Federer edges at Garry Weber near to 7th WIMBLEDON

I have been following Roger’s progress at Halle over the last week and I am delighted at what I have seen. Not that I ever doubted him. I saw a lot of negativity from fans after the French Open which was unnecessary. I never felt Roger was going to win the French Open or even make the final. The hunt for major #17 really starts here. I felt it was important that he did well at Halle after the French Open just because people were starting to write him off like they usually do when he doesn’t win everything in sight.

The match against Raonic was always gonna be key. He was probably the most dangerous player in the draw after Nadal. Roger lost the first set in a tie break but got the break right away in the second set. Then it was just a question of holding serve to even things up at a set all. The third set went to a tie break again and this time Roger got the job done pretty comfortably. It was a serving contest and one that Roger simply had to win. Losing to Raonic after the French Open would have been almost a disaster. It’s amazing how Roger keeps beating these youngsters. He showed once again that Roger 3.0 went nowhere and that the ability to win the close matches is still there.

People just overreact way too easily. The big surprise of the tournament was of course that Nadal lost to Kohlschreiber in the quarters. Big upset. That pretty much gave Roger the title as long as he got past Raonic. Roger beat Youzhny easily today as the win against Raonic would have given him a lot of confidence. He will face Haas in the final who I am glad to see doing so well after time out of the sport. So I feel Roger pretty much has this title in the bag now. One more match but he should be able to take care of business. If he does so it would be just what was needed at this point. In a sense the French Open was a disappointment and needed to be put behind him.

Well Roger has lost Halle now and will be a strong favorite for Wimbledon. I said before that the US Open might be his best chance at a slam this year but we all know how special Wimbledon is for Roger. It is where he won his first slam and it would be peRFect if he can possibly win his last slam there and equal Sampras’ seven Wimbledon titles. I say ‘possibly’ because he can still win more than one slam if he keeps 3.0 level up. Well it’s been nice catching up with you guys. Happy the clay court season is behind us and that we are onto the grass!!

Religious Experience

"If you've never seen [Roger Federer] play live, and then do, in person, on the sacred grass of Wimbledon, ... you are apt to have what one of the tournament's press bus drivers describes as a "bloody near-religious experience." It may be tempting, at first, to hear a phrase like this as just one more of the overheated tropes that people resort to to describe the feeling of Federer Moments. But the driver's phrase turns out to be true — literally, for an instant ecstatically." -- David Foster Wallace, from the special to New York Times' Play Magazine, "Roger Federer as Religious Experience"

"To bear witness ... is to evoke some sort of spiritual experience that occurs only a handful of times in a lifetime - if you're lucky. To try to describe the way Federer plays tennis is like trying to describe how Nureyev danced or Heifetz played the violin. Common words or images cannot do justice." --The Age

"Part of the pleasure of the Federer experience comes from watching people watch him. On Sunday, a spectator is propelled by awe out of his seat when confronted by a short cross-court forehand that lands and runs almost parallel to the net. Later, a fellow simply bows in Federer's direction, as if applause is an unsatisfactory response. ... Some sigh, exhale, cry "Oh my God". It is an opera of exclamation. Cynics who believe they have seen everything need to watch Federer. ... How, how, we ask, as if mind is still disputing what the eyes have seen. With other players, even in other sports, we sometimes see their shots as beautiful, we wish we could play like that. With Federer we accept almost that we can never play like that, his shots arrive from another dimension, it is too much to wish for." -- Rohit Brijnath, The Hindu

Fed-Ex Testifies

Most of us suspected whether , Roger has something left in his scabbard, an extreme dominance at the 2012 Madrid Open has shown there is still ginormous fighting spirit left in the future Hall of Famer.

As scary as it was to watch Federer lose the first set, his utter domination of Tomas Berdych through the final two sets proves just how talented he still is. Berdych is much younger than Fed-Ex, but Federer's undeniable ability to maintain his stellar play is the reason he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Despite complaints from every major star on the tour, Federer has kept his outlook on the blue-clay courts positive and he obviously benefited from that mental peace.

about playing on the blue court

“If you want to be a good claycourt player, you must be able to play everywhere. It is slippery, there's no doubt about that but that has been the case here for a few years. They haven't yet found the perfect balance. Our job each day is to adapt to the conditions that we face.”

Yet another class move by Federer who has been accused of pandering to the media by his fellow players. Instead of burying the court and conforming to how his fellow players act, he simply calls it how he saw it and rolled with the punches.

Maybe that’s why he is the greatest player on the tour right now and one of the greatest ever; while the other players complaining are simply not.

While a win at the 2012 Madrid Open doesn’t guarantee a great year on tour, it shows that he is on the right track and far from ready to retire.

