Federer Wins World Tour Finals Title

It was a special night for a forgettable year for Roger Federer.  Winning the Barclays ATP World Tour finals not only proved that his days are from over, but he also beat longtime nemesis Rafael Nadal convincingly 6-3 3-6 6-1 to end the season in strong fashion.

The Greatest Rivalry in Tennis lives on

It's what everyone is waiting for after the Madrid finals this year.  The top 2 players in men's tennis have made it into the season ending tournament finals Saturday night as Roger and Rafa will clash again for the 22nd time with Nadal leading the head-to-head matchup 14-7 coming in tonights game.

Top 4 into Semis

No one could have expected anything better than the top 4 in men's tennis securing their spots in the semi finals clash in the 2010 edition of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Barclays ATP World Tour underway

Federer, Djokovic, and Murray have dominated their corresponding opponents in their first outing in the season ender tournament for 2010.  World no. 1 Rafael Nadal though have to grind it out againsts former world no.1 Andy Roddick in a come from behind victory 3-6 7-6 6-4.

Red "Hot" Swede

No one is more dangerous and to watch out for in the coming ATP World Tour Finals than the Swede, Robin Soderling.  Robin has shown tremendous improvement from last year where he is widely known as the first player to ever beaten Nadal in the French Open in almost 5 years.

Frenchmen Monfils into BNP Masters Finals

The athletic and acrobatic Gael Monfils overcome adversity and pull out a dramatic 3 set tie break win 7-6 6-7 7-6 on Roger Federer making his 2nd consecutive appearance in the finals of the last masters tournament of the year.

Federer fresh off his truimph from his hometown in Basel got a dosed of his own medicine being beaten by a hometown opponent.  After levelling the match at 1 set a piece, Roger seem in control of the match breaking Monfils early on in the last set.  However, unforced errors started to pile up from the swiss champ as the Frenchmen broke back and started to put more pressure into Roger's game.

Swiss champ regain Swiss crown

It was a roller coaster ride and never an easy match, but Roger Federer did not disappoint his home crowd by dismantling Novak in three sets 6-4 3-6 6-1 in last night's rematch of the Swiss Indoors Finals.

Basel Finals Rematch

As predicted, the world no. 2 will face the world no. 3 in tonight's edition of Swiss Indoors in Basel.  Federer sweep past Andy Roddick 6-2 6-4 while Djokovic outlasted fellow countrymen Victor Troicki 7-6 6-4 to setup a rematch of last year's final.

If Federer can recapture the title he won from 2006-2008, he will stretch the gap between him and Novak by 400 (Federer +200, Novak -200) ranking points securing his no. 2 spot in the rankings for the year.

The last time they met was in the US Open where Federer was defeated holding on to 2 match points in five sets in the semi-final match.

Federer sweep past Stepanek in Basel

Roger has been showing his old self for the past week in Basel brushing aside each challenger that come his way with ease.  The latest casualty was the flambuoyant Radek Stepanek which he easily dispatched 6-3 6-2 to barged into a mega showdown in the semi-finals with Andy Roddick.

Basel quarters showdown

We've got quite a great quarters lineup in Basel as the most of the top seedings still remain in the tournament.  Some unfortunate ones include Marion Cilic who was ousted by David Nalbandian and John Isner upset by little known Robin Haase.

Federer easy win in Basel first round

Federer started his campaign yesterday in Basel by easing past Aleksandr Dolgopolov 6-4 5-2 (ret).  This is considered to be the most special tournament for Roger since this is his hometown and he was actually a ball boy for some of the tennis greats here before.

Dementieva shocked everyone with retirement

Elena Dementieva, one of the finest women's player in the circuit, have decided to call it quits right after her defeat to Schiavone 4-6 2-6 in the WTA Tour Championships.

She is considered to be one of the most solid performers in the women's circuit without winning a grand slam title.  Her resume includes 16 WTA titles and 2 grand slam finals appearances and got into the top 5 rankings in 2003.

Forget about Sharapova

Yeah yeah Maria got engaged so what? We still have a number of tennis babes out there and here are my personal top 4 list :)

Ana Ivanovic	Maria Kirilenko
Daniela Hantuchova	Caroline Wozniacki

Trust me. They are tennis players and not FHM models.  What so great about them is that all of them are ranked within the top 20 players in women's tennis with Caroline, the newly number 1 ranked player in the world as of this writing.

