Imaginary Band

Federer versus Sampras: He who laughs last... Part II

... The Madison Square Garden encounter

This weekend, Federer and his agent have announced that the world number one suffered mononucleosis which is better known to me as glandular fever. Federer cited on his website that doctors think he had it since around mid-December 2007.

And since mid-December 2007, anyone who follows men’s tennis will have heard the cries of “the King is dead, the King is dead!”. In counterpoint we now hear a little cheer of “long live the king!”. Fans of Federer must be quietly chuckling at his recent misfortune, because it’s actually turned out to be his gain. As a fan of Federer’s tennis, I admit it does make me chuckle just a bit to hypothesise that Federer has known about the cause of his slump for a little while now, and just maybe, he had a bit of a laugh keeping it all to himself. After all, he was clearly getting a bit fed up of the press bandying about doom and gloom, and possibly of one upstart in particular "giving it all that"… so another source of mild amusement for me is picturing the disappointment on the Djoker's face, now, after all his "bigging up" of his Australian Open achievement. He practically took it upon himself to herald in the happy end of King Federer’s reign. Yes, indeed, how long has Federer known?

"Federer said he did not mention his bout with Mono until now because he didn’t want to take away from wins by opponents Djokovic (Australian Open) and Murray (Dubai) over the last two months."

Sneaky bugger. And it's not like Federer has been a shining example of "keeping schtum" at the right times. His somewhat derisive "constructive criticism" of Murray's game lead the British press in particular to comment, not too unfairly, about “sour grapes”. According to the New York Times, Federer who has now “learned the English term “sour grapes,” said he was trying only to provide “constructive criticism” and did not mean to imply that he did not respect Murray’s game.”

Still, Federer hasn’t done himself any favours by letting loose, and knowing the UK press, it could still come back to haunt him come Wimbledon 2008, so he’s wise to keep his counsel and try some damage control.

The other pressing bit of damage control that needs addressing surely has to be dispatching the “terrible twins” as I like to call them, of men’s tennis - Djokovic and Murray. Both players manage to slightly annoy, bait and prey on the other players' minds just a little bit with their press comments. Both have had a piece of Federer lately. And both are probably on Federer's hitlist! But first he must deal with someone else, who has a lot more history behind him.

Is Sampras likely to take another chunk out of Federer's reputation tomorrow? Your guess is as good as mine, but I have to remind myself that this is, first and foremost, a bit of money spinning! To be able to have said "I was there when tennis's greatest male players had a bit of a hit up" will cost up to US$3773 a front row dead centre courtside VIP seat.

My seat ain't VIP but it is reclining and it even has armrests, so personally I'm going to check out the match via a little known technology that allows a small virtual and visual portal into the USA at that very moment in time with multitudes of camera angles - yes, the match is streaming and if you have broadband, you can get it here on Monday night at 11.30pm GMT (7.30pm EST). It's a lot cheaper than actual seats, too, at a measly $0 (and I'll being praying for a big big server to cope with the traffic). So with the cash you’ve saved yourself, you can shell out for the rockin tunes and videos of Duncan Alex.