Roger and his Destiny with Tennis

I saw Roger and his destiny with tennis.
No matter how much Roger has accomplished and what achievements and hardware he has acquired, there are critics everywhere ready to pounce on him the moment he loses a Slam or a tournament, and the GOAT (greatest of all time) debate begins immediately. Some have even suggested that he needed psychological counseling because he lost Wimbledon a couple of years ago.
His fans never question who the GOAT is, because in our hearts, it’s Roger Federer. I think he has been voted Fan Favorite 9 years in a row now. It’s a record no one can beat. Fans have a totally different view of Roger than the critics. We tend to grieve in private when he loses and we jump for joy when he wins. We write on his website to encourage him or congratulate him. We write on his Facebook wall to lift his spirits or share his happiness. We pray for him. We ask the angels to protect him. We write each other for comfort and consolation after he loses or share our absolute delight when he wins.

He was voted fan favorite 8 times out of 9 years. The year, ranked number three in the world, he is still voted fan favorite by fans, and voted sportmanship award by fellow players.

He is considered the greatest of all time by fans, that's all, no matter what others think.
It is interesting to me that many artists have understood the fans’ perception of Roger, not just as a great tennis player but as a wonderful human being. They seem to understand and thus are able to capture how we feel about Roger in their sculptures or photographs.
During the 2007 Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, artists created the best 8 tennis players competing that year as Terracotta Warriors. They were truly wonderful to behold, and each warrior stood with a tennis racquet in hand as their weapon of choice. They were great visual symbols of what would take place during that week. Roger was the victorious warrior that year.
What I have learned from Roger Federer this year is that he doesn’t concern himself with what commentators and critics say about him. He may not have had a spectacular year by his own standards but he always listens to his own heart that tells him “I am passionate about tennis; I believe in myself and I can still win!” It is a lesson not just for tennis but for life.

Roger Federer -A Champion's Cry

We all cried with you..

I WASN'T much of a Roger Federer fan. Well, that was until the Australian Open tennis final 2009. Until AFTER the final, to be exact. In fact, as an admirer of Pete Sampras, whose astonishing record of 14 Grand Slam titles was in danger of being broken by the Swiss player, I was quietly hoping Rafael Nadal would put Federer to the sword on Sunday, which is what happened.

When Federer's last shot sailed long to give Nadal the elusive Australian Open title, I was satisfied. But I had no idea what was to follow. I had no idea, most of all, that tears could also be a man's most powerful weapon.

Don't get me wrong. I liked Barack Obama's presidential inauguration spectacular, and I thought his speech was inspirational and simply great. But boy, maybe only Roger Federer can sweep you off your feet with just a couple of sentences and a couple of teardrops.

The tennis showdown was up there with the best sporting encounters in history.

But to me, the real "moment" of the Australian Open final came after the match was over. And it wasn't even when Federer tried unsuccessfully to fight back tears. The guy is well known for crying easily and his fans are no strangers to his outbreaks of emotion.

This time it was rather different, though. His were not tears of joy because he was on the losing end of a major final he wanted so much to win. He approached the microphone during the trophy presentation ceremony trying very hard not to cry. He even said a few words to loosen himself up and distract his own heavy heart. When someone in the audience shouted, "We love you!", his efforts at self-control were in vain.

Speechless and choked with emotion, there was no way in the world Federer could utter a word to the crowd without crumbling like a heartbroken schoolgirl on her best friend's shoulder.

The organisers decided to let him retreat and have Nadal, the winner, address the spectators first. (For a few seconds I had this scary feeling that Nadal, who was looking emotional himself, might be infected and break down, too. That would have turned a beautiful, touching moment into something a bit ridiculous. I mean, two heartthrob athletes crying at the end of a Grand Slam final? That would be one man too many.

But Federer, who started it, rescued it. And he did so graciously. As the organisers were looking rather awkward and unsure after handing Nadal the trophy, Federer stepped up toward the microphone. "Let me try again," he said. "I don't want to have the last word; this guy deserves it." With that, he had me. What can I say? We have all been in situations where everyone wants to have the last word and opponents are there to be humbled, not respected. Federer showed us the soft side of a man and his sense of sportsmanship and fair play at the same time. It's easy to praise your rivals when you are on the winning side; handling a devastating defeat in such a manner is different.

The five-set Australian Open final took our breath away. Federer was absolute tennis poetry in motion, and Nadal's extension of his mastery of clay to other surfaces continues to amaze the world.

It was the kind of game you didn't really want either man to lose; a classic clash of different skills that were equally superb; a demonstration of unbelievable composure and stamina; and a great example of what healthy and constructive rivalry can give us.

Without Federer, Nadal would not be where he is, and vice versa. That must have been the thought on Federer's mind when he decided that, despite the trophy and fan's deafening roars of approval, Nadal's deserved honour would not have been complete without the most important element - true respect from his fiercest rival.

