Roger Federer wins 7th Wimbledon title, and much more...

There was only one thing my blog post was going to focus on today. Roger Federer.

As most of you know, I'm a huge admirer of Roger Federer, the tennis player, the father, the man.

Yesterday at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, Roger Federer beat Andy Murray to win his 7th Wimbledon title, equalling the feats of William Renshaw and Pete Sampras.

Not only has he successfully emerged victorious in 7 out of 8 Wimbledon finals, he has also clocked up his 17th major title, and returned to the #1 world ranking position.

In a couple of weeks time he will have surpassed Pete Sampras' record of 286 weeks as the #1 ranked player. There are not too many more records left for him to break!

It was a nervous start for Roger Federer on Centre Court against a determined Andy Murray, who was the first Briton to appear in a Wimbledon final for 74 years. The Swiss champ was a little out of sorts and dropped the first set 6-4.

But Federer barely sweats, and when he does, he sweats ice. There was no emotion on Federer's face, as he kept strong through a nervy 2nd set. Winners and errors were met with the same steely response. Federer broke vitally at the end of the set to level the match at 1 set each.

Andy Murray's emotions soon started getting the better of him, when a 19-minute service game saw Federer eventually break the Scot's serve once more. Murray was down on the ground three times, and Federer was beginning to accelerate.

Federer mixed his game up with sizzling forehands, glorious backhands, deft volleys at the net, and marvellous drop shots.

As Murray visibly began struggling in the 4th set, physically and mentally, the Swiss ace was gliding around the court like a gazelle, in glorious silence. At 30 years of age and a father of two, he looked amazingly fit, as though he could have been 20.

Andy Murray put in a great effort and had me worried for a set and a half, but he found it tough to keep up the high level of the first set. As he said himself, he's getting closer.

After taking the decisive 3rd set 6-3, Federer served out the match, taking the 4th set 6-4, and lifting the famous trophy for the 7th time.

And showing off the trophy at the balcony...

Roger Federer's twin daughters are almost 3 years old, and they were at Centre Court cheering on their remarkable father.

Roger Federer has now won Wimbledon 7 times, in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2012

He has amassed a staggering collection of 17 major titles

And who's to say he won't keep on winning more? He looks as fit and great as ever!

Now for Olympics gold Roger!!!

(All pictures are credited to, and were taken from this brilliant facebook page dedicated to Roger Federer)

Leah's sweet, sweet dream

Train up a child in the way he should go . . .

. . . and when he is old, he will not depart from it!

Couldn't resist doing this while watching Day 1 of the Wimbledon Championships last night!

Wimbledon

An annual event in our home in Kuantan occurs every June/July.



Wimbledon.



The mother of all tennis competitions where the sun is all too welcome, the rain too frequent, and the lawns growing browner by the day as they are graced by marvellous tennis athletes.


Since 2003, Roger Federer has dominated on the grass, winning 5 years in a row including his very first Slam in '03, before finally losing to Rafael Nadal in the 2008 final in an epic 5-set, 5-hour battle.

Federer came back in 2009 and won an historic final against Andy Roddick as he became the first ever men's singles player to win 15 Grand Slam titles. (If you love tennis enough to read a match report, then by all means follow this link to read of that amazing match from 2009).


Last year he sadly fell at the quarter finals stage, a back injury limiting his mobility in a 4-set defeat to finalist Tom Berdych.




I'll be shouting from Kuantan for Roger to prevail for a 7th time on the beautiful lawns of Wimbledon this year. (Though not too loud, because a newborn baby will hopefully be sleeping well through the night!)

Has anyone ever had the privilege of watching Roger Federer play live?

A bunch of monkeys indeed

I am sick and tired and fed up of England football team.

I am sorry to say that they are simply incapable and inept when it comes to the world stage. We have a decent starting 11 but a lousy back up of players. Our players can't handle pressure or perform when it matters. Our inability to beat a team where football is not amongst the first three sports in that country, shows how weak we are. That is an absolute embarrassment, particularly as Gerrard said before the USA game that we were going to show to the world what we are capable of. (Laughing my head off!)

We now go into a must-win match against Algeria with self-imposed added pressure because of an awful mistake from an awful goalkeeper who shouldn't even be in the squad of 23, let alone the number one keeper! Come on Capello!!! Everyone knows Joe Hart is easily our best and most in-form keeper!!!

And now it seems that Ledley King will be missing the rest of the tournament - surprise, surprise. This is the guy who is injured every week of the year, every season of his career, an eternal cripple, and he somehow gets called up to the England squad? Nothing about our selection or team or squad makes sense. We will be lucky to make it out of the group now. Worryingly we are now left with centre-backs as follows: Jamie Carragher, Matthew Dawson, Matthew Upson. Doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. We will soon get found out big time.

I've lost all interest in England's world cup adventure...but anyway, it won't last long.




Roll on Roger Federer and Wimbledon! I prefer to watch someone with a little quality.

21 DAYS TO GO

I watched a replay of the Wimbledon 2009 final last night between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick. I loved watching the nail-biting stalemate of the fifth set from 8-8 to the 16-14 winning margin for Federer. I even missed the first half hour of Man. Utd's match against Hull, just to have the pleasure of seeing the great Federer in action. A truly epic match, let's hope for more good stuff at the Australian Open starting on 18th January.

Federer's Fabulous Fifteen

Here is the amazing Roger Federer with his 15 Grand Slam titles. The greatest tennis player in history with the trophies to show it.

