DEUCE magazine article on Federer

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.]

Four for Fabulous Federer

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

Ten consecutive grand slam finals

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!

14-1 for a 14th straight grand slam semifinal

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.

Roger the giant killer

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 marches on

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.