Quiz.

Who, from the entire sporting world, comes to mind first as one who relied on talent alone and neglected super work ethic to become what could have been one of the greatest player not just in his chosen sport but in the entire sporting world?

Carlos Moya with his baby and girl friend. Why is he not marrying already? Isn’t that how ‘trap’ works? Or he doesn’t have to sham the good image like someone else?

REAL reason Elin decided to divorce Woods.

Both worked for months to get back together and not break the family for the sake of the kids and more. Woods must have offered an iron clad guarantee that he will not even look at a girl and leave ‘jr’ at home from now on. It must have sounded genuine as it could have been nothing else given what was at stake for him – financially, emotionally, professionally, socially you name it.

But what may have prevented Elin from returning all the way – more than the infidelity – could have been her embarrassment of being duped for so long. For her, that public declaration of her complete stupidity of having no knowledge of such pervasive breach of vows for so long has to be far more devastating than the actual violation.

I mean, you have to be a totally dummy to not see it as most was happening in open view.

Heard of chapters?

Treat any change – specially bad – in your life as a new chapter – as in reading a book to embrace and run with it instead of investing emotionally in it far beyond that’s due bringing your life’s journey to a halt.

How much does Cincy win advance Federer’s cause of being back?

This was Federer’s second title in 16 tournaments dating back to last season. To suddenly declare Federer’s return to the top of his game / tour is rather premature given just the above stat taking the macro view. Delving deeper into the recesses of the fabric reveals a far different scenario.

While there’s no doubting that Federer is playing considerably better than the last 12 months (Yeah, last title before the AO title was at ………. Cincy last year), you cannot ignore ONE glaring stat refusing to go away in the face of even this mini resurgence: Unforced error count. Federer accumulated what 48 unforced errors in the final at Cincy? And that stat has stayed with him throughout this upward swing from Toronto to now.

Federer’s game has returned considerably to mask that deficiency long enough to post wins against players of lesser stature and experience. But against the top dogs or dogs who have been performing well consistently this season like Berdych or Soderling that hole is blown apart and exploited outrageously.

What this has resulted in is this: Federer is coasting against tomato cans in early rounds. Remember the anxiety his opening rounds produced lately? So sure that’s an improvement but that’s like fixing the first step of the ladder in this setting and declaring the staircase safe.

If Federer overly feeds his ego with this false sense of security having won Cincy title pregnant with all sorts of extenuating circumstances, the road moving forward can only get worse than it has already been. He has to factor in some obvious conditions which scream for cautious optimism instead of full-on jubilation on ‘barely’ winning just the second title in 16 attempts:

-This was a back to back set up historically incapable of producing winners at both ends. Federer had a head start of almost four hours on all his top peers in terms of ‘time on court’ by the time the third match of the tournament rolled around leaving him lot fresher. Despite that, Fish and Turtle was able to extend him to a crap shoot in the second set in a match he himself admitted could have gone either way.

Besides, Berdych took him to a third set tie break at Toronto losing at 5. While a win is a win and in this case reversed the previous two losses to Berdych this season, it was awfully close to confidently predict anything for the future. Then there was that straight set loss to Murray in a final for the first time at Toronto. Even though it was a close match, Federer’s inability to break through a real contender failed to raise the flag of ‘return’ to the top.

Bottom line: There are way too many variables to definitively announce or predict what lies ahead for Federer as he turns 29 solely based on the last two tournaments. While Fish was playing out of his mind, he lacked consistent effort this season to warrant being capable of extending an ‘improved’ Federer to such a close match.

Unless the final brick called UE is laid perfectly in that open slot making the building to tilt dangerously, previous showing this year will speak louder to make any projection resting on this recent showing untimely and false if not outright dangerous.

Photos.

That’s a lot of pressure on other holes.

And how is this helping anything?

How graceful!!!!

No more Mr. Nice Guy for Roger Federer. From Claire. Thanks.

CLAIRE

Click here.

New York songs. From M, Claire and Overcaffeinated. Thanks.

M / CLAIRE / OVERCAFFEINATED

Federer: The Greatest No. 2 Ranked Player In The World? From Andy. Thanks.

ANDY

If Fed wins the USO this year and goes on later in the year to recapture the Number 1 ranking, do you know what he should do TP? NO YOU DON’T!!!!!

DECLINE the Number 1 ranking and stay Number 2!

Consider this:

1. As the Number 2 ranked player during Rafa’s first reign as Number 1 Fed won 3 out of the 4 majors played. The one he lost was at the 2009 AO in five sets to Rafa. Had he won that he would have achieved a non-calender grand slam AS THE NUMBER 2 PLAYER IN THE WORLD.

2. When you combine the victories mentioned above at the 2008 USO, 2009 FO, 2009 Wimby with his 2004 AO victory (which, I’m almost certain also was a tournament he entered with a Number 2 ranking), Fed already has a career grand slam AS THE NUMBER 2 PLAYER IN THE WORLD. Interestingly, he does not have one as the Number 1 player.

3. As much as the period from this past June can be looked at as a slump FOR FED, he actually has made it to 3 finals out of the 4 tournaments he has entered since the FO. With what ranking you ask? As the Number 2 player in the world! And what about the period before that between the AO and the FO when he was Number 1? Just 1 final.

Come to think of it, if Fed wins the USO 2010 and later in the year becomes Number 1, not only should he decline the Number 1 ranking, but his fans should forget the GOAT argument and start making their pitch for an easier argument – THE GREATEST NUMBER 2 RANKED PLAYER OF ALL TIME!

Belated Happy Birthday to Neeraj: August 24.

NEERAJ

Happy birthday Jessica…It was my birthday also on 24th.