THE CITIZEN ON MARS

Phenomenon. That must be the title of the movie if Roger Federer’s life would have been made into a movie, or perhaps if one will be made in the future. Still so young at 24, he is already drawing comparisons to the legendary Pete Sampras who also gained his seventh grand slam title at the same age and the last tennis player before Federer to have won three consecutive major titles. The way he produces those highly pointed shots, as if placing the ball with his very own hand, at any place on the opponent’s side that he wishes to strike it, I have a feeling that Roger can be bigger than Sampras—or possibly bigger than anyone who have ever held a tennis racket in his/her hand. I have seen how the greats like say, Sampras and Andre Agassi play their tennis but to be honest with you, I have never seem to have seen someone as versatile and as technically adept like Roger, as if he is re-inventing the whole game of tennis altogether, brimming with power at every ace he churns out while exhibiting extreme finesse on returns. Not since Boris Becker have someone look as nimble like a leopard on the court that even the tightest returns could be flung back with masterful ease. Once I had watched him trounced an opponent like a hardened criminal, in a match held so years ago that I could not exactly remember what tournament was it, when he was just then a new kid on the block. He was as unflinching as each moment on the court at that time breathes like a bloodied warpath. He was like a warrior facing an enemy and with no trace of hesitation in his tingling eyes. I had thought then how dangerous he was. Like a killer robot in some sci-fi movie that can’t be penetrated even by the most corpulent bullet hurled at it. That’s it. Roger Federer plays tennis so well that he seems to be indestructible like a robot.

Despite of this, Roger’s rise has some snag in big media. I mean he should be in the front pages of Time magazine by now, but he ain’t. He being not an American tennis star, maybe the reason (the wrong reason clearly) why he ain’t as celebrated as he should be. I mean that guy (or boy) just kept on winning grand slams one after another like he was just eating peanuts in Central Park but we couldn’t even buy any poster of his in Toby’s or in our favorite downtown bookstore. He is so under-covered by big media. I bet his winning the Australian Open yesterday should have been bannered by CNN, a young phenomenon who is single-handedly rearranging the landscape of tennis—like what Tiger Woods was doing to golf when the Grand Slam titles kept on adding to his trophy collection back at home. Even John McEnroe had once quipped that Roger could just be “the best player ever” and Australian tennis star Lleyton Hewitt thinks “Roger has taken tennis to another level…”.

I think so too.

See CNN Story…

See NY Times Story…