A Tennis Court is Sacred Ground, and Roger Federer is the GOAT.
written: 10:25 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008

I don't even know where to start, so I'll do the boring thing and start from the top.

The Journey To

Woke up at an ungodly 7.30 a.m., got ready in a jiffy, left in a jiffy. The mini road trip to KL was smooth, and we (i.e. my parents and I) didn't get lost. We stopped at some rest station for lunch, and because my dad wanted to eat KFC, I settled for their Alaskan fish burger, but not without ordering curly fries from A&W. My burger's fish fillet was freshly fried so it was pretty good, though I did feel rather sick a couple of hours later from all the oil. Anyone that knows me at all should know that I avoid fried food like the plague, not because I'm health-conscious, but because I'm extremely weight-conscious. So, yeah, it was the first time in a while that I had a plain junk food meal, and um...it will be a very, very, VERY long time before I do it again. It might even involve some gun-holding to the head.

So we reached the hotel at about 2 p.m. The good thing about going out of the country with your parents is that they're quite willing to part with some pretty serious cash for 1) convenient accommodation; and 2) super comfortable, bordering on luxurious accommodation. We stayed at this hotel called Palace of the Golden Horses. When my mom was surfing for hotels a couple of months ago after I booked the tickets for the match on a whim, I laughed my ass off when she told me the name of the hotel.

But you know what? I admit, I was wrong. It sounds cheesy, but it was definitely the best, most comfortable hotel I've stayed in my whole life, beating even the Four Seasons in the Gold Coast, Australia. It was FANTASTIC. The room was huge, the bathroom was massive, and it was soooo clean and comfortable! The lobby was also really well-furnished, with these amazing marble tiles depicting some picture of some horses and shit, and the decor reeked of elegance and style. I even liked it more than the Shangri-La, purely based on its decor alone.

It was RM500 for one night though hahahaha. This is why I love going out of the country with parents. My mom, much like me but worse, isn't the sort who can take shabby and basic, which explains why the first time I ever stayed in anything less than a four-star hotel while overseas was in Europe this June. My dad complains about pricey hotels all the time but I bet when push comes to shove, he'd much rather pay more for comfort, too.

Anyway, the hotel room was soooo fantastic that I lazed around on my mini-bed for a couple of hours, flipping through Rolex's special tennis issue with Roger and one of his Wimbledon trophies (I'm guessing it was last year's) that I brought along just in case I had an opportunity to get his autograph. I read the article about Wimbledon, and it only reinforced how fucking badly I MUST watch a live Wimbledon match before I die, and before Roger peaks and someone else takes over him as King of Wimbledon. It is quintessentially British, and quintessentially tennis, therefore combining two of my most favourite things in the world. I have half a mind to apply to be entered into the public ballot for next year's matches, and I might really go ahead and do it. (Yes, there's a BALLOT for tickets, and you need to submit an APPLICATION FORM, and it has to be MAILED. There is no online application. It's amazing. It's sacred. Oh my god.) It's 100 pounds for a centre court match on the last day, which is presumably the final, and seriously, S$300 to watch a Wimbledon final is, to me, fucking cheap.

Okay I'm going to stop rambling about it before I start daydreaming. ANYWAY.

We had dinner at the hotel's standard restaurant where I had the worst pad thai of my life, and the first deep-fried otah ever. The latter was good. The former was just...I really have no words. It was fried noodles using glass noodles. It was so salty that there was nothing pad thai-ish about it. The one at Bukit Timah Market is much, much better, and of course, the ones in Bangkok that I ate were just sublime. No comparison whatsoever.

Anyway, we took a cab there which cost RM7 which was just fucking cheap. The stadium was just one part of a huge-ass sports complex that included an aquatic centre, a hockey field, and some track and field thingy. It was great. I went around taking pictures with posters of Roger. Needless to say none of the players were milling outside the stadium, waiting to be mobbed.

The entrance to the stadium.

Me + Roger + Roger Junior! OMG.

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Seeing Roger Federer in person for the first time was simply incredible. It was unbelievable. A part of me still can't believe it happened.

I went into the stadium and was shown to my seat, and as I made my way to the seat, I glanced down at the court and saw James Blake practising. Naturally I looked to the other end of the court to see who he was playing against...and I saw this tall figure wearing long pants, a dark t-shirt, and a baseball cap turned backwards.

I knew - I just knew - it was Roger. I honestly couldn't believe it, because I didn't expect him to be THERE, casually hitting a tennis ball with Blake while I located my seat and started to freak out. I felt my legs go limp and almost couldn't breathe. My seat was pretty close to the court, but there was another tier of seats separating me from the court so I definitely couldn't stick out my Feder-Bear and beseech Roger to sign it. Instead, I took out my shit camera and attempted to take pictures, but when my pictures turned out shit, I gave up.