Like someone said, the two players are becoming the best things in tennis since the racket itself. That's surely arguable, but we can't take anything away from the touching and inspiring drama that happened after the game. For more than four hours, the two men played like battling angels unleashing balls of fire against each other, nothing on their minds except victory at the other's expense.

But in the end the rivals became a pair, and glided down to earth to show us the good side of human beings.

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

ROGER FEDERER his life beyond tennis and manifestation

A description of Roger's basic stance toward life, the way others see him, the way Roger Federer comes across, the face he shows to the world. This page describes the disguise Federer wears, his role in life, while the page about motivation talks about the real person beneath the disguise.

Modest, unobtrusive, and often rather quiet or shy, he is a person who is content to stay in the background or to serve as an assistant, in the supporting role rather than in the lead. He is quite humble in his own assessment of himself; he seeks perfection, with a tendency to be overly self-critical. No matter how well he does something, Roger Federer always sees the flaws in it and how it could be improved. Often Federer will simply refuse to attempt something because he feels he cannot meet his own high standards.

Roger Federer has an eye for detail and he gets upset when something is not done just so, usually something others consider rather inconsequential or trivial. He is hard to please and his relationships with others may suffer because of this. Roger Federer also has refined sensitivities and is very discriminating and particular in his choice of foods, clothes, friends, artwork, etc. Order in Federer's environment is very important to Federer.

Federer steps into situations rather cautiously, and not without realistically assessing all of the risks and potential advantages involved. Unless something is a safe bet, he is unlikely to dive into it. Roger Federer tends to underestimate his own capacities and to lack confidence and trust in life, which inhibits his spontaneity. Worrying is a bad habit of his. On the other hand, Roger rarely falls flat on his face and what he does, he does very well. Others see Roger Federer as a self-sufficient and rather self-contained person. Federer has a strong sense of propriety. Politeness, good manners, and correct behavior are important to him. His clear, cool, objective and non-emotional attitude is apparent to others first, and though he is really quite helpful and caring, he does not radiate much sympathy and as a result, others may not see the helpful side as readily. Roger may seem more businesslike and factual as well as more conservative than he really is at heart. He is the person others might go to for technical advice or an unbiased opinion, but not for emotional support. He is keenly observant, intelligent, and has a great desire for learning and for self-improvement, but he is not especially ambitious and is often satisfied with a rather simple, unglamourous position in life. He is assertive and bold. Roger Federer is willing to be the first person to speak up and make his position known, and to strike out on his own if necessary. Roger generally gets along better with men than with women because his approach is quite direct and sometimes tactless and insensitive as well. He can be a bit too forceful. However, Roger Federer's boldness is his calling card, and most people feel that he can at least be trusted to be honest with them.

Roger Federer has a radiant, winning personality and others see him as a person used to achieving success. , Roger Federer is broadminded and is willing to give others the benefit of the doubt. He is helpful and tolerant as long as his moral and ethical standards are respected.

Others may see Roger as a cool, reserved and unapproachable person, perhaps as a result of his conservative and stern upbringing. Roger Federer may feel that no one understands him and tends to isolate himself from others.
Roger has good organization skills and he knows how to arrange everything skillfully. Happy in teamwork and adept at negotiating, he can lead successful business meetings. Roger Federer can easily obtain all the information he needs in order to make the best deal. Federer is likely to go his own way in life and he has a tendency to stay secluded from others. Roger Federer is always preoccupied with his own thoughts and ideas and gives other people the impression that he does not want to be bothered with their problems.

Roger Federer has a strong need to influence others and to dominate his home or environment. He is likely to join associations with large groups of people and some of Federer's relationships will be very important to him and possibly affect his future.

Roger Federer: Humility vs. Pride

Federer has the career that has launched a thousand articles. His legacy leaves nothing left to prove, except to himself.

His long-term dominance is over, but he knows he can still taste Grand Slam victory a few more times. He knows the journey and its demands, and that his mental commitment must drive him to a career renaissance.

Federer knows to avoid the vanities of his great achievements. They will not serve him in winning his next title and conquering his two great rivals. There is no place for arrogance, even though he once brought the sport to its knees. Even the mighty Roger cannot outlast the game.

Instead, he has turned to a peaceful commitment in his efforts. He has appreciated his success with self-stated confidence, not demanding or expecting the tennis gods to entitle him with undeserved victory.

He is playing tennis with the humility of a wise champion. He respects the time he has to play now, and he will prepare himself to be worthy of every challenge.

Federer is playing excellent tennis, but there is something different about his confidence. It’s as apparent as the upgrade to his efficient backhand.

He is still the master, with his variegated array of shots and angles, and his court sense and acumen has not diminished a whit.

His aura sparkles with each crisp forehand, and there is an unshakable undertone and belief to his game.

Springtime has arrived in Miami, and Federer’s game may signal a rebirth of another glorious tennis season for the maestro. Whether he seizes this title or not, he is ready to battle with a sense of pride and strength that has always characterized the great ones.