualifier can be dangerous too since Federer will not be familiar with his opponent's game. I expect though that while the qualifiers will feel they will have nothing to lose when they go up against the top seed, they will be too much in awe of the great man and consider it already an honor to appear on the same court as he.
Federer does seem to have a relatively easy draw as he had in Wimbledon this year. Again, this can work both ways: It may give him an easy path to the finals but may provide him little challenge and inadequate preparation for a showdown in the finals with the likes of Djokovic, Nadal and Hewitt who await him in the bottom half of the draw. That five-set thriller with Nadal in the Wimbledon finals has proven that. But then again, as proven also by that victory over Nadal, Federer is even more formidable when it comes to grand slams, something which Blake pointed out after losing to Federer in Cincinnati.
So I expect that it will be Tiger Woods who will soon have to start keeping up with his buddy. (What else can I say? I'm a Federer fan. ;) )
P.S.
Sadly, I won't be able to watch any of the US Open matches on television this year. The local cable channel that has always provided full coverage of the US Open in the past years has strangely opted not to buy the rights to air the tournament this time around. Waaaaah! :(
Photo credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images for the USTA.
It was another of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it tennis matches courtesy of the Federer Express. I for one "blinked"--having awakened at 4:35am already, 35 minutes after live coverage of the match began here--and was dismayed to find that I had completely missed the first set. Actually, the match could have been over more quickly had Federer not struggled through several deuces on his third service game of the first set. And then it would have been tempting to say Federer blitzes Blake in fifty-five for fiftieth. Haha. But never mind. That would have been overkill--both as a blog post title and for poor James Blake.
Anyway, the phenomenal Swiss quickly stamped his authority on the match when he broke Blake's serve at the very first opportunity and repeated the feat in the sixth game of the first set after fighting off three breakpoints himself in the fifth game. In the second set, the oppressive hot and humid weather conditions forced Federer to conserve energy as he kept his movement on court to a minimum. He however managed to lift his game just enough in the seventh game to break Blake's serve once again, ultimately securing the title. Overall, Federer was most impressive with his service game, just he had been throughout the tournament, having fired nine aces and lost only seven points when he got his first serve in.
With this quick 65-minute victory over the American number two at the Cincinnati ATP Masters Series tournament, Federer has achieved so much again:
Federer seemed pleased with his "nice number" of career singles titles while Blake had this to say about Federer's latest achievement:
Just about everything he does is pretty impressive. So, yeah, 50 titles at any age is impressive. 50 titles at 26 is incredible. 50 titles with 11 of them being Grand Slams, and I think now 14 being Masters Series, that's just phenomenal.Photo credit: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
The world tennis number one eked out an 11th straight victory over Lleyton Hewitt to get another chance to secure a 50th career ATP singles title and a 14th ATP Masters Series shield. Federer seemed on course to another straight-set victory after winning the first set easily 6-3 but he squandered three match points in the second set which Hewitt won in a tight tiebreak 9-7. The two then traded breaks in the third set which went on to another tiebreak. Hewitt however committed costly errors as he managed to win just one point (with his first serve) in that tiebreak to hand Federer a place in the finals against another in-form player, the American number two James Blake.
Later Federer admitted that playing against the Australian "made him nervous" and that it did take a lot (he fired 18 aces but committed 36 unforced errors) to defeat Hewitt whom he described as "like a cat with seven lives." (He later corrected himself when his mistake was greeted with laughter saying, "Nine, yeah, thought so, seven would have been easy." Wow! Imagine that. Seven is already easy for Federer.) Federer now leads their head-to-head 12-7, not having lost to Hewitt since 2003.
A victory in Sunday's finals will give Federer his second title in Cincinnati and fifth singles title this year.
Federer has struggled yet again past another opponent to advance in the Cincinnati Masters as he needed three sets (6-3 3-6 6-2) to shake off a fighting Spaniard Nicolas Almagro. The top seed had a few lapses as he was broken once in each of the first two sets. While he was able to recover in the first to get up a set, he was unable to fight back when he was broken in the eighth game of the second and Almagro hung on in the next to force a deciding third set. From then on, however, Federer took control as he broke twice in the final set to set up a second semifinal meeting with Lleyton Hewitt in two weeks.
