Federer conqueror vs. Djokovic in Miami finals

Guillermo Canas, who beat number one player Roger Federer in two successive occasions will face young but promising Serbian Novak Djokovic in the finals of the Sony Ericsson Open at Key Biscayne, Florida. Canas overcame hard-serving Ivan Ljubicic 7-5 6-2 while Djokovic played a brilliant tactical game to crush a disappointingly listless Andy Murray 6-1 6-0 in the other semifinals. (It was amusing to see the grin disappear from Brad Gilbert's face as the first set progressed.)

If Canas wins the finals, he would be the first unseeded player to win the title since Tim Mayotte won in the inaugural event in 1985. On the other hand, a stunning victory over Federer's one-time nemesis, Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals plus yesterday's demolition of Murray made Djokovic one of the few teenagers to reach the final of the Miami ATP Masters Series event. If he wins the title, he will join Andre Agassi to be just the second teenager to do so.

Personally, I'd prefer Djokovic to win the title. After all, I voted for him at the ATP website to be the first among Murray, Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils to break into the top 10 in the ATP rankings. The growing rivalry between him and Murray certainly bring a refreshing change to the tour and, in my humble opinion, both are more worthy successors to Federer with their more all-around game than baseliners Roddick or Nadal. While majority voted for Murray, I felt that Djokovic was the more level-headed of the two and possessed a steadier game and was therefore the more likely to succeed. Naturally I was pleased when he did make the top 10 after reaching the finals at Indian Wells and even more delighted when he avenged his loss to Nadal in the Indian Wells final with a 6-3 6-4 win here in Miami. Since Canas appears to play in the same style as Nadal hopefully Djokovic will be able to neutralize him as he did Nadal.

Canas stuns Federer yet again

For the second time in two weeks, Roger Federer bowed to emerging nemesis Guillermo Canas in a close and tense three-set match in the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open at Key Biscayne, Florida.

Federer clearly struggled to find his rhythm early on to lose the first set 6-7(3) but came back strong to make just nine errors (compared to nineteen in the first) and win the second set 6-2. In fact, he looked to be on the way to avenge his previous loss to Canas two weeks ago with a 3-1 lead in the third set when Canas saved several break points and broke back to force a tie-break. From then on Federer's racquet began spraying errors as in the first set, particularly a missed lob at 4-5 in the tie-break. Two points later, Canas clinched victory with an ace.

Federer was understandably disappointed but praised the Argentine nevertheless:

I was in total control for almost all the match, and once I broke back in the first set. I was really happy with my level of play. I thought it was a great match, so it was disappointing to lose, of course.

He’s a great competitor. He scrambles back so many balls and doesn’t miss much, and then he moves the ball around very well. He really improved his backhand, his serve. They weren’t that good a couple years ago, so that just tightened up his game a lot. ... I guess he played well against me both times, and I couldn’t put him away unfortunately.

... it's one of those matches I never should have lost.

The Swiss' second loss this season ended his bid for a third consecutive Miami AMS title. It also means he'll have an early start for the clay season this year during which he'll try to win the French Open for the first time. Let us just hope that a lack of match play will not adversely affect his performance. But as always, we faithful Federer fans wish him the best of luck!

Federer wins 4 ATP awards

Our favourite tennis player, Roger Federer, is once again ATPTennis.com's Fan's Men's Singles Favorite (I voted for him, of course) and was awarded three other awards at the 2006 ATP Awards: Player of the Year, the Stephan Edberg Sportsmanship award and the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian award. More proof of how great this man is on and off the court. I'd say he practically swept the awards as that was all the ATP awards he could possibly win given what the rest of the awards were.

Other players who won awards are Bob and Mike Bryan (ATPTennis.com's Fan's Men's Doubles Favorite and Doubles Team of the Year), the young and upcoming Novak Djokovic (Most Improved Player), Agassi-conqueror Benjamin Becker (Newcomer of the Year) and Mardi Fish (Comeback Player of the Year).

Congratulations to Roger Federer and all of the other winners!!

Tiger watches Federer win

A few days ago, Roger Federer went to watch Tiger Woods practice playing golf. Today Tiger returned the call so to speak and was on hand to watch his fellow-dominant-athlete win his opening match to advance to the third round at the Miami AMS Sony Ericsson Open at Key Biscayne, Florida.

Tiger had some waiting to do though because the match, which was originally scheduled to start at 8pm, was delayed for more than two hours due to inclement weather. Federer had actually phoned Tiger to warn him that it was raining at Key Biscayne but apparently a very gracious Woods made the 15-mile trip just the same. Of this Federer says

He told me since a couple of months he's going to come out because I knew so far in advance when I was going to play. So that was a great thing. I think we should do that more in the future... I'm happy he comes out during a tournament. ... it's great that he comes to watch tennis. I think it's a great honor for our sport.

