Archive: federer-is-betterer
It may not be quite Derek Jeter getting his 3,000th hit in the form of a home run, but Roger Federer accomplished another feat of his own in a fashion befitting of Federer's legendary career. The 33-year-old Swiss earned his 1,000th match victory by winning the Brisbane International title on Sunday. He held off a hard-charging Milos Raonic 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-2 in two hours and 13 minutes.
Check out these great EPA photos from the Federer v Raonic match at the Brisbane International.
It was surely a merry Christmas in the Federer household as the Swiss ace's record-breaking off-court earning power continued to rise in 2014. The world No. 2 Swiss, according to the Forbes magazine compilation, earned an estimated $40 million in annual off-court income from a handful of blue-chip, long-term sponsors.
Ivo Karlovic's serve was humming -- you don't hit 33 aces against Roger Federer otherwise! Federer's serve was pretty good, too -- he faced only two break points, whereas Karlovic faced four. But Karlovic managed to convert on one chance, and in the second set, Karlovic's serve was untouchable -- 13 aces in the set, 78% of first serves in, 88% of points won on first serve.
Not only did Rafael Nadal lose his match in Basel, he also announced that he was pulling out of Paris for were originally called "personal reasons." Which turns out to be appendix surgery (scheduled for November 3); he is through for the year. He'll have to rest for more than a month before resuming training.
Roger Federer has never been short of self-praise whenever he wins a title. And if it is a trophy he’s never raised before, such as the Shanghai Rolex Masters, then the personal contentment is heightened even more.
Unsurprisingly, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer experienced very different fates at the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Wednesday. Struggling with appendicitis upon his return from three months away due to a wrist injury, Nadal lost his opening match in straight sets to fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez. Federer almost bowed out as well despite being a heavy favorite against Leonardo Mayer, but the Swiss saved five match points and survived in a third-set tiebreaker.