Roger has admitted that the in-form Hewitt is one of those "who can make it hard for me to win here." While it is well known that he has defeated the former Australian world number one in their last ten matches, Roger hasn't been as dominant this year as he used to be in the last three years. Hewitt on the other hand seems to have rediscovered of late the form that made him a top ten player three years ago. But as Federer has proven that he can win matches despite playing badly--that is, compared to his usual brilliant standards--I can still see him extending his dominance over Hewitt.
In a thrilling three-set final, world number one Roger Federer was unable to defend his title at the Canada Masters Series in Montreal as he lost to Novak Djokovic 6-7(4) 6-2 6-7(2) for the first time in six meetings. Federer simply couldn't capitalize on several set point chances in the first set which he eventually lost in a tiebreak. He bounced back however in the second set as he broke Djokovic's serve twice. The brand new world number three however rediscovered his serve and brilliant groundstrokes in the third set as he fought off Federer and eventually prevailed in another tiebreak, 7-2.
Looking back, had Federer won the first set when he was up 6-5 he would have won the match and the championship outright. It's just too bad. This would have been Federer's 50th career singles title and would have been his first in the Montreal edition of the Rogers Cup. But then the 20-year old from Serbia (and not, ahem, Croatia) was a worthy champion in this tournament having claimed the scalps of the number two and three seeds Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick on his way to a second Masters Series title victory and a fourth title this year.
Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Federer moved on to the third round at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, Canada at his first tournament appearance since winning a historic fifth consecutive Wimbledon title. Federer's opponent in the second round match which didn't produce any break points at all was the Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic who predictably fired at lot of aces (16) but succumbed to Federer's brilliant shot-making in two tie-breaks. The 7-6(2) 7-6(3) victory was Federer's 13th straight match win in Canada, having won the title here in 2004 and 2006 (he skipped the tournament in 2005 due to a sprained ankle), and was an appropriate way to celebrate his 26th birthday.
Federer was apparently serenaded (I fell asleep midway through the match as it was 3:30am here) with "Happy Birthday" in French by the crowd during the match and was eventually presented a birthday cake at the end of the match.
Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
This is a bit late but I thought I'd post a video of the new Gillette commercial featuring Roger together with Tiger Woods and Henry Thierry.
Number one-ranked Federer has once again secured a slot in the end-of-season Masters Cup tournament. This will be his fourth appearance in Shanghai and sixth time overall.
His nemesis and world number two Rafael Nadal , who actually leads the ATP 2007 Race with 886 points--85 points ahead of Roger--likewise qualified for the eight-player tournament.
If I recall correctly, this is probably the earliest in a season that anyone has qualified for the Masters Cup. Way to go Roger and Rafa!
The talented young Serb Novak Djokovic who is currently third in the ATP Race 240 points behind Roger should be next in line to qualify.
Another past tennis great had something to say about Federer. Before he was inducted into the tennis Hall of Fame, 14-time Grand Slam winner Pete Sampras said this of his meeting with Roger before the AMS tournament at Indian Wells earlier this year :
He came by, and we hit for two days, and it was a lot of fun to not only hit with Roger, but to get to know him a little bit.We talked for two hours after one hit. He's a great guy; he's a funny guy. He's a young kid in a lot of ways.
When he breaks my record, he's the type of person I'd like to see break it. In my opinion, he's what sports is all about.
I was amused--though not surprised--when Sampras remarked that Roger was a "young kid in a lot of ways". Roger certainly seems serious on court but haven't we heard of Roger playing pranks on other players in the locker room? And even more interesting is that Sampras used the word "when" and not "if" when he talked of Federer breaking his record of 14 grand slam titles. Like Borg with Wimbledon, it seems he's accepted the fact that Federer may overtake him in the all-time grand slam winners list.
There was an appropriate epilogue to Federer's latest victory at Wimbledon as he was met after the match by the very man whose Wimbledon record he equaled. The great Bjorn Borg and the current Wimbledon men's champion briefly exchanged words after sharing a "Swedish hug" (whatever that means) as they stood before the board listing men's singles winners in the tournament's entire history. If both Tiger Woods and Federer are the only active athletes who know what it is like to dominate a sport, it is clear that only these two tennis greats know what it feels like to win at Wimbledon five years in a row.
"You were under a lot of pressure," Borg told him.
"You know how it feels," Federer replied.