Like us faithful Federer fans, Tiger was not likely disappointed when the Swiss tennis star overcame the difficult windy conditions and produced answers to every query his opponent, American Sam Querrey, put to him (sorry for the pun). In fact, the match just took a little over 62 minutes--which was the time it took Kuznetsova and Bondarenko to complete their first set alone, by the way--probably giving Tiger time to travel back to Doral and get enough rest before he tees off for the fourth round at the WGC-CA Championship.

Federer himself was quite pleased with his performance, saying:

I was feeling terrible a couple of days ago, so I'm just happy I came through, you know, because I didn't know what to expect tonight. I didn't know my opponent. You know, I've known since a long time when I'm going to play. So kind of a bit of expectations, too, from the fans and everybody. ... I thought it was going to be a bit more difficult with the weather and the opponent ... but I came through and played well and pretty solid.

Federer chases third Miami AMS title

Our favorite tennis player will begin his campaign for a third consecutive Miami ATP Masters Series title today when he plays the young hard-hitting American Sam Querrey at 8pm (EDT) at Key Biscayne, Florida.Federer won the title in Miami in 2005 and in 2006 back when Nasdaq-100 was the title sponsor. In 2004, he lost in the third round to the then 17-year-old Rafael Nadal. After wrestling the Pacific Life Open title from Federer this year, Nadal hopes to capitalize on his Indian Wells victory and win in Miami as well. Federer on the other hand looks forward to regaining his winning form to win his 13th Masters Series title (also his 48th ATP title) and prove that his loss to Canas in Indian Wells was just a minor glitch.

Federer watches Tiger practice

Tennis' No. 1 player traveled to Doral, Florida to join the crowd watching golf's No. 1 player practice. At first poor Federer wasn't able to enjoy himself because fans who recognized him began asking him for autographs. But luckily Tiger, who was delighted to see his good friend there, decided to defy rules and graciously invite Federer in:

It's great to have [Federer] out here. I think he's a wonderful supporter of golf, and I think it's pretty neat when you have probably the most dominant athlete on the planet out there in your gallery.

They don't want to have people inside the ropes. . . . I'm sure I'll get fined for it. I don't mind paying, because he was starting to get hassled pretty good and I didn't think that's why he came out here. He came out here to enjoy himself and watch me slap it around a little bit.

Tiger even acknowledged that Federer was the more dominant of the two in his sports considering the latter's achievements in the past three years. For his part, Federer was as thrilled to be there:

I had never really seen live golf from professionals up until the last year. It's different from sitting in a stadium watching soccer or a tennis match. You've got to know where to stand to see the ball. For me, it was hard to follow the ball. I lost it just because he hits it so hard and so far... .

Such is the exclusive mutual admiration society of Tiger and Federer. And don't we too just love these two great athletes?

End of the road for round-robin format

ATP reported that it has decided to scrap the round-robin format. Given the recent mix-up at Las Vegas Open and unfavorable responses from players like Federer (another big "I told you so" from him), Safin, Blake and Roddick, this isn't exactly an unexpected turn of events. While many insisted that what may seem to work in theory may not do so in practice when ATP first announced its intention to use the format, actually giving the format a try is the usually the only way to find out. It's just unfortunate that some players like Blake had to have their chances at a tournament title fall victim to the complicated and confusing rules of the format.

A tennis player, a scientist and a designer

A very enlightening article reveals how Federer collaborated with Wilson in the design of his racquet. Given that he has his number 1 ranking to protect, one can't blame Federer for being very particular about his racquet, can we? According to Wilson's global head of marketing of performance racquets, he found the tennis star to be "quite a science geek":

It's unheard of for a player to be as closely involved as Roger was. Most players aren't that bothered, and they just say to you, 'Do whatever you want, just don't change too much'.

But Roger paid attention to every single detail, and wanted to be involved with everything. It was that attention to detail, and him wanting to feel totally comfortable with the racket, which showed me why he is world No 1. It was incredible really.

Most players don't say much, but what Roger said to me was very precise, telling me what happened when he hit particular shots on different parts of the racket. He was a great guy to deal with. Roger put a huge number of hours into this.

With the kind of attention Federer pays on matters affecting every aspect of his game, it's no wonder he's the greatest tennis player there is right now!

