I laughed even harder at this Nike commercial which someone posted on YouTube. And it features a cute ___--well, I'm not spoiling things so you better watch it yourself--whom I've never considered cute at all. Federer is ever so much more good-looking. Ha ha ha... [Oh, my mom's gonna kill me for this.]
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
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.
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!
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
Tennis' number one player, Roger Federer, has set yet another record: he has now become the first athlete to win three Laureus sports awards by winning the Sportsman of the Year award for the third straight year! This latest accolade is in recognition of another successful tennis season last year when he won another three grand slams, four Masters Series titles and the season-ending Masters Cup.
I'm so glad that the sports world has continued to acknowledge Roger's achievements on the court and his dominance in the world of tennis.
Federer though must have been busy with preparations for the clay season since he was not on hand to receive the award personally. Instead German tennis great Boris Becker--who said the prophetic words about Federer way back in July 2003, "We have seen the future--it arrived today,"--accepted the award on Federer's behalf and Roger's acceptance speech was projected on the giant screen during the awards ceremony.
Another round of congratulations to the great Roger Federer!
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!!
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
|
|
