Tuesday, July 10, 2007

The Wimbledon Final and the small matter of a shaving cream

We are fortunate enough to witness a terrific rivalry between Federer-Nadal which can only get more interesting in the days to come. Federer looked relieved after the match which could have gone either way. But then champions have this uncanny knack of stepping it up when it matters the most – which was exemplified by the way Federer fought back twice when down 15-40 on his own serve in the 5th set to elope with the trophy. But all was well as Bjon Borg pretended to be happy for Federer just like the Duke pretended to be genuinely interested in the private lives of the ball boys and girls.

But as far as I am concerned, Wimbledon 2007 will not be remembered for the high quality of tennis on display. It will be remembered for the Gillette ad featuring Tiger Woods, Thierry Henry and Roger Federer. Is it just me or was this commercial a little gay? (Not that there is anything wrong with it – Seinfeld). I think the media is getting carried away with this Woods-Federer friendship. I mean, here are two champions, dominating their sports like nobody’s business and instead of understanding and appreciating their friendship and respect towards each other, we have some interviewer asking Federer after the semifinals whether he bought Tiger a gift! WTF! It’s like they are lovers or something. Maybe in the next commercial we can have Federer shaving Tiger's head.

Shaving creams apart, I consider myself extremely lucky to have watched Sachin Tendulkar play cricket, Pete Sampras play tennis, Maradona play soccer, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan play basketball, and Tiger Woods play golf. I think Roger Federer is well into this group now and I sincerely think he could be the best tennis player ever. Unless of course he decides to promote Gillette Venus.

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