Lakers backup guard scores BIG

It doesn't really matter whether Kobe Bryant can score 81 points, Michael Jordan have 6 championship rings, or Lebron James have created a super team that could win it all this year.  Lakers' guard Sasha Vujacic is the real winner

Federer equals Pete's 64 career title in Stockholm

My neighbour's dog is safe after Roger blasted underdog Florian Mayer in Sunday's Stockholm finals 6-4 6-3 in nearly a little over an hour.  My prediction was spot on but it wasn't really something that come as a surprise considering I've only heard of the name Florian Mayer the past weeks after he

Roger barged into Stockholm Finals

On saturday afternoon, Roger Federer unleashed his full arsenal by demolishing Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 6-2 to get his ticket into the finals playing againsts a player who has a surname more known to be an acoustic singer than a tennis player.  Florian Mayer rally back to beat Jarkko Nieminen

At the bar with Roger Federer (Sept 2010)

Another hilarious video by Jimmy Fallon.. I'm liking this late night show :)

Roger's doing the tweener again... at the bar.

Winning Moments: Part 4 of many more to come...

I hope I can do a part 5 for this which would mean Roger would need to win at least 4 more Grand Slam titles to fill up one part.  Anyway before we jump ahead of ourselves, enjoy the most recent Grand Slam wins by Roger.

2008 US Open

defeated Andy Murray 6-2 7-5 6-2

Next Stop - Stockholm

Next in line would be Stockholm Open for Roger's year-end campaign for 2010.  This week's tournament will parade big names such us Robin Soderling, Tomas Berdych, and Ivan Ljubicic.  It's not as deep as the just concluded Shanghai Masters so this will put our man as the front runner to win it all.  Even though Roger owns a whopping 14-1 head to head match up record, his lost to the swede came just recently in this year's edition of French Open so any type of complacency can't be afforded with any players nowadays.  Roger will open his campaign either againsts Taylor Dent or Michal Przysiezny.  Either one of them shouldn't give Roger much problem, but still he needs to trim down his unforced error to dominate this tournament.

Murray overcomes Fed-Express

After demolishing Robin Soderling 6-1 6-1 and toppling Novak Djokovic 7-5 6-4, the Fed-express came into a halt running into the world no.4 Andy Murray Sunday afternoon in Shanghai.

Federer Goat Video

I ran across this great video telling the story of Roger's tennis domination and resurrection through the years.



Thanks to "1893stuttgartschwabe"

Thursday Upsets in Shanghai

I know it's a little late to talk about this, anyhow I still wanted to write something about it. Not only because the World No. 1 tennis player bowed out with an early exit in Shanghai, the defending champion was also dethroned in the Thursday edition of the Shanghai Masters.

Nikolay Davydenko was outlasted by Zverev 6-4 7-6 while Nadal ran out of gas againsts Jurgen Melzer losing 6-1 3-6 6-3. This is good news for any Roger Federer fan as this opens up for his 18th Masters bid. But of course, it will not be an easy path since Novak and Andy Murray have been showing red-hot form by brushing aside easily those who come their way.

If Roger can capture the title, could at least move back up to No. 2 spot in the atp rankings.  But Nadal is very likely to safely hold on to his No. 1 spot till the end of the year.  Health will be his biggest foe.

Triple Tweener!

Shanghai Rolex Masters is currently underway which features the top 20 players in the draw which makes this sort of like a mini Grand Slam tournament.  If Federer needs to prove that he is still the man to beat in the circuit, this would be a perfect time to capture his 18th Masters shield.

Federer's first match was againsts 6'9 behemoth and "ironman" John Isner, which is widely known to have played the longest match in tennis history.  With his lanky frame which resembles more of a basketball player than someone who can hold a racquet, he has greatly improved his game over the years and has reached as high as 18 in the world rankings.

This definitely is not a typical 2nd round match to face someone ranked 20 in the world.  But Federer quickly brushes doubters and critics aside by demolishing Isner 6-3 6-4 with an easy win.  We even got a big bonus as Federer unleashes another tweener shot.  It's not as spectacular as the previous 2, but it's still worth to watch.

Winning Moments : Part 3

Next tournament that Roger will compete is just a few days away... But before we move on looking at the Men's Singles Draw for the Shanghai Masters, let's look back and revisit Rogers Grand Slam run between 2006-2007

US Open 2006

defeated Andy Roddick 6–2 4–6 7–5 6–1

Australian Open 2007

defeated Fernando Gonzales 7–6(2) 6–4 6–4

Wimbledon 2007

defeated Rafael Nadal 7–6(7) 4–6 7–6(3) 2–6 6–2

US Open 2007

defeated Novak Djokovic 7–6(4) 7–6(2) 6–4

At the Bar with Roger Federer.. Funny

I'm a big fan of Jimmy Fallon and this is quite hilarious.... enjoy

Fatherhood

It's been a little more than two weeks since Roger left the previous grand slam tournament on a sour note, bidding his seventh straight US Open finals apperance goodbye.