Borg was quoted to have said after that meeting:
I'm so pleased Roger has equaled my record. He is a great player and he deserves to have achieved this. And I'm happy to have been here to see it.
We could share the feeling of that moment of relief at winning Wimbledon. For both of us, it is one of our favourite places, where we have played so many great matches.
Roger has both feet on the ground and no weaknesses. If he stays away from injuries and still has the motivation, he will be the greatest player ever. It would be nice if he wins it six, seven, eight times.
And as if it wasn't enough that Federer has matched Borg, there are some who went so far as to put the two players head-to-head.
Photo credit: Getty Images
History was made at another Grand Slam final and this time around it was the one Federer--and we Federer fans--dreamed of.
The great Swiss won a record-equaling fifth straight title at Wimbledon after battling with archrival Rafael Nadal in an intense nerve-wracking five-set final, 7-6(7) 4-6 7-6(2) 2-6 6-2.
The match began fittingly with an ace from Federer who went on to pull ahead with a 3-0 lead as a nervous Nadal was broken in his very first service game. However, Nadal stepped up to break back and send the first set into a tiebreak. That tiebreak, won by Federer 9-7, effectually became a preview of the great battle to come.
Both players held serve during the next set before a couple of errors from Federer and a sharply hit passing backhand by Nadal enabled the latter to clinch the set 6-4 on a break of serve and level the match at one set all.
The struggle for supremacy continued into third set and Federer seemed to have gained the upperhand when he won it via another tie-break.
The hope of a four-set victory was erased however come the fourth set when Federer's serve in the opening game was promptly broken. Two games later, a break point earned by Nadal via a HawkEye challenge virtually handed him that set as the visibly irritated four-time defending champion fell behind 0-4. Nadal clearly could smell blood as he managed to close out the set at 6-2 despite an apparent knee injury.
In the deciding set, the end of his glorious reign on grass seemed nigh when Federer 
straight away fell behind 15-40 on his second service game. He managed to fight back to hold serve only to fall behind once again 15-40 on his next service game. This time, the King of Grass' accurate serve came to the rescue as he served two aces to hold serve once again. Then suddenly without warning, he swiftly struck a stunning blow to Nadal in the next game when he broke the Spaniard's serve to go up 4-2 in the final set with a passing forehand that threw up white chalk from the sideline. A visibly stunned Nadal could only basically watch helplessly as another series of unreturnable serves enabled a more confident Federer to easily hold serve for a 5-2 lead. Following that brilliant performance from the top seed, the end to the challenger's attempt to usurp the throne at Wimbledon came in a matter of minutes as Federer went for the jugular. In Nadal's next service game to stay in the match, Federer hit two formidable crosscourt forehands and fired a final smash at the net at his second championship point before crumpling to the ground in a mixture of ecstasy and relief.
On hand to applaud that thrilling and fitting end to a very damp fortnight of tennis was the legendary Swede, Bjorn Borg, whose grand total of 11 grand slam titles was likewise equaled by Federer with this latest victory. Federer also now has won 54 straight matches on grass which includes 34 straight in Wimbledon.
Federer is now within sight of Pete Sampras' record of seven Wimbledon singles titles and total of 14 grand slam titles.
Time to update that Nike advertisement, Tiger!
Photo credits: TOP: Chris Young/AFP/Getty Images; RIGHT: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Here's a new Nike advertisement which starts off with beautiful flashbacks of the tennis champion's career and ends with a cheeky message from the golf champion to his good friend. After all, isn't that what friends are for?
Federer won his 53rd straight match on grass with relative ease to make it to the finals at the Wimbledon tennis championships for the fifth straight year. He needed only three sets and one hour and three quarters to defeat a match-worn 12th seed Richard Gasquet, 7-6(4) 6-3 6-4. The young but talented Frenchman managed to hold off the four-time champion in the first set until he lost his serve in the 12th game. That crucial break of serve put away all hopes of upsetting the king of grass so that consequently he could no longer keep up the pace with a bad ankle niggling him as Federer wrapped up the match just a little more than an hour later.
Federer now looks to match Bjorn Borg's record of five straight titles at the All England club as he meets last year's finalist Rafael Nadal in what is essentially a rematch of last year's final. Nadal got into his second straight Wimbledon final when an exhausted and injured Novak Djokovic retired from their semifinals match while behind 1-4 in the third set. Djokovic had grabbed the first set 6-3 but like Gasquet struggled after that with an injury (badly blistered little toe in the left foot) that caused him to lose the second set 6-1.