First picture, first time seeing him in person.

Unfortunately they finished the practice about two minutes after I sat down. Some kid behind me was shouting, "Roger Federer!" He held up a hand in acknowledgment of that kid, and if I'd shouted too he definitely would've heard me...BUT I WAS TOO SCARED. So I watched as he walked off the court and went to talk to some people at the side, where I also spotted Mirka, his girlfriend. And yes, she looks prettier in person, though I think she looks great in pictures and on TV too.

The next thirty minutes or so were spent trying to prevent my eardrums from bursting listening to the filler acts, some band and a few female singers. Yeah, I didn't really care, sorry. A for effort though.

The Wonder of Live Tennis

There is NOTHING quite like live tennis. This pretty much sums it up:

"Real tennis, after all, is three-dimensional, but a TV screen's image is only 2-D. The dimension that's lost (or rather distorted) on the screen is the real court's length, the 78 feet between baselines; and the speed with which the ball traverses this length is a shot's pace, which on TV is obscured, and in person is fearsome to behold. That may sound abstract or overblown, in which case by all means go in person to some professional tournament - especially to the outer courts in early rounds, where you can sit 20 feet from the sideline - and sample the difference for yourself. If you've watched tennis only on television, you simply have no idea how hard these pros are hitting the ball, how fast the ball is moving, how little time the players have to get to it, and how quickly they're able to move and rotate and strike and recover. And none are faster, or more deceptively effortless about it, than Roger Federer." (David Foster Wallace, "Roger Federer as a Religious Experience", The New York Times, emphasis added.)

Last night, I truly, truly understood what that meant. There is nothing quite like live tennis, and after you've watched live tennis, watching televisied tennis seems cheap. Watching Federer hit a first serve ace on TV makes me go "wow!"; watching Federer hit a first serve ace in person takes all the words and the sounds out of my mouth. There is nothing like it. One second he's getting ready to serve, and a split second later the ball is bouncing off the service line at the other end of the court and crashing into the wall behind his opponent. It takes less than the time you take to blink for his ball to travel from his racquet to where he aims it. "Fast" is probably the most unjust, the biggest understatement to describe the speed at which a tennis ball travels when you're watching it live, when it leaves the racquet of a professional, not to mention a professional like Roger Federer.

Watching the Federer Forehand in person, too, is so, so different from watching it on TV. I had my eyes fixed on Roger most of the time to observe his movements, and the grace and elegance are all there, but what's missing on TV is the sheer power and speed of his movement. The way he swings his playing arm hard and fast to his left shoulder is...I can't even describe it. He fires the ball down the court and it quite literally takes less than a blink of the eye for the ball to kick off the ground and either find his opponent's racquet, or his opponent's dismay in being unable to return it. It was simply amazing. I just don't know what else to say anymore; it was amazing.

The Matches

Of course, Roger wasn't the only one hitting fast balls. James Blake hit a few lethally rapid balls himself, too, and I was also awed. Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe played a distinctively slower game, perhaps due to their racquets (not sure about Borg but McEnroe played with a wooden racquet) and um, maybe their age too, I don't know. But they were amazing too. The Borg/McEnroe rivalry is one of the most famous and most titillating in all of tennis history, and I can totally see why. Federer/Nadal has nothing on it, honestly, especially since Nadal doesn't play compelling tennis the way Borg and McEnroe and Federer do. The wooden racquet really got me, and at first I couldn't decide who I liked better, but as the first match wore on, I decided that Borg was my man. His style was great to watch - very classy, very pleasing to the eye, and for once, the double-handed backhand didn't look gay on a guy.

Bjorn Borg!

John McEnroe!

McEnroe eventually won after a tie-break that got to 13 points. I was BUMMED! By then I was TOTALLY gunning for Borg to win.

McEnroe was hilarious though. Apart from being well-known for his many grand slams, he was also infamous for his temper. That was the first thing my mom brought when I told her that McEnroe was playing; not his championships, but his temper. Throughout the match he kept making potshots at himself, throwing his racquet on the floor in faux-anger and complaining about calls. He was very entertaining indeed.

Federer/Blake was great, but unlike the first, my eyes were fixed on Roger, like, all the time. During the first I'd follow the ball and take note of both players and their playing styles, but for the second, my eyes followed the ball and immediately went back to Roger, even when Blake was returning. I didn't get as complete a sense of the match as I did for the first, which sucked, but...I JUST COULDN'T TAKE MY EYES OFF ROGER. He was great, great, great. Made a few errors here and there but who cared! He was PLAYING TENNIS IN FRONT OF ME. What did I have to complain about?

