The Fed Effect by Jason Whittington

Written by: Jason Whittington on 29th August 2013

The Fed Effect by Jason Whittington

epa03839654 Roger Federer of Switzerland hits a return to Grega Zemlja of Slovenia during their match on the second day of the 2013 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 27 August 2013. The US Open runs through Monday 09 September, a 15-day schedule for the first time. EPA/JOHN G. MABANGLO |

Look I’m guilty of buying into the “RF” logo; I could almost go a month without wearing the same “RF” jacket twice. Even though it’s a little embarrassing at this point I still open the Midwest Sports, Tennis Warehouse and Tennis Express “New Arrivals” emails to see what I might be missing. Well to my surprise, or should I say SHOCK, all three retailers were touting the new Nike PINK & BLACK Federer Vapor 9 just in time for the Australian Open. Not cool…good luck showing up to the court in those. I was positive this had to be a corporate power play to force feed its product exposure via its flagship tennis brand, Roger Federer. Then it was revealed that Federer had a hand in the design, but of course.

It’s not as if there wasn’t already pressure on Federer coming into the Australian Open, no warm up tournaments, toughest corner of the draw, north of 30 years of age, not really a part of the “final day” conversation and debuting pink & black shoes at his first televised night match.

And not just some third round roll over match, this was a highly anticipated night match in a packed Rod Laver Arena being broadcast around the globe against Australia’s own local hero 20 year old Bernard Tomic, an enigmatic, highly competent player coming into the match very confident after a ten match winning streak which included taking down the #1 player in the world Novak Djokivic.

Entering the court (Federer following Tomic) you could hear the simultaneous gasp as the packed stadium got its first glimpse of the pink & black shoes. Even commentators were taken back and at a slight loss for words. But after the first game of the first set, that all changed as Federer broke Tomic. Now it appeared as though they weren’t really shoes at all but an extra layer of skin that only drew attention to the grace and fluidity of Federer’s movement. Federer is the only player that could get away with showing up in extreme shoes and make them appear so subtle with his elegant play. Unfortunately my game does not allow me the same luxury.

Photo by John G. Mabanglo

Topics: 10sballs, Australian Open, Bernard Tomic, Novak Djokovic, Rod Laver, Roger Federer, Sports, Tennis, US Open