While all the top players with the likes of Nadal, Djokovic, Murray are starting to compete in some of the minor tournaments such as Thailand Open, Malaysian Open, Japan Open and etc.. ( not sure why these small tournaments are mostly in Asia. why why why?).  Roger is still resting and enjoying his time off from tennis.  His next tournament only starts next week which is in Shanghai ( also in Asia take note. )

So why does Roger play lesser tournaments than he used to be?  Ageing could be one good reason and phasing himself with fewer tournaments is definitely a good thing to do.  There is a balance needed to keep one's health in check and to avoid injuries as the body begins to take the effect of all the wear and tear through the years of playing.  He always say that he wants to focus on the Majors, which he was able to achieve for the past couple of years.  But 2010? Roger only won 1 of 4 grand slams and didn't even reach the semis of the other 3.

Obviously something must have took over his hunger for winning more slams.  Something more important than just playing tennis.  Fatherhood definitely played a key role in Roger's game that we are seeing now.  It's written all over the history books on how fathers struggled in the past.  Seems like there is no exception to this rule.

RF Cap

The only good news with Roger's decline, is that his merchandise's price will probably drop.  I've been wanting to buy his RF signature cap for a long time now.  Never seen any of this sold in retail shops here Singapore.  I've seen some shirts that he wore in Grand Slam tournaments being sold, but never the cap.

The red cap is sold at 45 CHF (46 usd or 60 sgd) in his online shop https://www.rogerfederershop.com/.  But I prefer the blue and white combination which will not make you too swiss oriented in a way.

So definitely it's a good time to buy especially with all the talk about his decline.  The holiday season is just around the corner as well so it's not too bad of an idea to give this as a gift to one of your good friends. blink!

Nadal crashes out in Thailand

After all the unfortunate events that has happened for the past few days, at last there is one good news.  Nadal the so called world No. 1 tennis in the world crashes out in Thailand open beaten by Guillermo Garcia-Lopez his fellow spaniard.

Can Nadal sustain his superb form for the remaining tournaments of the year? That remains to be seen if his knees can handle all the wear and tear caused by his playing style.

Score reads : 2-6 7-6 (7/3) 6-3 in 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Winning Moments : Part 2

Continuation to my previous post, here are the 5th to 8th Grand Slam winning moments from Roger.  Now he got the cleaner and fresher look (maybe Gillette have just signed him to a lucrative contract during this times).

Wimbledon 2005

defeated Andy Roddick 6-2 7-6 6-4

US Open 2005

defeated Andre Agassi 6-3 2-6 7-6 6-1

Australian Open 2006

defeated Marcos Baghdatis 5-7 7-5 6-0 6-2

Wimbledon 2006

defeated Rafael Nadal 6-0 7-6 6-7 6-3

This is where the 1st of seven Grand Slam finals meeting starts againsts Rafa.  More Roger-Rafa rivalry to come...

Anyone can comment.... ROGER IS STILL THE GOAT!

I just realized commenting was disabled on this site... trust me. all your comments are very welcome.  Especially for those who doesn't think that Roger is the Greatest Of All Time! hehe

It's been quite a quiet week (tennis wise), but I'm still looking forward for the next tournament which is just 1 1/2 weeks from now.  (Shanghai Rolex Masters).

Last year's edition was won by Nikolay Davydenko, which is a tough competitor and he has been giving Roger a run for his money on their recent meetings.  So it's really interesting how he will fare in this year's edition considering he was struggling a bit on recent matches.

I haven't really seen the draw yet but will update everyone ASAP once it's available.  I heard Nadal is competing now in Thailand, so is Del Potro ( Last year's US Open Champion ) who just lost his match in the opening round coming back from injury.  I'm not sure about the other big names out there, but hopefully most of them will be able to complete in Shanghai next week.

Winning Moments : Part 1

Let us travel back in time and revist the glorious moments of Roger capturing his grand slam trophies one after the other...

Wimbleson 2003 

 defeated Mark Philippoussis 7-6 6-2 7-6  

Australian Open 2004

 defeated Marat Safin 7-6 6-4 6-2 

Wimbledon 2004

defeated Andy Roddick 4-6 7-5 7-6 6-4

US Open 2004

defeated Lleyton Hewitt 6-0 7-6 6-0

These were all the early years of Roger as you may have noticed the hair and stuff are a bit different.  Just see how everything changes when you have Gillette as one of your endorsements.