CBS SPORTS... FAIL!!!!!

I don't have TV. So when I want to watch sports, I can go to my friend's house to watch the game, or I can go watch then stream live thru ESPN 360. ESPN "get's it" when it comes to sports. CBS will always fail because they don't understand fans. I, for example, am a tennis fan. I was looking forward to catching the semifinal match between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer live online. However, CBS carried the match, so I was unable to watch it. I went to CBSSPORTS.com, and looked for a live stream..... Nothing.... so, I listened to it on the radio at www.usopen.org. USOPEN.org is not allowed to carry streams of the games that are hosted by CBS sports, however, they do stream all the matches that are hosted by ESPN.com. So I was unable to watch the match because I refuse to pay for TV (mostly because it is seriously dangerous to one's health to watch). I listened to the radio broadcast, then, and Roger Federer made what he called the greatest shot he had ever made. I was glad to be listening to it on the radio. However, when I went to see that actual video at CBS sports.com, I couldn't see the video. The best example I could find was a crappy youtube video taken by someone. Whatever it is you do... in order to please your customers, you need to give them what they want. CBS failed at this and ESPN continues to succeed because it really understands sports, the players, and most importantly the fans. I'll be watching the finals streaming live at espn360 tomorrow at 4pm.

Oh.. in case you want to see the shot....

New Roger Federer Gillette Commercial

Nice, Very Nice...

Incredible Trophy Presentation after Nadal Defeats Federer in 5 sets in Australia

Truly one of the greatest rivalries in all of sport. Pretty one-sided so far. But what great sportsmanship. You don't see this kind of stuff in football anymore.

Greatest Wimbledon Final Ever?

Yesterday, I may have witnessed the greatest Wimbledon final ever in the history of tennis. Roger Federer, the world's #1 lost to #2 Rafael Nadal 6-4; 6-4; 6-7; 6-7; 9-7. It was the longest match in the history of Wimbledon, spanning 4 hours and 48 minutes. It symbolized the changing of the guard as Rafael Nadal is probably the world's best tennis player after finally beating Federer on his turf after losing to him the last 2 years. Truthfully, Nadal dominated the first two sets because he won the most important points, converting over 50% of his break point opportunities as opposed to Roger going 1-13 for the match on break points. The one break he did get in set 2 was squandered as he was subsequently broken twice later in the same set. Then, I had to leave. We conceded that Nadal would probably win the match, so we hit the road from my friend's cottage, a 2.5 hour drive. About an hour into the drive, we checked the score on a cell phone and found that Federer had just recently taken the third set in a tiebreak. A rain delay bought us an hour and a half. We raced home and followed the match on a cell phone seeing Federer win the 4th set in a tiebreak. We rushed into her home in Grand Rapids only to see another rain delay. When play resumed 20 minutes later, an epic battle of two heavyweights, two champions in their own right battle it out. The shotmaking was incredible. Both held serve until the 15th game since there is no tie-break in the 5th set in Wimbledon. Darkness began to fall over London as the match spanned 7 hours including rain delays pushing the match to 9pm. Both players admitted that it was very difficult to see going into those last few games. Talk about a scene! It was one of those few moments in sports where I knew I was witnessing something historic.

There are few other situations in sports that create this kind of pressure. Think about being down by one with nothing left on the clock while you sit on the free throw line. It's all over in about 25-30 seconds as you shoot your free throws and the result is known. This match had that sort of constant tension every single point in the 5th set. In 24 years of watching sports on television, I've never felt my heart beating this hard for such a period of time and this includes all those Michigan-Ohio State games. I can't imagine what these guys felt.

So what does this all mean for tennis? Well, maybe a few more people will become interested in the sport, but unless these people watched the match, I really doubt it. The United States drives popularity in professional sports and unfortunately, our attention spans are too short to digest tennis. What happened yesterday will be forever etched in tennis lore and will never be forgotten by even the moderate enthusiast. So what does this mean for tennis? It provides great satisfaction for those who appreciate the sport. These enthusiasts can sit with quiet satisfaction, knowing their fanhood is not wasted and they caught a glimpse of something great to which the mainstream doesn't give the necessary credence.

He's still the No. 1, He's still the best. He's still five-time champion here. Right now I have one, so for me it's very, very important day. -Nadal

Probably later on in life, you know, I'll go, 'That was a great match,'" Federer said. "But right now it's not much of a -- how do you say -- a feel-good thing, or a positive thing to end this match. … I'm happy we lived up to the expectations. I'm happy the way I fought. That's all I could really do.

French Open Tennis

Yes, I know, Roger Federer suffered the most lopsided defeat probably in the history of Grand Slam finals 1-6, 3-6, 0-6. Rafael Nadal is just so far above the competition on a clay surface - it was painful to watch my sports hero get absolutely manhandled. It was even more painful to see his body language, language that displayed resigning defeat well before the match was over. Come on, Roger, true champions fight all the way to the end. One aspect of Roger's game I do have great admiration for is the way he treats victory and defeat. Post championship interviews are treated by Roger the exact same way whether he wins or loses. Nadal even noted this. Roger's demeanor changes so little making his emotional control remarkable. It was Kipling that said in that overly-quoted poem,

"If,"... If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same ...

