On Frederer, again (The Greatest Evah!)

This would probably be my last blog on Abang Frederer. Well, at least until the next Slam. But, now that he's a record holder of the most Slam titles, the question of "Is Frederer the greatest ever?" should be put to rest.

To me, he's da man. Holding on to top spot for 237wks takes a lot of discipline and self belief. Especially you have the likes of young strong players lurking on the rear mirror. Of the top 5 longest #1 rank holder of all time, he's the only non-American. In fact, him being Swiss is also a testament of how great he is, coming from a country not known to produce great tennis player.

Being one of the only 3 (in the open era) male singles player to ever won on all 4 Slams is also a testament of how awesome this brader is. Even the great Sampras have never won all 4. The other two are Rod Laver of the 60's and Agassi of the 90's.

And the sucker punch is; he doesn't even have a coach. In the Wimbledon finals, Roddick was an altogether new player. And reason #1; he's got a new coach. Nadal, Murray and almost the rest of the pros have a squadron of coaches, therapists and physicists. Not Frederer. Read here or Read here.

When Rog performance took a blip in 2008, people went like "seee, i told u that u need a coach!". But that statement came in after 4years+ at #1. And now, he's back at the top spot and still, without a coach or mentor. This guy comes up with strategies and tactics himself! Gila!

And to top it up, in '03, he founded the "Roger Frederer Foundation" that focuses on helping the disadvantaged. And with him being an active humanitarian such as UN's Goodwill Ambassador and UNICEF, we all should be happy to have such a champion.

So, a record was broken yesterday and I want to be part of history by blogging about this great man. With all time record of 15 Slam titles, his mastery in tennis should never be question. Do you notice that his power backhand swing is by using just 1 hand, not both hands? How kewl is that?

Enough from me. I'm biased anyway. Let's hear out what the rest of the pros or sport commentators think about him. Click here to bbc.co.uk blog.

Wimbledon '09

Roger Federer won a record 15th Grand Slam after beating Andy Roddick in an epic fifth set 5-7 7-6 7-6 3-6 16-14. (bbc.co.uk)

I followed thru almost every game, one with Frederer in particular. So with it over and out, from Monday onwards, I can now get back to my usual slumber routine at 10.30pm.

But before that, apart from Star Sports Channel, it was great following the event coverage thru Twitter @wimbledon. The guys at the end of the keyboard, or keypad, whatever, have done a stupendous job keeping the tweets interesting & fulfilling. The picture feeds were great. The RTs (retweets) from Serena, fans, whoevers, were like SMSes from friends.

For a game like tennis, where watching full-match replays is psychotic & suicidal, its great to get uplifting news, quotes & feeds via Twitter.

To Roddick & Frederer, it was a great 5-match finals. In the end, Frederer is da man. Even at the declining age of 28, he has again shown the world why he is such a living legend.

A world record of 15 Slam titles.

And still serving.

Why its Frederer over Nadal yada yada?

Frederer, with his 90's boy-band hairstyle, showing off his immense kung-fu
chop-style move without even looking at the ball. Picture from Wikipedia.

I'm very technical.
And my reasons are based on logical explanations.

Frederer, 28, held the #1 spot for a blistering 237weeks.

Nadal, his closest competitor is 23 yrs old. He's been #2 for a frustrating 160 weeks under Frederer's shadow. On Aug'08, Nadal took the #1 spot away from Frederer.

But is Nadal worthy enough to overshadow the great Frederer? Just think:

• Frederer, at 28, is probably past his best and Nadal, 5 years younger, is rightful to grab the #1 spot. But, after '09 Wimbledon, Frederer might reclaim the #1 spot again.
  
• So, the argument is: If Nadal is even as good as Frederer, why can't this bicep-pumping 23yr old defend his #1 spot against a 28yr old for even a year? Mind you, 5yrs difference is mega huge in this sport.

My predictions: Nadal will lose his #1 rank after '09 Wimbledon. Frederer will keep competing until probably 2010 and then retire. By then, Nadal would be happy that he'd have Frederer out of the picture. But, just as he wants to stay at the top spot, 22yr old Andy Murray will snatch it away from him. And come 2010, Murray could very well be the worthy successor of the great Frederer.

Why Murray will be the next greatness? Coz, just like Frederer, he doesn't make that Sharapova's constipating 'uuurrghh!' sound on every shot. Like Nadal does. So, go Murray GO!

Like I said, I'm very logical.

My first blog on Frederer was back in 2007 entitled Darth Frederer. Read it here.

Darth Federer

The Roddick-Federer game was just mind-boggling. There was Roddick; obviously on juiced-up steroids, serving at Mach 5 and putting his best performance ever. And there was ice-cold Federer; dressed all black aka Darth Federer, soaking the pressure with ease and simple changed gear to close the game. I remember telling myself at that moment; “this is just unreal”. And finally, I found an article (URL below) that unfolds the flabbergastation: Federer is not human.

Read it here (http://tennisworld.typepad.com/tennisworld)

Four current top 10 players -- Fernando Gonzalez, James Blake, Tommy Robredo and Nikolay Davydenko (Federer's semifinal opponent) -- are a combined 0-34 against Federer.

Wednesday, Roddick tried landing 71% of his first serves for the match and a remarkable 81% in the second set. He tried committing zero double faults and just 24 unforced errors over three sets. He tried holding serve and avoiding even a single break point through the first two sets. He tried taking good, calculated chances at the net and hitting as crisp and authoritative a backhand as we've seen from him. He even tried wearing black.

Hail, maybe this "Federer" started out as an idea in the mind of some Sega Genesis game designer, but the algorythms just got out of hand and he leaped across the Great Divide like some character out of a Philip K. Dick novel.

Beyond that, do you ever notice that this so-called "Roger Federer" has perfect hair that never seems to get mussed or out-of-place - the dude looks like one of those pictures your local barber has tacked up all around his mirror, hoping you'll be hoodwinked into dropping an extra Jackson on the full "I want to look like I'm in a boy band!" look.