Do you guys mind if I just ramble a bit? I meant to write a blog post after Roger's win in Basel, saying something along the lines of...... As every Federer fan is more than aware, Roger won his hometown Basel tournament for the 8th time, claiming his 7th title of the season and his 95th career title. When I was thinking about writing a blog post I thought, what more can I possibly write that hasn't already been said about this incredible man, his career, and his supremely amazing 2017 season? It's been an absolutely wild ride that I never would have dared to imagine.
I never ended up getting it written, though, and life is moving on. For example, we had the joyous and hilarious experience of seeing Roger play an exhibition match in Glasgow Scotland to help Andy Murray raise money for Unicef in which he ended up wearing a kilt provided from a woman in the crowd. He has a way of just making things so much fun! After much laughter, I still kept randomly smiling all day long just thinking about it.
The biggest focus in my mind right now, however, is that (wait for it).... I'M GOING TO LONDON!!! I have never been anywhere in Europe, so this is exciting in itself, but the big reason I'm going right now is because I want to take advantage of as many opportunities as I can to watch Roger play live. These are the kinds of moments that make special memories that last a lifetime and I don't want to someday regret that I missed out. So my tennis friend and I are taking a big trip for the sheer pleasure of watching some amazing tennis, while taking what time we can to explore London a bit (for example, we plan on taking a tour of Wimbledon, which I'm excited about - Roger, do you want to come show us around?). We have tickets to each round robin session and then head home on the day of the semis (in which I will be dying to know what's going on!). It would be so special if Roger could finish off this incredible year with another win at the ATP finals, but regardless, seeing him play at such an amazing tournament that he's had great success at will be so worth it. No one knows how much longer he will play, not even Roger himself, but let's enjoy each and every moment we have to experience this extremely talented and supremely special person.
Every Federer fan is watching with much interest this week in Basel. Of course we are all well aware that he hasn't yet booked his place in the coveted World Tour Finals and this week is key in taking some of the pressure off. And we are also watching, as in the last several months, to see when he is going to find the "it factor" in his game once again.
Watching his first match against Mannarino it seemed like many of his matches the second half of this year where he had moments of brilliance, but also moments where he made crazy errors and didn't capitalize on break point opportunities. Overall I thought he played pretty well (once I was able to re-watch the match on You Tube, since the original stream I was watching on was terrible!), but this opponent wasn't a player who had much to threaten him with. We will be able to tell where he's at much more as he moves into the draw playing guys with bigger weapons, such as Denis Istomin, his next opponent. One thing I do know, though, is he is motivated and wants to do well here. Hopefully his hometown crowd will inspire him to find the game he has been lacking for several months now.
I found it very interesting to read some of what he has said in the last couple days regarding regretting that he played injured a few times this year. I was at his match in Indian Wells when he injured himself, sitting about 12 rows back from the court, so I was able to clearly see what was happening. It was obvious immediately that he was hurt, but he continued through that match and went on to play a couple more. This also happened in the clay court tournaments he picked up in the summer where his back was hurting but he played anyway. I know a lot of this is due to the amazing guy that he is, not wanting to disappoint his loyal fans who came to see him. Of course we as his fans appreciate this so much about him, but unfortunately as his body continues to age he is going to really have to rethink this in the future, as we have seen the ill effects it has had on him long term. As he said, the injuries caused him to not be able to practice the way he wanted to, which sent him into a negative spiral.
Hopefully this will be the week where he can find the right combination of confidence and all that he has been working so hard on in practice and be able to claim his spot at the World Tour Finals and be able to go in with belief that he can compete against the top 8 in the world.