Federer has clearly spent less time on court than Nadal who endured two five-set matches during the tournament. While that will mean he will be fully rested for tomorrow's finals, I hope that the lack of matchplay and the lack of any real challengers in his half of the draw (a great match with either Andy Roddick or Tommy Haas could have provided Federer with ample opportunities to test his game) will not leave him ill-prepared to face a player of Nadal's caliber. But then again Federer is known to step up his game whenever he views the man across the net as a threat.
After waiting overnight to continue yet another rain-delayed match at this year's damp Wimbledon, Federer pulled-off a four set victory (7-6(2) 3-6 6-1 6-3) over Spanish former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero in the quarter-finals.
Federer shook off any rustiness due to his five-day holiday with an ace on his way to hold serve as the two continued their match which was suspended due to rain the day before with the Swiss serving at 40-40, 5-all in the first set. Then although he managed to secure that set via a tiebreak, he lost the second with a series of uncharacteristic errors--no thanks to swirling winds in Centre Court--in the eighth game. But the loss of a set for the very first time in this grand slam tournament this year appeared to have jolted Federer from his holiday hangover as he went on to completely dominate in the third set to take it in just 20 minutes. He refused to let down his guard after that to secure a place in semi-finals for the fifth straight year.
He now faces first-time Wimbledon semi-finalist Richard Gasquet from France who pulled a thrilling five-set upset over third seed Andy Roddick in the other quarterfinal match in the top half of the mens' singles draw.
The world mens' tennis number one was finally sighted on Wimbledon when he made an all-too-brief and tentative appearance in the All England Club's hallowed Centre Court. Fresh from a five-day forced rest, Roger Federer made an emphatic start in his quarterfinals match against former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero when he broke the Spaniard's serve at the very first opportunity to lead 2-0 in the first set. Within a few games after that however, there were signs that Federer's long holiday (courtesy of Tommy Haas' withdrawal from their fourth round match ) had eaten away into his match preparedness when his serve was broken to love as he was serving for the set at 5-3. After Ferrero hung tough in the next game to consolidate the break, Federer was struggling to hold serve at deuce when rain halted play once again at the tournament. Thus after just 37 minutes of play, Federer was seen no more on the tournament's tenth day as play was suspended for rest of the day.
Photo credit: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images
Federer got a free ticket to the quarter-finals of this year's Wimbledon Championships when his fourth round opponent Tommy Haas withdrew due to a torn abdominal muscle (ouch!). This will allow Federer some rest at least before the quarters which are scheduled (by my reckoning) to be played on Monday or Tuesday. Just hope that lack of matchplay won't make him rusty.
All the hype preceding the highly anticipated "supermatch" between Federer and Marat Safin in the third round of Wimbledon was all for naught as the latter didn't have one of his "crazy good days" as the four-time defending champion had feared.
It took Federer only three sets (6-1 6-4 7-6(4)) to beat the clearly frustrated Safin who took out his anger on his racquets as usual but was surprisingly not issued a warning for doing so by the chair umpire. ("He [the chair umpire] probably knows that he's [Safin] in enough trouble as it is", said the commentator.) The poor racquets most probably cringe in terror while waiting in Safin's bag during every match wondering which among them would be the next victim of an on-court tantrum. The top seed seemed in a hurry once again to get the match over with as he breezed through the first set in just 19 minutes. This, by the way, was slightly less than what it took Jelena Jankovic and Lucie Safarova to complete a tug-of-war game at 3-3 in the second set of their third round match earlier. Safin was however at least successful in breaking Federer's serve in the second game of the second set, only to lose his serve--and a racquet or two--in the next. And he did put up more of a fight in the third which went to a tie-break. But Federer was just too good as he won the tie-break 7-4. Even John McEnroe seemed so impressed by Federer's performance as he commentated the match for BBC that he hinted at taking back the remarks he made during his acceptance speech at the recent ITF awards:
"I'm not sure Federer has to win the French Open to be considered the best of all time. His class is undoubted in the modern game and, anyway, with the amount of time he has on his side, who's to say just how many titles he might go on to win...
Sheer, sheer quality from Federer, who was really tested in that final set but still came through. He's favourite for another title here for a reason, and tonight he showed us why."
