1. Federer’s 30th Birthday By The Numbers!

    tennisrocks:

    1 – World No. 1 for 285 weeks.
    2 – Finished in year-end Top 2 eight consecutive years (2003-10); only player to do so.
    3 – Grand Slam titles won in same season, accomplished three times (2004, 2006, and 2007).
    4 – Fewest losses in his career in 2005 season (81-4).
    5 – Year-end No. 1 finishes AND Barclays ATP World Tour Finals titles.
    6 – Wimbledon titles AND number of winning streaks of 20 matches or more.
    7 – Number of Grand Slam finals won before first loss (’06 Roland Garros to Nadal).
    8 – Consecutive years with at least one Grand Slam title, from 2003-2010.
    9 – Or more titles on clay, grass and hard courts – only Jimmy Connors matches the feat.
    10 – Straight major finals reached: 2004 Wimbledon through 2007 US Open.
    11 – Consecutive years with at least one ATP World Tour title (2001-2011).
    12 – Career-high titles won in 2006.
    13 – Number of match wins in first full season on ATP World Tour in 1999.
    14 – Wins in 23 matches against current World No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
    15 – Losses in a three-year span (2004-2006) in 262 matches.
    16 – Grand Slam titles AND number of titles won in U.S. (most of any country).
    17 – ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crowns.
    18 – Grand Slam finals reached over 19 appearances from ’05 Wimbledon to ’10 Australian Open (missed at ’08 Australian Open) AND tournaments won in different countries.
    19 –Age at first ATP World Tour title in Milan on Feb. 4, 2001.
    20 – Grand Slam matches won in a season six straight years (2004-2010) AND wins against players ranked No.1 or No. 2.
    21 – Years old when he finished inside the Top 10 for first time in 2002 (No. 6).
    22 – Times he has been the top seed at a Grand Slam tournament AND age he first became No. 1.
    23 – Successive Grand Slam semi-final appearances (’04 Wimbledon through ’10 Australian Open) AND overall Grand Slam finals.
    24 – Straight finals won between ’03 Vienna through ’05 Bangkok.
    25 – His age when he finished with a career-high 92 match wins in 2006.
    26 – Wins in a row against Top 10 opponents (2003 Masters Cup to 2005 Australian Open QF – lost to No. 4 Safin in SF).
    27 – Consecutive wins in a row in Grand Slam play, achieved twice (2005 Wimbledon R1-2006 Roland Garros Final; 2006 Wimbledon R1-2007 Roland Garros Final).
    28 – Years old when he claimed his latest Grand Slam title at 2010 Australian Open.
    29 – Consecutive major quarter-finals reached (going into 2011 US Open).
    30 – Grand Slams in a row as No. 1 or No. 2 seed between ’04 USO and ’11 AO.

    Happy 30th Birthday Roger.

    Roger Federer = The Living Legend.





  2. obscurereality: The fact that she posted this link on her facebook makes her so much more awesome.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94xyOpETYYs Watch the video, Rafa and Roger completely lose it.

    obscurereality:

    The fact that she posted this link on her facebook makes her so much more awesome. 

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94xyOpETYYs

    Watch the video, Rafa and Roger completely lose it.





  3. walkwhilereading: Federer as Religious Experience by David Foster Wallace This is just an excerpt, please click the title for the whole essay. Please. “Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty. The relation is roughly that of courage to war. The human beauty we’re talking about here is beauty of a particular type; it might be called kinetic beauty. Its power and appeal are universal. It has nothing to do with sex or cultural norms. What it seems to have to do with, really, is human beings’ reconciliation with the fact of having a body.(1) Of course, in men’s sports no one ever talks about beauty or grace or the body. Men may profess their “love” of sports, but that love must always be cast and enacted in the symbology of war: elimination vs. advance, hierarchy of rank and standing, obsessive statistics, technical analysis, tribal and/or nationalist fervor, uniforms, mass noise, banners, chest-thumping, face-painting, etc. For reasons that are not well understood, war’s codes are safer for most of us than love’s. You too may find them so, in which case Spain’s mesomorphic and totally martial Rafael Nadal is the man’s man for you — he of the unsleeved biceps and Kabuki self-exhortations. Plus Nadal is also Federer’s nemesis and the big surprise of this year’s Wimbledon, since he’s a clay-court specialist and no one expected him to make it past the first few rounds here. Whereas Federer, through the semifinals, has provided no surprise or competitive drama at all. He’s outplayed each opponent so completely that the TV and print press are worried his matches are dull and can’t compete effectively with the nationalist fervor of the World Cup.(2)” (1) There’s a great deal that’s bad about having a body. If this is not so obviously true that no one needs examples, we can just quickly mention pain, sores, odors, nausea, aging, gravity, sepsis, clumsiness, illness, limits — every last schism between our physical wills and our actual capacities. Can anyone doubt we need help being reconciled? Crave it? It’s your body that dies, after all. There are wonderful things about having a body, too, obviously — it’s just that these things are much harder to feel and appreciate in real time. Rather like certain kinds of rare, peak-type sensuous epiphanies (“I’m so glad I have eyes to see this sunrise!” etc.), great athletes seem to catalyze our awareness of how glorious it is to touch and perceive, move through space, interact with matter. Granted, what great athletes can do with their bodies are things that the rest of us can only dream of. But these dreams are important — they make up for a lot. (2) The U.S. media here are especially worried because no Americans of either sex survived into even the quarterfinals this year. (If you’re into obscure statistics, it’s the first time this has happened at Wimbledon since 1911.)” DFW I still haven’t forgiven you for leaving us me, but I’m doing my best never to forget. RIP.

