Roger Federer at the 2014 Australian Open. Photograph by Peter Myers.
At his Laver Cup in London this weekend — which Team World won over his Team Europe — Roger Federer ended his professional tennis career , a career that has said as much about fans’ perceptions of sports figures as it has about his accomplishments.
Read MoreWell, there was no Rafael Nadal appendectomy this year or contretemps between Stan Wawrinka and Roger Federer’s wife, Mirka, or controversy over whether or not Feddy bailed in the final to lead Switzerland to the Davis Cup.
But the result was the same: Novak Djokovic was the last man standing, winning the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals Sunday, Nov. 22, for the fourth time, capping a year in which he became the first player to win $20 million in prize money. Nole and tennis have come a long way.
Of course, given the lack of drama in this year’s tournament… or was there? Methinks I detected just a whiff of passive-aggressive gamesmanship in the press conferences. ...
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It warmed my heart recently to hear that Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will resume the greatest rivalry in tennis next week at an exhibition match in Thailand.
According to Tennis World, Lawn Tennis Association President Suwat Liptapanlop said Djokovic and Nadal will boost Thai tourism:
“Both players will go shopping at the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) hall in the afternoon of Oct. 1 and they will meet (Prime Minister) Prayut Chanocha at Government House at 11 a.m. on Oct. 2.” ...
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Roger Federer (far court) serves to Rafael Nadal during the 2008 Wimbledon final that some consider the greatest match ever.
Novak Djokovic’s recent victory over Rafael Nadal at the Sony Open, their 40th meeting, sparked the latest round of columns and posts that asked the title question.
Squarely in the Fedal camp is Douglas Perry. His basic thesis is that Rafanole is too much of a good thing, too much of the same thing from the baseline. Whereas Fedal came first, Fedal offers more of a contrast, Feddy Bear’s game is beautiful, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Still, Perry implies, Rafanole may one day rise to the occasion, because – get this – while Rafa’s and Nole’s groundstrokes are predictable, their minds are fragile, particularly Nole’s, and thus unpredictable.
Talk about a backhanded compliment.
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With the Czech Republic’s defeat of Serbia to retain the Davis Cup Nov. 17, the men’s tennis season draws to a close – except not really. There’s Abu Dhabi right after Christmas and then the Hopman Cup, which I had the pleasure of watching from my sickbed in Jakarta last New Year’s Eve. (Hey, not every woman can say she spent New Year’s Eve with Novak Djokovic, but there we were, so to speak – me, Nole and Pippa. No, not Middleton. My sister Jana’s Black Lab.)
Anyway, as I said to Pippa, who concurred, the Hopman Cup is like a party and not just ’cause it falls during Christmas week. There’s men’s singles, women’s singles and mixed doubles. Nole played mixed doubles with Ana Ivanovic, who looks like a young Princess Caroline. The men in my family were smitten.
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