Amen!
Number one seed Federer continued his relentless march toward a fifth-straight Wimbledon Men's Singles title as he overcame 18-year-old Juan Martin del Potro 6-2 7-5 6-1 in the second round. In another rain-delayed match, Federer grabbed the first two sets and was leading 2-0 in the third when rain came down once again to disrupt proceedings at the All England Lawn Tennis club. After play was eventually suspended three hours later for the rest of the day, a ruthless Federer returned to court on day four to win the third set in just 11 minutes (for a total of 93 minutes match time--one minute longer than it took him to win his match against Gabashvili),and his 50th consecutive match on grass.
The dangerous but unpredictable Marat Safin will be Federer's opponent in the third round. The former world number one had denied Federer the 2005 Australian Open title by edging him in the semifinals in what many consider a classic five-set match. He also proved a challenge in their last match on grass in Halle in 2005 where Federer needed three sets to win. But grass is apparently Safins' weakest and most hated surface--if we are to recall his memorably bitter "grass is for cows" comment when he lost in the first round a few years ago. So unless Safin suddenly musters the brilliant form that he had two years ago, he would most likely at best grab a set from Federer in their upcoming and highly anticipated match.
Federer eased past Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili in straight sets 6-3 6-2 6-4 as he opened the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, England. Play at the All England Lawn Tennis club was actually delayed for nearly two hours due to rain but once play commenced Federer got down to business immediately by wrapping up his first-round match in a mere 92 minutes.
This was his 49th straight victory on grass and his commanding performance pushed aside fears that skipping the Gerry Weber Open at Halle had jeopardized his chances of winning a fifth straight title here at Wimbledon.
Although Federer was clearly back to his winning ways on his favorite surface, things were slightly different this season at SW19. For one, Centre Court was missing its roof making for a brighter but more blustery conditions on court that Federer with his delicate but deadly artistry had to deal with. Hawkeye was making its first appearance at Wimbledon as well and Federer used it to his advantage by challenging a couple of calls and showing that he was correct both times.
Then there was Federer himself who on the verge of making history by tying Bjorn Borg's record at Wimbledon looked dressed for the part by showing up on court in a new suit designed by Nike: a white customized dinner-style jacket with a gold crest on the breast pocket and retro long white trousers. He even wore a light vest emblazoned with the same gold crest for the early part of the match.
It's Wimbledon season once again, as humorously observed by Matthew Pritchett in his cartoons for the Telegraph below, and, like any other Federer fan, I'm all excited!
 |  |
World tennis number one and four-time Wimbledon men's champion Roger Federer opens his campaign for a record-tying fifth straight Wimbledon crown tomorrow, 25 June, when he opens the prestigious tennis tournament with a match against Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili. The match is scheduled to start at 1:00pm, London time.
According to the men's single draw, Federer may next meet another Russian, the 26th seed Marat Safin, in the third round. Also in Federer's quarter of the draw is Australian Open finalist, Fernando Gonzales, who if I recall correctly, gave Federer quite a challenge in the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2005. It is also possible that Federer will face this year's Queens champion and two-time Wimbledon finalist, Andy Roddick, in the semifinals. Other potential opponents of Federer at that stage of the tournament are Queens runner-up and surprise finalist, Nicolas Mahut (the played a brave match against Federer last year, by the way); Ordina Open title-holder Ivan Ljubicic and British hope Andy Murray.
Sounds like a pretty tough draw to me. I can only hope and pray Federer does well and will be able to defend his title. I'm a little anxious since he didn't have the opportunity to warm-up at the Gerry Weber Open at Halle this time around which means he lacks some matchplay. On the other hand, grass is his favourite surface and Federer seems determined and confident about his form and about switching from clay to grass after a good rest. Why, he has even admitted that he's got his eye on Sampras' record of seven Wimbledon crowns!
Eleven-time Grand Slam champion Bjorn Borg is clearly an admirer of Federer and is reportedly looking forward to seeing the current world tennis number one match his five consecutive titles at Wimbledon when he returns to the All England Club for this year's championships.
I can't wait to hopefully sit down on Centre Court on the second Sunday and watch Roger win. That would be wonderful, I really hope that Roger does that as he's such a great guy.