    walkwhilereading:

    Federer as Religious Experience

    by David Foster Wallace

    This is just an excerpt, please click the title for the whole essay. Please.

    “Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty. The relation is roughly that of courage to war.

    The human beauty we’re talking about here is beauty of a particular type; it might be called kinetic beauty. Its power and appeal are universal. It has nothing to do with sex or cultural norms. What it seems to have to do with, really, is human beings’ reconciliation with the fact of having a body.(1)

    Of course, in men’s sports no one ever talks about beauty or grace or the body. Men may profess their “love” of sports, but that love must always be cast and enacted in the symbology of war: elimination vs. advance, hierarchy of rank and standing, obsessive statistics, technical analysis, tribal and/or nationalist fervor, uniforms, mass noise, banners, chest-thumping, face-painting, etc. For reasons that are not well understood, war’s codes are safer for most of us than love’s. You too may find them so, in which case Spain’s mesomorphic and totally martial Rafael Nadal is the man’s man for you — he of the unsleeved biceps and Kabuki self-exhortations. Plus Nadal is also Federer’s nemesis and the big surprise of this year’s Wimbledon, since he’s a clay-court specialist and no one expected him to make it past the first few rounds here. Whereas Federer, through the semifinals, has provided no surprise or competitive drama at all. He’s outplayed each opponent so completely that the TV and print press are worried his matches are dull and can’t compete effectively with the nationalist fervor of the World Cup.(2)”

    (1) There’s a great deal that’s bad about having a body. If this is not so obviously true that no one needs examples, we can just quickly mention pain, sores, odors, nausea, aging, gravity, sepsis, clumsiness, illness, limits — every last schism between our physical wills and our actual capacities. Can anyone doubt we need help being reconciled? Crave it? It’s your body that dies, after all.

    There are wonderful things about having a body, too, obviously — it’s just that these things are much harder to feel and appreciate in real time. Rather like certain kinds of rare, peak-type sensuous epiphanies (“I’m so glad I have eyes to see this sunrise!” etc.), great athletes seem to catalyze our awareness of how glorious it is to touch and perceive, move through space, interact with matter. Granted, what great athletes can do with their bodies are things that the rest of us can only dream of. But these dreams are important — they make up for a lot.

    (2) The U.S. media here are especially worried because no Americans of either sex survived into even the quarterfinals this year. (If you’re into obscure statistics, it’s the first time this has happened at Wimbledon since 1911.)”

    DFW I still haven’t forgiven you for leaving us me, but I’m doing my best never to forget. RIP.





  4. Djokovic Slays Federer

    Djokovic Slays Federer





  5. Federer Pulls Off Another Between-The-Legs Winner →

    Show off.





  6. Fallen Federer Hires Pete Sampras’ Former Coach Roger Federer lost his No. 1 world ranking to Rafael Nadal following the French Open, and Federer would like it back, thank you very much.  In order to do that, Federer has begun a trial training period with Paul Annacone, Pete Sampras’ former full time coach from 1995-2001.

    Fallen Federer Hires Pete Sampras’ Former Coach

    Roger Federer lost his No. 1 world ranking to Rafael Nadal following the French Open, and Federer would like it back, thank you very much.  In order to do that, Federer has begun a trial training period with Paul Annacone, Pete Sampras’ former full time coach from 1995-2001.