Sodapop

I thought I’d reserve such acts of tough love for my siblings, but Joachim is like the brother I actually have, who is a pain in my neck in equal measure:

1. Quite an obvious fact, but he loves The Outsiders.
2. Another oldie he likes is Great Teacher Onizuka.
3. His grammar is questionable – who leaves a space between the last word and an exclamation or question mark?
4. He and I made a pact to get together if both of us were single in December 2006 (it didn’t happen). In hindsight, what were we thinking?
5. He’s been a fan of Rafael Nadal for almost as long as I’ve been supporting Roger Federer – I’m assuming he became one to piss me off.
6. Sometimes, he forgets that he’s a guest in my house when we watch Federer and Nadal play – he is ruthless and unabashed with his cheers and I’ve threatened to kick him out several times.
7. He and Christopher bet on tennis matches – Joachim is ahead, because they forget to wager on the ones that Federer wins.
8. Joachim and I are meant to be rivals – we rooted for different finalists in the first season of Singapore Idol. Again, what were we thinking?
9. To wit, he was behind London (I wanted Paris) in the bid for the 2012 Olympic Games – we know which country won.
10. He is the only person for whom I would eat purple potatoes.
11. One of the three cakes I’ve made in my lifetime was for his 17th birthday.
12. He can be (uncharacteristically?) sentimental – until a few months ago, he frequently wore a band I got for him from Cambodia.
13. He has a crush on… Yeah, she knows.
14. The first time we spoke was on Maundy Thursday in 2004.
15. A significant part of our friendship was built over roti prata.
16. I used to call him ‘Milo Boy’, but I cannot remember why.
17. We once spent 40 minutes in Orchard Road pointing out people whom we thought were attractive… And agreed on none.
18. He has a big heart.
19. He’s smart and cool – he received an award for his outstanding grades in Mass Communication and he can play the drums.
20. A message from him makes my day, as he says the craziest things. Most recently, he commented that I look like Federer in the birthday video I did (WTF, right?) – it was either a jab at my nose or hair, and not because of my awesome tennis skills.
21. He turns 21 today – HAPPY COMING-OF-AGE!

Vertigo

Put simply, there is no satisfactory way to describe the Roddick-Federer Wimbledon final.

I usually am very stingy about including other players in a Roger Federer post, but I would be remissed if I did not mention Andy Roddick’s glorious display of an arsenal of skills throughout the tournament, which stunned even the most staunch of naysayers. As predicted, Roddick made Federer work for it. Their final match was a far cry from the one in 2004, when Roddick’s kitchen sink was unceremoniously rebounded by Federer’s bathtub – this time, Roddick brought along other household utilities. He swept aside Tomas Berdych, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Murray – not easy feats by any means – and despite the popular pre-match opinion, it was a near-possible task for Roddick to scale and conquer the Swiss Alp, almost too close for comfort in the first and fourth sets. As devoted as I am to ‘Rog’, it is such a pity to see Roddick lose after an agonising 30-game fifth set, which he really didn’t deserve.

Perhaps the poem by Rudyard Kipling, emblazoned in the Wimbledon clubhouse, best surmises Roddick’s comeback, as well as Federer’s reascent to greatness (old married dudes have still got it!). I must admit that I am ‘ye of little faith’ – never in my time spent in wishful thought did I believe that 2009 would be the year Federer reclaimed his Wimbledon and World Number 1 titles, the latter being an unprecedented achievement. His victory at Roland Garros compensated for the Australian Open heartbreak and it buoyed my self-assurance of a Federer win, but that soon plummeted after the first set and brought back the nightmare of last year’s epic match. To see how visibly subdued I was, you wouldn’t know the havoc that was going through my mind until Roddick served the forehand that sent the ball into oblivion.

My head still throbs; my eyes are bloodshot from weeping; my backside aches from six hours of sitting; my heart is threatening an aneurism; and my body has yet to recover from two weeks of sleep-deprived nights. When it comes to Federer, it is ‘no holds barred’ – nothing is too long, too outlandish, too emotional, too stark raving mad… Many people cannot take me seriously, but there are reasons why he is worthy of the fanfare – 20 Grand Slam finals, 15 Grand Slams, Career Slam, World Number 1.