James Blake making his entrance.

One of the very few pictures of Roger where I can actually see 99% of his face. This was when the players were made to give away signed balls.

Roger won!

After the match, returning to their chairs.

As for the doubles, Roger paired with Borg (yay!), Blake with McEnroe, who are both Americans. So the organisers made it some cheesy USA v. Europe thing which I didn't care much about.

I didn't get to watch the whole doubles match. The thing is, my dad followed my mom and I to the stadium 'cause he wanted to make sure we were safe, since we were in Malaysia and not Singapore. He refused to buy the RM188 ticket which he thought was too expensive, so he stayed outside the stadium for the entire duration, waiting for us.

The show started late. When the doubles match got to the 9th or 10th game, it was nearly 11. My mom wanted to leave 'cause my dad was waiting, so we left. More about this later.

There were a few amazing rallies at the net, but FederBorg (as I called them in my head) lost all of them. Sad. One thing that still sticks out in my mind is when FederBorg was down on their own serve, and Roger was serving, and as he served this amazing unreturnable, he grunted DAMN LOUDLY, like, "I am ROGER FEDERER. Chew on that!" It was SO amusing! He also grunted on a return which also amused me greatly because the only time he makes any kind of noise on court is when he's serving, and even then it's only occasionally. He's not Rafael Nadal, thank goodness. I like my tennis players strong and silently resilient, thank you.

The players and some guy that tossed the coin. I didn't catch the story; something involving some charity thing.

The big screen! I was waiting to see myself on the screen so that I can show everyone my Feder-Bear, but it was not to be.

Roger and Borg. Roger had just unzipped his jacket!

FederBorg.

Sooo adorable! Too bad my camera is so lousy.

The Unfortunate Downsides

I know it was just an exhibition match, but for fuck's sake, what were the lines judges doing?! There were SO many shots that were obviously out and the linesmen did nothing! No calls! This was especially so for my side of the baseline. It was HORRIBLE. And I've never seen linesmen sitting on chairs before.

The chair umpire for the Federer/Blake and the doubles match was just...tragic. I won't bag on his English too much ("one games all"? "James Blakes"?), but I WILL bag on how he completely got the score wrong during the doubles match. FederBorg broke McEnlake in the opening to lead 2-0. Chair went, "One games all." Then McEnlake evened with FederBorg for 2-2. Char went, "McEnroe and Blake lead three games to one." Some members of the audience started hissing a bit and shouting out the score. Sure it was just an exhibition match, but these players went all the way to Malaysia to play, and some members of the audience went all the way to Malaysia to watch (an American mother and her kid sat next to me); the least he could do was to get the score right, which was his JOB!

Whoever wrote the script for the emcee must be fired. When introducing Roger, the emcee claimed that he won three Masters Cup. HELLO, ANY IDIOT WITH THE POWER OF GOOGLE WILL KNOW THAT HE WON FOUR. FOUR! One of the girls in front of me, obviously a Fed Fan, shouted, "FOUR!" Yeah man, FOUR.

I didn't see this live, but I watched the repeat telecast just now. During the prize ceremony, the announcer made the HORRIBLE mistake of announcing the winner of the doubles match as "James Blake and Bjorn Borg." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It was the end of the event, it'd gone on for three hours at least, and you couldn't remember who paired with James Blake? Oh my god. These are TENNIS LEGENDS, for fuck's sake. Unbelievable.

Okay, that's out of the way. On to happier things!

The Many Facets of Roger Federer

I've always got the inkling that he's a bit boyish. Ever since I watched the post-match interview of last year's Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel final where he giggled like a boy when the interviewer asked him some questions about whether the other players were "big" (referring to their heights, that is), I'd known not to be fooled by his suave, sophisticated and level-headed exterior.

But it was only last night that I knew just how damn BOYISH he is.

One other thing they don't show you on TV: the players' behaviour between points, between games, between sets. Roger was like this hyperactive kid that couldn't stand still. He kept moving around, kicking balls football-style and bumping them off his chest. He also took it upon himself many times to hit balls back to ball boys at the other end of the court, and he aimed it so that the balls fell directly into the ball boys' hands. Very, very entertaining, and he received hearty applause from the audience. His behaviour was just adorable. Whenever I watch him on TV playing real matches, he's always serious and solemn and only relaxes after a win, but last night, he was all fun and giggles and so, so BOYISH. I totally fell in love with him even more.

