A stylish start at Wimbledon

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.

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!"