Roger the Dreamer

In an exclusive interview, Federer talks about his dreams to be a rock star or a football star who has scored the winning goal at the World Cup, and, of course, of winning at Wimbledon like his idols. He also mentions the exhilaration he gets from playing before a crowd and what his girlfriend, Mirka, means to him.

Federer finally exits Indian Wells

Federer and Allegro put up a good fight against Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett in the second round of the men's doubles at Indian Wells by winning the first set 6-3 before losing the second 2-6 and ultimately the match tiebreak 11-13. Happily, there was evidence that people were still drawn to watch the No.1 player:

His following, however, was not far behind. Federer became a big fish in a small pond as spectators packed the stadium and spilled out to open areas to get a closer look at the star in action.

Despite the loss, Federer still took time to visit with tournament's ball kids. Ever the generous gentleman, he even signed the Feder-bears they had purchased:

Federer, who was a ball kid at his hometown tournament in Basel, posed for pictures and collected the more than eighty Feder-bears to take back to his hotel room, promising the ball kids he would return all of them with his autograph.

Canas stuns Federer in Indian Wells

Eep. Federer just got beaten by Guillermo Canas. There goes the streak. Ah, well...
Apparently Federer had some trouble with his feet and called the trainer twice. But that didn't help as Federer went down 5-7 2-6 to Canas who is understandably jubilant about his victory over the No. 1 player. (After all, he got into the tournament, despite losing in the qualifiers, only when Xavier Malisse withdrew due to injury.) The loss has left Federer with a 41-game winning streak, just five short of Vilas' record. He also would have had a chance to break another record by winning an eighth consecutive title, just to mention a few of the records that Federer could have broken had he gone on to win the title.

But as always, Federer didn't seem to take the loss as hard as his fans did. Isn't this just a blip compared to what the great man has achieved so far? In fact Federer went on to play doubles with his friend Yves Allegro (and got a standing ovation when he walked onto the court) and won that match. His fans in Indian Wells must have been happy to get another chance to see him play despite his exit from the men's singles tournament.

Federer's win-loss record for the year now stands at 12-1.

Federer vs. Sampras II

Nope, this isn't going to be another essay on that (tiresome) debate on which of the two great tennis players is greater. Just news that Federer revealed that he got to practice with Sampras for two days(!) in the latter's Beverly Hills home in the lead-up to the Indian Wells Masters Series.

Well, I knew I was coming to L.A., so I'm kind of thinking, who's around in L.A.? So, I rang up Pete and said, "Any chance?" He was like, "Yeah, sure." I'm totally excited. So right away I had the idea, anyway seeing how good he plays because he was one of my favorite players, when I was growing up and beating him in his backyard in Wimbledon was so special to me. I wanted to try to -- I wanted to beat him in his house. So it was very enjoyable to actually hit with him. It would be kind of cool to maybe play an exhibition against him. We'll see. But he was playing very well.

Borg on Federer

The great Bjorn Borg, who appears to have made Dubai a base just like Federer, has some very nice things to say about the Dubai champion:

To me, Roger Federer is the right model for anyone aspiring to be a tennis player. It is such a pleasure to just watch him play. His shot-making has got better and I doubt there is any shot he cannot make in any part of the court.

Federer reclaims Dubai title

The ever dependable Federer Express delivered again when he overcame a spirited challenge from red-hot Youzhny to reclaim the Dubai Duty Free Open title he lost last year to Nadal. This is Federer's fourth Dubai title in five years. The straight-set victory is also his 41st consecutive match that he has won since losing to Andy Murray in Cincinnati late last year, drawing him level with Bjorn Borg for the fourth-longest winning streak in history.

As usual, despite a few hiccups in his game, Federer still found a way to win the points that mattered. As he did in previous rounds, he struggled with his serve at the beginning of the match but managed to level the match in the fourth game of the first set. Then he failed to serve out the first set but won it just the same by breaking Youzhny's serve in the next game. He also had several match points on Youzhy's serve when leading 5-2 in the second set and eventually had to serve for the match.

I told you so! the prequel

Apparently Federer's more of a prophet than I thought: he did foresee the problems when a player retires from a match in the round-robin. When asked about the round-robin format (for the umpteenth time I suppose) during a press-conference last Sunday at the start of the tournament in Dubai, Federer said:

Well, you know, I remember having a meeting exactly one year ago. We were asked what we thought about it. I thought it actually kind of makes sense, the tournament gets to see the stars twice and everything. I was kind of in favor a little bit of thinking, you know, trying it out really. Then the more I thought about it, the more I saw of it, I was actually not so for it ... We see it now sometimes, if a guy gets injured, he pulls out, he doesn't allow the other guy to come through who actually would have a chance and stuff. To me it seems like it's not the right approach for tennis and I hope it's not going to happen next year.

