roger roger #4

wew... it's been a while for this topic...

a momentous day for good ol' roger federer...

he was up against andy murray in the men's finals of the australian open 2010... tight game even though federer won in straight sets... murray broke him a couple times but roger was able to break back and break some more...

roger was very much in form... he hit a lot of good shots and had very few shanked shots... i noticed he kept pounding on murray's backhand and although they kept having these long, long rallies, the gameplan worked...

now, the 3rd set tiebreak was the main highlight of the whole match... very very tight because it kept going back and forth to setpoint for murray and championship point for federer... murray's serve was getting better too and it made it even harder for federer... roger had match point but missed the passing shot (the banana shot - rafa term)... then he had another match point but misjudged murray's passing shot and let it go because he thought it'd go long... but roger, the champ that he is, really hung on and fought! finally, on his serve, murray hit the net and roger federer finally won his 16TH GRAND SLAM and FIRST GRAND SLAM AS A FATHER!

"i can cry like roger... it's just a shame i can't play like him...- andy murray in his acceptance speech... boy was he breaking down... he was about to thank his support group but couldn't continue... i really felt for him... poor fella but very much a trooper...

"you’re too good of a player not to win a Grand Slam, so don’t worry about it..." - roger federer thanking murray during his acceptance speech... roger looked teary at some point after the match but he was more happy than teary... he thanked the tournament people, the crowd and his group... mirka was all smiles and even looked tingly looking at him... then, the two players had their picture taken and roger walked around the court showing off his number 16...

oorah, roger! allez! ^^

roger roger #3

for the longest time already, i have this feeling that when i watch a live roger federer match, he'll lose... i said as much to my good friend who's also a roger fan and she told me to either not watch any of his matches or tell her that i'd be watching his matches so that she wouldn't blame me if he lost...

so... rogers cup 2009 at montreal... it's the quarterfinals and for the first time in history of the open era, all the top 8 players/seeds are in the quarters... i just got home from a sorta date with blue and the murrayVdavydenko match was still on... after nearly an hour, the match was finished (murray won) and the federerVtsonga match was getting under way around 3am...

tight first set that led to a tiebreak and then big guy tsonga dove on the hard hardcourt to get to a volley... he bangs his right arm and elbow to the ground and roger was poised to hit back the short ball but he friggin nets it! and so, tsongs wins the first set 7-6 (5)...

onto the second set... a rather burn out tsonga play poorly and even called for an injury timeout for his arm/elbow... roger takes no mercy and swiftly takes the second set 6-1... by then, i was resting my eyes every change of ends and rests and commercials...

third set and roger double breaks a weary tsonga... the score was 5-1 in favor for roger... i thought then, "ah, roger's gonna win this for sure" and i was already so sleepy and i wasn't watching properly... and then for some reason, tsonga is revived and managed to double break back... around this time, roger's serve was pretty lousy and tsonga was pulling all the stops with his aggressive play... of course by then, all my sleepiness was gone as i cheered roger on... then, suddenly, on roger's service game (5-6), he was down 3 match points... thank goodness, he forced errors off tsonga's racquet and saved all of them to take the game and let the set to be decided with a tiebreak... by then, roger's serve was really really bad enough to double fault to give tsonga the game-set-match... i turned off the tv right away so that i wouldn't see roger's disappointed face (i did see him take off his bandana in a sad way...)...

the match ended around 515am and i thought, shit, i should've just gone to bed right away when tsong took the first set (i was going to but i thought, what the heck, just finish the match...)...

dang i think i send bad juju to roger's game... maybe i should just watch if it's the championship match or something... oh well, there's still cincinnati and the us open... allez, roger! 6 in a row, baby! allez!

roger roger #2

roger federer is now officially a daddy of not one, but two girls and twins at that! whoaweeee... no wonder mirka was really kind of bloated before... hehe... now the fans are abuzz that the federer sisters might dethrone the williams sisters... haha... we'll see in time...

welcome to the world, Myla Rose and Charlene Riva...

allez, roger clan!

roger roger #1

phew... just finished watching the 2004 australian open championship match between roger federer and marat safin... RF wins 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-2...

now for the stats and facts about this match:
- federer owned safin... yes, that's a fact...
- 2nd grand slam for RF...
- RF becomes number 1 in the world for the first time after winning (or even losing, if he ever did) this match...
- safin breaks 2 racquets and gets a racquest abuse violation after totaling the second...
- 2nd AO finals loss for safin...

some quotes from the match:

"you know, federer, when he was a kid, he used to hurl racquets like there was no tomorrow. he's so different now as a top player in the world." - commentator 1
"now he induces hurling." - commentator 2

"come on, safin. you can do it." - female spectator
"i'm trying. I'M TRYING!" - safin

come 2005 (the birthyear of my interest in the sport), safin bitch-slapped-revenge-style federer in a 5 setter semi-final 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 6-7(6), 7-9... then, i tuned in to the tv set and watched safin's match against lleyton hewitt... finally, safin wins the slam (his 2nd) and became my first tennis idol... (had i watched the 2004 final first, federer would've have been my first idol... regardless, he's my idol now...)

on a sad note, safin's retiring this year... he really hasn't lived up to his 2004 win and hasn't won that much with the injuries and all (i barely get to see him play anymore)... but he'll always be dear to me (not just because he's hot)... i'll surely miss his racquet hurling and intense energy/temper... i hope i'd get to see him play in the US Open series... hmmm... maybe i'll go watch his US Open win against pete sampras... hmmm...

(isn't this post supposed to be about roger?)...