When the songbird sings

Roger Federer won his fifth consecutive US Open Men’s Singles–and 13th Grand Slam–title by beating Andy Murray 6-2, 7-5, 6-2. Ironically, of all his matches in the last slam of the year, this one looked the easiest. Even the second set did not feel like a cliffhanger at all. He is back and order is restored in the universe, which also means I can now return to a saner sleeping pattern.

Update:

What in God’s name is that ball boy gesturing and who is he gesturing at? Bad, bad, baaad!

The old Roger Federer is obviously reappearing, and it looks like he’s now beating mono for good. Traces of mono virus can still linger in a patient’s organs and parts of the brain (according to the truthiness of Wikipedia), causing lethargy or mental fatigue even if tests show 100% recovery. That applied to The Fed in the earlier months, and now it’s fairly easy to believe that the funk he was in was not mental at all in the psychological sense. It was physiological.

I still don’t think that he’s playing with all gears yet, but this is so much better than all the game everyone had seen from him in the previous 8 weeks. Last night (or yesterday if you are in that part of the world), Roger defeated Novak Djokovic 6-3 5-7 7-5 6-2. He had a solid first set, lost a shaky 2nd, barely scraped through the 3rd, and then closed the deal in the 4th. Towards the end of the fourth set, it was as if Djokovic had given up as The Fed racked point after point with the powerful forehand. Flashes of Fed’s brilliance resulted in one of the highlights of the match, which was the overhead lob that only a guy like him could produce.

This match looked easier than the 4th round five-setter with Igor Andreev. And perhaps part of the win/loss factor was the NY crowd’s support for the current world no. 2. Djokovic was booed during the post-match interview by the Arthur Ashe stadium crowd when he made references to Andy Roddick’s jokes about his frequent calls for trainers.

Most fans are hoping for a Murray-Federer championships, and commentators agree. But it’s TMF himself who thinks otherwise. If his wish is granted, I’d better stock up on antacid and avoid coffee before the match.

“Who do I prefer to play? I prefer the trophy, that’s what I prefer,” said Roger, who was deposed as world number one last month. “But I guess I would have to say Rafa because we’ve had such great battles over the year. Wimbledon was unbelievable so I hope we can have another one.”

Murray was giving current no. 1 a hard time yesterday until the weather refused to cooperate, so Roger might get his wish. My happiness does not depend on Federer winning this year’s US Open title, but I’m crossing my fingers for him, just the same.

Sigh. This is one of those times when I wish I were still in New York. Lisa, please?

UPDATE:

So it’s with Andy Murray, then. Live telecast of the championship match starts at 5AM on Balls.

…at least for the time being. With the way things turned out in the previous tourneys this year, it’s better to set expectations at a more realistic level. However, today’s match still blew Fed fans away with awesome display of athleticism and genius, enough to make us hope that the old Roger is back. And we want him back.

“Roger won his 30th consecutive US Open match today, defeating Radek Stepanek 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the fourth round of the year’s last Grand Slam event.

“To win his first Grand Slam of the season, Roger is aiming for his fifth straight title at Flushing Meadows. He has not lost a set in three matches, and raised his right fist after zinging a final, winning forehand down the line. “I guess it’s just nice to play well. Pretty simple,” our champ said. “No complaints.”

More at RF.com. Screw CBS (via Balls) for depriving us of the third set and saving just the last few seconds leading to matchpoint for delayed telecast. With the American network giving its airtime to the Muller-Almagro match (qualifier Muller won 7-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-7, 5-7), it was a double-bummer when live scores on the official site went on a fritz. Couldn’t handle traffic, perhaps? That surely looked like a scaling issue.

I don’t know if he reads or listens to what his fans say about his outfit, but he didn’t wear the “UPS uniform” anymore after his 1st round match.

Tennis, with all its drama, is great company when you’re pulling in an all-nighter, no matter how ulcer-inducing it gets sometimes.

Roger Federer finally wins his first Olympic gold, but not in the singles event. He and tennis doubles partner Stanislas Wawrinka beat Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson of Sweden 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3.

From the LA Times Olympics blog (Emphasis is mine.):

“Fittingly, the gold-medal match was on Federer’s racket. He served at 5-3 of the fourth set, 2 hours 59 minutes into the final. He got it to 40-15, hit a wide serve to Johansson and watched the return float wide. Then he jumped in the air three times like a 10-year-old.

“At the medals ceremony, when they played the Swiss national anthem and Federer and Wawrinka stood on the highest platform, both were clearly on the edge of tears.

“In three tries, Federer, for years the top singles player in the world and the winner of 12 major titles, has failed to win a medal in Olympic singles. Turns out, he was just playing in the wrong event.”

I had been waiting for any of The Fed’s matches to be shown on C/S since the station had an exclusive deal to air the Olympics and was affiliated with/owned by Solar Sports. We needed to upgrade our cable subscription if we wanted to be able to tune in to Solar, and that was an option that I did not even want to consider; it was highway robbery. It turns out that C/S was more interested in airing the useless basketball and boxing matches. Please, C/S, stick with the X-Files and Buffy reruns.

As Irony would have it, when I finally caught a tennis match airing last night (or was that at 3AM this morning?), it was the semis between Nadal and Djokovic. Wedgie boy won. I’m still wondering how the heck Djoker blew that point, (Hello! Drop shot, anyone? Long Pants was miles away at the back of the baseline.) though it was heartbreaking to see him sob on his way out of the stadium. For now, he’d have to be content with a bronze win.

As for the classy player, I hope that this win helps him defend the US Open title, which some analysts say, still won’t help him retain the no. 1 ranking. But hey, a slam is a slam.

This is too cute to not share.

SIDE NOTE:

So, China’s hopes of sweeping all five golds in badminton crumbled when Indonesia won in men’s doubles. I don’t know who’s bringing home the gold in singles, though. Will it still be Lin Dan? ::Yawn:: While I know he outclasses everyone in the field, I’d be happy to see anyone but him (or his mates) bring home the gold. Come on, diversity is exciting. It just might help the sport get more media attention.

“Fedrinka” photos and video from RF.com members. Pic with a collapsing dude from the Olympics site