Wimbledon Mens Singles Final 5th July, 2009

With Andy Roddick playing at his peak, Roger Federer still managed to cling on and fight his way into the history books. What a match! What a champion!

Roger Federer faced off against old foe Andy Roddick in the mens singles final at SW19 Sunday. It was Federer's seventh straight Wimbledon final - a record - and his 21st consecutive Grand Slam semi-final or better. Another record. A remarkable achievement, and this afternoon on Centre Court, dubbed his "day of destiny," he was chasing yet another record, the Holy Grail of tennis, a 15th Grand Slam title.
However, Andy Roddick, who had dispatched British hope Andy Murray in the last four, and had made two previous Wimbledon finals in 2004 and 2005, had other ideas. He had lost those two finals to Federer when the Swiss master was in his prime. But he was determined that this time would be different.
Under a new vigorous regime drilled by Larry Stefanki, Roddick is a new player, leaner and meaner than ever before. Federer, coming off the back of a maiden Roland Garros crown which had eluded him for so long, and which many had suggested was the missing piece of his Grand Slam jigsaw, was looking back to his best with clinical wins in the previous rounds over Ivo Karlovic and Tommy Haas. But it wasn't as plain sailing for Federer as on the seven previous occasions he has beaten Roddick in Grand Slam matchplay.
Federer was clearly nervous early on, and that was only amplified when pal "Pistol" Pete Sampras, 7-time Wimbledon champion and 14-time Grand Slam champion, made an unannounced entrance in the royal box a few minutes into the warm-up, having flown in earlier that morning. His presence alongside Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver, reminded us that this was a possibly historic day in mens tennis. These legends had gathered to witness somebody even greater than themselves take centre stage, and perhaps do what no man has ever done before.
Nerves seemed to be getting the better of Federer early on as he wasted four break point chances in the ninth game. Roddick held on and then broke Federer in the final game of the set when a forehand went tamely wide.
In the second set the Swiss sharpened up on his serve, but Roddick was unleashing thunderbolts of his own to take the set into a tiebreak. And it was looking as though it wasn't going to be Federer's day when he quickly found himself 6-2 down in the breaker, facing four set points for the American. But when Roddick needed his serve the most, it eluded him, and he appeared to cave in to the pressure of going two sets to love up on the Swiss.
Federer saved the first set point with a divine backhand clip cross-court, and then saved two more on his serve. At 6-5 Roddick had the court at his mercy but sent an easy volley wide. A Federer backhand passing shot was too hot for Roddick to handle, and on Federer's first set point of his own, the American contender sent a backhand into the tramline.
The momentum was shifting to the Swiss and, stunned from the last tiebreak, Roddick trudged to the wrong end of the court at the opening of the third set.
Federer was beginning to show glimpses of his brilliance, a magnificent cross-court forehand winner, and an ever-increasing aces column, taking him 5-4 up. But Roddick remained dominant on his serve to force another tiebreak. This time Federer raced into a 5-1 lead and clinched the set with a wide serve and easy forehand winner.
It was a glorious day for tennis - sun, blue skies and a breeze - no need for the new roof. In the third game a zephyr blew up a faceful of dust into Roddick's eyes, but in the very next game, the American kept his eye very much on the ball to break the Swiss after the no.2 seed failed to control a passing shot from Roddick at the net. Serving at 5-3 the no.6 seed won four points on the trot from 0-30 to send this thrilling fight into a deciding set.
Federer had the advantage of serving first, but had still failed to break the American's serve. In the second game, Roddick saved a 6th break point with more big serving. When the final set surpassed the 9-7 scoreline which had haunted Federer from last year's final, there was the feeling that this could go a long way. And on and on it went.
At 8-8, Federer had to dig deep from 15-40 to stay alive in the contest. A premature birth seemed to be on the cards for his wife, Mirka, but like her husband, she thankfully managed to hold on.
With nerve endings singed to dust, the set incredibly went to 14-14. Federer fired his 50th ace of the match in the 29th game, leaving Roddick to once again serve to stay in the championship. But his bruising serves were dying, his groundstrokes beginning to fade, and Federer took full advantage. The Swiss superstar earned a break point when at deuce, Roddick knocked a forehand long from mid-court. After four hours and fifteen minutes, Federer finally broke serve after 38 consecutive holds from Roddick, when the American again mis-hit a forehand long, and the battle was eventually over.
In the crowd were Michael Ballack, Sir Alex Ferguson, Russell Crowe, Woody Allen, Henry Kissinger and David Coulthard. Coulthard would have appreciated the speed of Roddick's bombs as they exploded off his racquet and homed in towards Federer. Sir Alex Ferguson would have loved the tense atmosphere and must have had a "squeaky bum" throughout. Russell Crowe would have admired these two gladiators locked in an epic battle. And Woody Allen couldn't have written a script so intriguing, so tense, so smeared with heartbreak, so wrapped in ultimate victory. And perhaps, just maybe, Pete Sampras was sitting there when Federer finally jumped in the air with joy, and thought to himself, "That's my boy."
Andy Roddick, rightly so, received a prolonged standing ovation, and Federer himself seemed to feel a little embarrassed holding the trophy, having won under such tight circumstances. He knows perfectly well how Roddick feels.
So, a 15th Grand Slam, surpassing Sampras' record haul, a 6th Wimbledon, surpassing Borg's five, and back to world number one. But what was most scary for the rest was when he concluded to Sue Barker in the aftermath of his historic triumph: "This doesn't mean I stop playing tennis."

This is a phrase that should send chills down the spines of every other Grand Slam hopeful for the foreseeable future.

For Federer now is in a league of his own.