I also noticed that both Roger and Rafael addressed the crowd in multiple languages, Roger in French with a little English (he's fluent in 4 languages) and Nadal in Spanish, French, and some English. What happens if an American wins the French Open? We tend to not bother learning alternate languages even in these sorts of situations. Personally, I view someone who takes the time to learn English very respectful of what American has to offer. I wish Americans would do more of that. Maybe some other countries just need to create an economy so strong that it forces us to learn their language. Hmm.. maybe it's time to start cracking open a Chinese textbook?

Mardy Fish kicks Federer in the pants.

It looks like this is the year to dethrone Roger Federer. Roger made it to the semifinals at Indian Wells where he was dumped by 98th ranked Mardy Fish in just over an hour. Admittedly, Fish is much better than what his ranking says, but he's never been able to get anything done against Roger. In fact, no American has cracked King Fed's code since 2003. This match was a complete role reversal. Fish was faster, he controlled points, he played with incredible confidence, and he predicted everything Federer tried. The post-match interview transcript captures the class act that Federer is. He gave all credit to Mardy, saying

I've had a great record against him, you know, always sort of had sort of controlled matches against him, but today was different. He came out playing very, very well.
Yeah, he played great today. I mean, I can only congratulate him. Fantastic.

Classiness aside, people are beginning to notice that Federer's game looks very predictable these days. Anyone notice that 95% of the second serves to his backhand side up meeting Roger's slice to the same exact spot in the court? During the whole match, Mardy attacked Federer's backhand. In the past, Roger hit winners with his backhand thereby nullifying this strategy. This match with Fish, and also in the Aussie open final against Djokovic, Federer used his backhand defensively in order to set up a forehand winner. Watching this match at 3am was unbelievable since I knew exactly what shot Roger was about to hit on almost every point. Someone on ESPN noticed this and drafted up a very good column about the rise of Djokovic. The author, Joel Drucker, notes that both Federer and Nadal need to adjust their games if they are to retain their superiority.

So now everyone is in Miami at the Sony Ericsson Open. I happened to be in Miami for business during this this week last year and was able to see Venus Williams and Roger play back to back at night. It was incredible. I bring this up because the first round started, and Djokovic just received a stomping.
It seems the chair umpire finally told Djokovic to stop bouncing the ball so much before each serve. This was enough to throw off the best player so far this year. See ya.

Since the power players in tennis seem to be shifting on the men's side, something even more important is taking place on the women's end of things. Maria Sharapova, the celebrated Russian known as much for her good looks as she is her victories may soon be dethroned as the best looking tennis player on tour. Ana Ivanovic may take the cake. Personally, I think she's better looking, but you be the judge. My guess is Ivanovic has a lucrative endorsement career ahead of her.
http://www.anaivanovic.com
http://www.mariasharapova.com

Roger Federer's Excuse

Those who follow tennis were probably surprised at Roger Federer's poor performance at the Australian Open. He looked sluggish the whole tournament and not just during his loss to Novak Djokavic. He definitely didn't look like someone who was about to break Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles. Roger's fans, myself included, wondered what exactly was going on. It looked like he was sluggish and even lazy. We knew that he battled food poisoning during the days leading up to the match, but all signs pointed to a full recovery. He referred to his sluggishness in his post match interview when asked how much effect his illness had on him during the tournament.

"Well, obviously the approach has been unique this year, you know. It's the first time I've been ill before a Grand Slam. I would still rather have it before than during, that's for sure. But maybe it did have. I answered the question already before. It might have had an effect on my movement, I don't know. But I definitely didn't feel as quick, you know, as some other times. I practiced really hard. I can't practice much harder in the off‑season, you know, so I did everything the right way. And maybe I did pay the price for being a little bit ill."

Roger admits that he may not have been at 100%. Recently, he blogged that he had mono through the whole ordeal, including during the recent loss in Dubai to Andy Murray. This probably explains why he does not look like the Roger we knew over the last 5 years. Let's look for cracks in his armor during the Pacific Life Open happening right now. If he does well here, let's expect more of what we're used to. A repeat of the French Open and Wimbledon battles against Nadal is certainly something we all want to see.
If Roger performs poorly, then at least he can still beat Pete Sampras.

Speaking of the Pac Life open, check out Donald Young. It seems that the top players on tour figured out Andy Roddick, and James Blake is getting older. This young man may be the next best hope for American tennis. I've only seen him play once where he beat a 6 foot 10 Croatian named Ivo Karlovic. American tennis fans should look for hope as Don takes on the 2nd best in the world next round. This is a great chance for a coming out party.