Wow! That's ultimately a compliment to Federer since it's well known that Borg called up Federer in 2001 to thank him for stopping Pete Sampras in the fourth round and essentially preventing Sampras from matching his five-title streak:
I decided to call Roger up, to congratulate him, yes, but also to thank him for keeping my record intact. That was a great win for Roger, and it was a pity that he didn't go on to win the tournament that year. But records are there to be broken, so if he matches me this year, I'll be pleased that it's Roger who has done it. ... Maybe Roger will win six or seven times, who knows?
This will be only the second time Borg returns to Wimbledon after playing at his last finals there (he lost to John McEnroe) in 1981.
Four-time champion Federer will not play for a fifth successive title at this year's Gerry Weber Open tournament in Halle, Germany. While saying that he doesn't want to risk getting injured, he plans to be back in 2008.
I think this is understandable considering how fatigued he must be after that three-hour epic of a match he had with Nadal at the French Open. But I hope skipping what is traditionally his warm-up event for the grass season will not disrupt his preparations for Wimbledon where he hopes to win for the fifth straight year.
Here's an interesting perspective of the Federer-Nadal rivalry given by Greg Garber at ESPN which only magnifies Federer's achievements in the world of tennis. And I don't think the same can be said of Nadal.
Almost single-handedly, Nadal has prevented Federer from making a complete mockery of the men's game.
Consider this: Going into this final at Roland Garros, Federer had put together two of the three longest Grand Slam match win streaks in the 39-year existence of the Open era. After losing to Nadal in the semifinals here in 2005, Federer won 27 straight matches -- and the next three Grand Slams (Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open). And then it happened again. After losing to Nadal in the 2006 French Open final, Federer won another 27 consecutive Grand Slam matches -- and three more Grand Slam singles titles.
Remove Nadal from the equation, and you have a rather frightening prospect. It is not a great stretch to imagine Federer beating Mariano Puerta in the 2005 final and, clearly, he was the second-best player here in 2006 and again in 2007. For laughs, give Federer Nadal's three French Open titles and you have a ridiculous run of nine consecutive Grand Slam titles -- 63 consecutive major match wins -- with the valid prospect of two more, 2007 Wimbledon and the 2007 U.S. Open.
History was made at Roland Garros today although not the kind we Federer fans were hoping for.
Nadal won a rare third straight French Open title as he ended Federer's bid for a career Grand Slam with a four-set victory in the latest chapter of the rivalry between the top two tennis players. In a way, Nadal was right in saying that Federer had much more at stake with that match: Federer had a career Grand Slam to aim for while he merely wanted to win his third Grand Slam trophy.
If there was one positive thing (from Federer's point of view at least) about the match, it is that Federer prevented Nadal from matching what he accomplished in this year's Australian Open: winning a Grand Slam tournament without dropping the set. He managed to win the second set 6-4 after breaking Nadal's serve in the seventh game by successfully coming to the net and shortening the points to his favor. He had not used that tactic in the first set which he lost 6-2 after losing his serve twice and failing to take advantage of numerous opportunities he himself had to break Nadal's serve. However, he didn't follow up on that great second set in the subsequent sets in which Nadal clearly dominated 6-3 6-4.
Poor Federer. He clearly looked disappointed after Nadal converted on his second match point and during the trophy ceremony. I'd say Nadal didn't really play his best but Federer just seemed to lack the fire and consistent brilliance that he usually displays in other tournaments. Even Federer graciously acknowledged--as he always does when he loses a match--that his opponent was the better player of the match:
He's the toughest guy on clay. So I knew that I would have to take my chances. There is one way, you know, to create chances, but then you have to convert them, too. But I couldn't get them done in the first set, especially, and then that maybe in the long run hurt me.
But, you know, I came back, and played okay in the second set, but had a bad start again in the third set, which kind of killed it for me. But, after that, I think, you know, he served better, made less unforced errors, and I couldn't really play the way I wanted from the baseline.
So it was tough, but I think he played an excellent match and deserved to win in the end.
Oh well. At least Federer also remains motivated:
Yeah, obviously, if I would have won today -- again, same thing happened last year--I would have had not many other goals to chase in my career. Like this, it always stays open. And eventually, if I get it, the sweeter it's going to taste.
As for the rest of the year, Federer can always look forward to the coming tournaments in Halle and Wimbledon--where the grass is definitely greener for him--and to the hard court season with the US Open afterwards.
|
|
|
