The Boss Is Back

Excuse me for a moment while I say AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

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Ah, vengeance is very, very sweet. That match felt damn good. I wished Channel Nine here would replay it, though... it was on at one in the morning here, so I only caught a little. And now it's raining, so surely they could show it again? I mean, who wouldn't want to see Roger Federer rubbing Novak Djokovic's nose in 'the king is dead, long live the king'? Oh, that was sweet. Get used to it, Novak - because the king ain't laid up no more. Daddy's home.

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I will say this for Djokovic - he didn't retire, which was a very pleasant surprise. It was nice to see Roger actually win, to have that moment of victory. Oh, how I loved that moment of victory. It was like Christmas. Now all we need is for the Fed to bring it all to the court tomorrow, and I think he's going to walk away with it, no matter who he faces. He's better than Murray, hands down - Murray might take a set, and it might even go to five, but experience will get Roger through in the long run. And if Rafa gets through, he's going to have to play at least two and a half sets of tennis tomorrow before he even begins, on already tired legs. So have fun with that one, Rafa - but even though Rafa has a break in the third, you have to like Murray for this match. I mean, he has a two sets to love lead. That has to count for something.

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But back to Roger, because he played some beautiful, beautiful tennis that I would like to talk about. Let's start with his serve, because that was firing big time, and he really served himself out of trouble when he needed to. He opened with an ace, and that really set the tenor of the match for him. Usually there's a correlation between his serving and his forehand (hardly unusual) and he hit some absolute beauties today. Fifty-one winners in total, to only twenty-eight unforced errors. That is some TENNIS. That is championship-winning tennis.

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And how was that shot he hit past Djokovic so fast that Djokovic didn't even have time to raise his racquet? That was the match for me. Djokovic won a set, sure, but Federer basically just steamrolled him when it got to crunch time. I like this steamroller incarnation of the Mighty Fed. I hope he shows up more often.

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And Federer was coming in to net as well, which is a play I like from him - he didn't come in as often as Djokovic, actually, but he made something of it most of the times he did. And twenty aces to one double fault... nice one, Roger. Gush gush.

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Djokovic clearly did not play his best match ever - he had forty-three winners to forty-seven unforced errors, which is a bad ratio, especially when your opponent's ratio is so good. It may have been one set all at a point, but at no point did Djokovic ever look like winning. And that is the kind of domination I like to see from Roger Federer.

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Sorry, this must really be nauseating. But after Australia, and the horrible semi-final at Melbourne Park, this is just so sweet. Roger showed Novak who the boss really is - and Djokovic can claim as mnay injuries as he likes, but he still got his arse comprehensively kicked. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

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It's going to be interesting to see how that work out the scheduling of all this - are they going to push the men's final back a day? Or will they finish the Nadal/Murray semi and then do the men's final in the same day? And what happens if it keeps raining? I mean, it is a tropical storm, yeah? And they don't just go away overnight. Surely they can't just abandon the tournament - if it becomes clear that there's going to be no outdoor play, is there an indoor venue they can move to? Not that it's the same as playing on Arthur Ashe, but the match has to get played sometime before next year's tournament...

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Today's Results

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US Open (Flushing Meadows)

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Men's Draw

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Roger Federer def. Novak Djokovic, 6-3 5-7 7-5 6-2