And he said that wellbefore the Blake-Korolev incident at the Las Vegas Open. It's definitely interesting now to see what the ATP will do after this.

I told you so!

As expected (at least as I expected), Federer has reiterated his objection to the use of the round-robin format in the wake of the mix-up at the Las Vegas Open:

Everybody knows I was against it (the round robin system) in the first place," said Federer. "It's actually very disappointing to see things like this had to happen first before you realise that the system is not going to work.

I'd say it's probably best to let the ATP to give the format a try. In a way, it's the best means for them to discover its flaws and eventually realize that it won't work that well after all.

No Federer vs. Nadal in Dubai

It takes Federer three sets to defeat Djokovic (6-3 6-7 6-3) in the quarterfinals but he breezes through to the finals with a straight sets victory over Haas. Now he has stretched his winning streak to 40 matches--just six matches shy of the record set by Guillermo Vilas! I'm just disappointed that it isn't Nadal that he'll be facing in the finals, thanks to the extreme precision of Hawkeye technology. Now that would have been an interesting final with Nadal defending his title.

Speaking of Federer's opinion about ATP's "innovations", here's another instance where the round-robin format can be very very confusing and seemingly unfair: Blake wins a round-robin match via a walkover but doesn't make it to the quarterfinals because walkovers, according to the rules, are not counted. ATP decides to bend the rules and lets Blake through...and then changes its mind later. Ouch! Poor Blake. This is the second time he's at the losing end of these round-robin mix-ups. I think I can hear Federer saying, "I told you so!"

Federer on Swiss postage stamp!

Federer will be honoured by the Swiss Post with the issue of a Roger Federer stamp this coming April to commemorate his breaking Jimmy Connor's record of 160 consecutive weeks ranked number one. I'd say that's definitely better than another cow or alp horn. I just wish I could travel to Europe to buy myself one. On second thought, what the heck? I'd buy a dozen!

Federer advances to Dubai quarterfinals

It looks like Roger is on his way to a fourth title in Dubai and a second title this year. He's defeated Bracciali in straight sets 7-5 6-3 extending his winning streak to 38 matches. Plus he's added to his growing portfolio of amazing shots (reminiscent of another great shot he made also in Dubai):

Federer literally brought Bracciali to his knees in the second set after hitting a spectacular shot between his legs for a winner down the line and a 5-2 lead. As the crowd roared its approval, Bracciali knelt on one knee as Federer passed him on the way to his chair.

It was so good that CNN has named it Play of the Day! (It was funny how they called Federer a Play of the Day expert on its Sports News on CNN International.) There are also a few clips of the shot posted on YouTube. But, uh-oh! I don't think John McEnroe would like Bracciali's reaction (even if he apparently did it jokingly); he's recently complained about how the other players respect Federer too much.

Another record: 161 consecutive weeks at No. 1

Early this week Roger Federer celebrated his 161st consecutive week ranked number 1, in the process breaking Jimmy Connor's 30-year-old record. CONGRATULATIONS TO ROGER!!!

The ATP has a nice article congratulating Roger on its website and has put up a special photo gallery tribute. There are a few more related articles about Federer worth reading: one in the Belfast Telegraph , another in the New York Times and then the report from Reuters. Just scanning all the stats included in the articles sends shivers down my spine. If you think of it, when you combine what both Nadal and Roddick have achieved, they'd still be second behind Federer in the ATP rankings.

It's really scary what this great athlete has already achieved and I just can't imagine how far he can go in the years to come.

Ille mi par esse deo videtur. (He seems to me to be equal to a god.)
— Catullus

Welcome

Hi. I don't know exactly how many blogs there are out there about the tennis great Roger Federer, but I thought I'd start one myself since anyway I've been collecting news clippings about him from online news websites almost from the day he became No. 1. (I've got an entire directory of text files containing articles I've cut and paste from the Internet!) And in a way, this would be a good time to start one, just after he's set a record for the most number of consecutive weeks at No. 1.

Of course, he's being No. 1 is not the main reason why I've become a fan of his. In fact, I became fan long before he became No. 1 and that was when I saw him play against Schalken during the 2003 Wimbledon quarterfinals. I didn't play tennis and had hardly watched any tennis myself before then but somehow I sensed that he was far and away different from the other players I had seen play and that he could defeat Andy Roddick in the semis and probably go on to win the title that year, which he did! Then his tears of joy during the awarding ceremony further endeared him to me and my friends who were watching and rooting for him. Awww...