Roger got the loudest cheers and his fans kept yelling his name between points. The girl in front of me yelled, "Roger, take off your shirt!" to which I heartily agreed. Even better, some random guy yelled, "COME ON HANDSOME!", and Roger, while waiting to receive Blake's serve, actually turned his head. IT WAS HILARIOUS.

Between games when the players were resting on the chair, when Roger wasn't drinking water, he was watching himself on the big screen. OH MY GOD HE IS A NARCISSIST! I couldn't stop laughing, especially during the doubles match when Roger was supposed to be serving, and the other three players were waiting for him to serve, but instead of doing so quickly, he was watching himself on the big screen. He is utterly amazing.

He was just so adorable throughout. Very professional when playing, and boyishly adorable when not. I just want to hug him! He's so cute, I can't stand it. Apparently he hit his head with his racquet when he missed a volley but I don't remember seeing that! (I'm reading the match thread on RF.com.)

Oh, and he wore his very shiny Rolex watch, which he obviously doesn't do for actual matches. He even took off the wrist band when he played the doubles. He went "aiii" two times when he missed his shots and I SWEAR, it sounded like "aiyah". ROGER FEDERER IS SINGAPOREAN! (Singapore pretends it's an Asian Switzerland anyway so yay. Oh my godddd I've never been more glad to be Singaporean! Our flags are even the same colours!!!!!!!11!one!)

Also, while warming up before the doubles, HE PLAYED TWO DOUBLE-HANDED BACKHANDS!! OMG OMG OMGGGGG. I almost died! I've never seen him play a double-handed backhand before...well, because he doesn't, but he's goofed off before during practice and whatnot. I WATCHED HIM PLAY A DOUBLE-HANDED BACKHAND!! Okay, it was kinda shit to be honest; he looked like he didn't quite know what he was doing. But it was still OMGGG squee-worthy anyway, because it's not every day that I get to see Roger do a double-handed backhand!

His single-handed, Uniquely Federer backhand is still the best though. <3

It was great seeing him have fun, relax, and enjoy tennis without the pressure of winning. I love Competitive Roger, but I love Fun Roger, too. I loved seeing him so relaxed and goofy; I've never seen him smile and laugh so much during a match before. He was sooo adorable, have I mentioned already? His reaction at missing shots was also supremely entertaining: hands on the waist, the "ai ai ai", even inspecting the net when his volley got dumped into the net. HE'S SO ADORABLE.

I love him so much! The "come on Handsome!" and his reaction was my absolute favourite part of the match. HE'S SO ADORABLE OMG.

I LOVE ROGER FEDERER.

The Amazing Parents

Only my parents will spend S$1000, two days' of work and I don't even know how much money on petrol to let me watch Roger Federer play in an exhibition match.

I was a bit miffed that I didn't get to watch the whole of the doubles match, but I got over it pretty quickly. I love Roger, but I love my dad more. So there.

The Rest

I don't know where else to put this:

Roger Junior!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any closer to Roger than my seat, so too bad. No autographs, but whatever, I didn't expect to get his autograph anyway. I just wanted to watch him play tennis. Live. And experience what Wallace wrote about that enthralled me so and got me all excited about the match when I read the article a couple of weeks ago.

Besides, I am more determined than ever to watch a Slam live, if not Wimbledon, then the US Open. I'm sure I can find a way to get an autograph when that happens.

Also, apart from me randomly shouting "Go Roger!" once, I was too scared to yell anything. People were yelling things left and right, like "Come on handsome!" and "We love you Roger!" (after which James Blake double-faulted during the tie-break and Roger thanked the girls that shouted it HAHAHAHA I love him so much) and "Take off your shirt!" but I was scared. It was just weird. Yeah.

I still can't believe I watched a tennis match live, let alone a Federer match, even if it was an exhibition match. It was just incredible. IN. CREDIBLE. I have no words.

We left at 11 the next day after breakfast and some fruit juice (two glasses of fruit juice = RM10. I LOVE MALAYSIA), but not before some photo-whoring around the very pretty hotel!

My parents! Duh.

Me and my mom! Duh.

I also had the best lunch over those two days when we stopped at a rest stop with a small Malay food court and I ordered bee hoon from some random stall. IT WAS DAMN GOOD. And it was only RM3. HAVE I MENTIONED I LOVE MALAYSIA.

Okay I'm damn tired so I'm going to stop here. This was like, the best trip to Malaysia, EVER. EVER! I love Roger. I love tennis. A tennis court is sacred ground, and Roger Federer is the GOAT. He is the Greatest of All-Time.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010