King’s crown secure and shining

By nistha | Published: December 24, 2009

Originally published: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 10:03pm

Bring it on

It has been a phenomenal year for tennis and I am glad to be catching upon the year end ATP finals. I had missed first two days of action but amidst the thanksgiving slacking, imminent India trip, dull winter and sudden lack of ‘to-dos’, I happened to hook on to Federer Vs Murray. Now that clash is always bound to make me just stop and watch given that I love the tactical and artful play between No. 1 and 4 but there was more to it. After slumping bad and oft to Andy in the Masters titles, Federer’s been disgruntled against the Scot this year (okay, lets forget the Slams for a moment). But since retuning his rhythm in Cincinnati, Fedex has been displaying his Slam magic in ATP series as well. And I wanted him to beat the heck out of everyone in this final ATP series for 2009. I reached home in time to catch up on 2nd set and I couldn’t have timed it better. Seeing His Highness in rhythm again has sort of triggered my holiday mood already. With this win, Roger Federer also secured his year end No. 1 position and I am sure it has broken some record in some book that I am too lazy to look up right now. But there’s a significant record to be made on hand – winning the year end championships for record 5 or 6 times that is currently held by Sampras and (Bjorg?) – Federer is either one short of breaking or tying it (I have pledged no Wikipedia today).

Ok, lets take a look, I mean really a ‘wow look’ at the handsome 8-

Digressing a bit to the ‘hunk’ factor – Feliciano Lopez can give anyone a run for money when it comes to the look (only if he played well enough to get more photographed in tennis sector) but if you mix attitude and charm, the winner would probably be Marat Safin. Verdasco is trying hard but I don’t find him there yet.

Anyways, here’s to Roger Federer for his excellence, determination, will, sincerity and to a year that has truly been his signature act. He may not have won even 3 Slams which he is so used to but from where he started this year to where he has got – no one else even comes close.

And it feels weird to say that even if he doesn’t win a single match again in life, it so doesn’t matter – he has done it all.