Catching up on Roger's last few weeks

I'm afraid I have been rather neglectful of my blog the last few weeks, which definitely isn't due to a lack of interest or lack of attention to everything related to Roger Federer or tennis in general.  It actually has been an exciting few weeks for Federer fans.  First we got the added bonus of seeing him play three matches in Switzerland for the Davis Cup quarterfinals, including an exciting live 5th rubber for the first time in his career.  He came through, of course, in supreme fashion, taking the Swiss guys to the semifinals where they will play at home against Italy in September.  Ok, old news, I know, but I didn't personally write about it so I can't just let it go unmentioned.

Thinking it would then be about a month before we would see Roger again, I had prepared myself for it mentally when the surprising and happy news came that he was taking a wildcard into Monte Carlo.  I always have mixed feelings towards Monte Carlo.  On the one hand, how can anyone be immune to the absolutely gorgeous view of the Mediterranean from Center Court?  But aside from that, I'm not a big fan of the clay - probably, to be honest, because it seems to always be the same person winning the tournaments, which gets very boring to me, along with the fact that in some matches the rallies seem to go on forever on each point.  That being said, when it's Roger Federer playing on clay that completely changes the picture for me.  He is still able to play his beautiful tennis in spite of the dirty stuff, he is still able to shorten points and hit gorgeous winners, and he is still able to get through service games in less than a minute.

He has played two matches now, the first one being a breeze against Radek Stepanek, the second being a bit of a fight against Lukas Rosol.  But given the fact that his quarterfinal will be against the big hitting Tsonga, having to fight hard is good preparation.  Whatever happens in this tournament, though, whether he loses in the next round or goes on to win the whole thing, he has had a chance to find his feet on clay a bit.  

Because it seems likely he will be missing at least one of the next couple big clay events in Madrid or Rome due to the fact that his wife Mirka is going to be having his third child sometime in the near future.  He has been quite discreet as to exactly when this is going to be happening (and really, who ever knows for sure anyway), but anyone observing her over the last month can't help but notice it can't be too much longer.  The media is taking advantage of making it into a big story that he is willing to miss some tennis events (even the French Open, they say) to be there when the baby is born, though he has already said this is unlikely, telling me it will surely be in the next few weeks.  And they love to make it sound like it's so shocking that he would be willing to miss some tennis to make sure he's there.  Well, of course he plans to be there!  The birth of a child can never be replaced and I for one am very glad that he wouldn't consider missing such an event regardless of the timing.  So we wait to see when it will happen, how it will affect his tennis life, but mostly with excitement knowing the joy it will bring to he and his family.

In the meantime, we will enjoy watching him play his beautiful tennis at this beautiful site, with no stress since he wasn't even going to play it anyway, but just savoring it as long as it lasts.