Top Ten Best Roger's Outfits

10. Indoor season 2010 – Real men wear pink lilac

Fashionwise, the indoor season has often been the worst period of the year, with too many dull, greyish and rather sad outfits. But not in 2010. Lilac was a great choice: it’s elegant and  it's a soft colour, so it kinda follows the tradition of avoiding bright colours during the indoor season, but it’s not boring, or dull, or cheerless, and it doesn’t make you look like someone who urgently needs a sunbath. Plus, in Shangai and partially in Basel, it created a nice camouflage effect with the court.

9. AO 2008 (day) – The grown up ballboy

A very nice shade of blue for the t-shirt and a pretty & unusual combination with the shorts. On top of all that, funnily enough he was perfectly coordinated with the ballboys, the umpires and the court itself.

8. Master 2010 – Not a WTF outfit

Likewise with blue, we have seen Federer in red very often (some would say too often). Between all of them, I have picked this one not only because Roger played an amazing tournament wearing it, but also because it’s a beautiful shade of red, bright and cheerful. Plus, the match with the dark grey shorts and jacket is very classy.

7. Montreal/Cincy 2009 – Isn’t daddy pretty?

Coming back to the tour as the happiest man alive, after the EPIC month of July 2009, Roger looked shiny in this bright blue/green. The outfit also included a beautiful sweat jacket with contrasting outlines, an item Federer sported during the entire year (causing in many fans worldwide the urge to buy them all).



6. US Open 2006 – Oh, those shoulders.

Probably the best-fitting t-shirt ever. During 2006 summer, Federer sported these collarless t-shirts, in a white version in Wimbledon (well, DUH!) and in Toronto/Cincy, and in this light blue version at the Us Open. While I’m not really sure about the usefulness of the little holes on the back, those lines on the shoulders are amazing, doing a great job emphasizing Roger’s figure. If only the shorts would have been a little less baggy…

5. Miami 2009 – Smashing rackets, but with class!

The semifinal v. Djokovic was one of Federer's worst matches ever (certainly one of his worst performances with his forehand), but the outfit was outstanding. Simple, classy and yet not ordinary, thanks in particular to the elegant outlines on the shirt collar. A similar design was used for RG 2009, but I liked this version’s colours best (tenniswise, I enjoyed RG more, though. Guess why?).

4. AO 2006 – Go green

I’m not totally fond of the t-shirt, but the main reason why I picked this outfit is the touches of colour, especially on the bandana and the wristbands. That + Roger’s eyes and tan + the night lights produced some of the most amazing pics ever, like these:

3. US Open 2005 - "cause you were all...yellow..."

The yellow bandana just looks INCREDIBLE. And the shirt is great, too. Love the pattern on the shoulders. The yellow/blue combo was awesome, too bad Nike has given up this path…although it seems like yellow will be back at the beginning of 2011.

 

2. US Open 2007 (night) - Darth Federer

Dan dan dan dan dan-da-da-dan dan-da-dan!!...ooops, sorry! I was just singing the Darth Federer Vader theme!

The thing with this outfit is that it was perfectly appropriate to the tournament. Wearing it anywhere else would have been – probably – too much, but for the night matches in Arthur Ashe it just looked perfect: outstanding, audacious, elegant and sexy.

1) Wimbledon 2006 –  The“He’s wearing a frikkin jacket??? On court???” outfit

Obviously, in every list like this one, positions will be always determined not only by objective standards, but also by subjective tastes, individual likes and personal memories.

To me – and I believe I’m not the only one – 2006 was the year of the “point of no return”, Rogerwise. Before then, I liked the guy and his tennis, I cheered for him, I would even be upset when he lost, but I was nowhere close to the condition of total craziness I’m in now. Then, in 2006, two things happened: in May, I sat through (live) to one of Roger’s bloodiest defeats ever (Rome 2006 final) and for the first time I felt totally involved emotionally with him; in June, he stepped on court in Wimbledon wearing a beautiful immaculate jacket and there I totally and definitively lost it for him, not only as a tennis player but as a person, too.

Besides that, I really think that it was a perfect outfit. The idea of the jacket was terrific: so classic and yet, nowadays, so original. It was eye-catching and everyone was talking about it, but it wasn’t overdone, it wasn’t too much (which was, on the contrary, the usual criticism towards Federer’s Wimbledon outfit in 2007). Of course, Roger is the only man on Earth who could pull it off; everyone else, standing on a tennis court with a pair of white shorts and a white jacket, would at least look like an idiot (or as an ice cream seller, if he’s lucky).  

   

 

Honourable mentions:

Clay 2005 & Cincy 2005: two other pretty reds

AO 2010 & US Open 2007 (day): pretty blues

Toronto/Cincy  2010: pink, it was love at first sight

Wimbledon 2008: you can love or hate the cardigan, but…the belt!!! Oooohh, the belt was love.
AO 2008 (night): Darth Federer reloaded, now with touches of blue.

So, in the Top 3 we have white, black and colours. Fair enough, what do you think?

Have your say and then stay tuned for a Top Ten of... (shock and horror)... Roger's worst outfits!

Some (Roger)things of 2010 I would like to keep and some others I would rather leave behind

Another long and intense season is over, and now it’s time to look behind to what happened during the year (RE: Roger Federer). It was a sort of a rollercoaster year for Fed and his supporters: it started up and ended in great fashion, with the amazing wins in Melbourne and London (and, what’s more important, with the out-of-this-world type of tennis he played in those two events), but what took place in the middle was…well, you know how it was.

However, there are lots of things to be remembered about this year…and others that I would not like to bring with us in 2011. Here’s a short and not comprehensive (I tried to mix it up a bit, including both “serious” and shallow matters) list.

Good stuff first:

1) Pride (In the Name of Love)

Truth is that, when I look back to this past year, the first thing that I think of it’s not how many trophies Fed (or anyone else on the ATP Tour, for what it matters) has lifted, but it’s his attitude in the last months (i.e. after Wimbledon). 2008 was the year of struggle, of the so-called regicide and of the many declaration of death of the “old” King; after that, 2009 was all about redemption, resurgence, happiness, GOATness and becoming reconciled and at peace with one self. Emotionally, I thought we had it all. I was wrong. In 2010, we had pride and love: the pride of a champion who, albeit having already everything both in his professional career and in his personal life, doesn’t want to step back and with great humbleness seeks for external help (BTW, I love you, Paul Annacone) and tries out new things; love…well, love for tennis is the reason behind all this, the primary source of all this motivation, eagerness and devotion. The same motivation some “tennis expert” keep questioning all the time (as a matter of fact, I thought of titling this paragraph “Pride and Prejudice”, but then I decided that U2 were far more appropriate…plus, probably Jane Austen wouldn’t have approved to be linked to such “writers” and “journalists”). However, who cares about them? Roger Federer has showed, once again, that no one plays tennis better than him, and no one loves the sport more than him.

2) I have to play aggressive, no?

Yes, I am quoting a Rafa catchline, but only because it fits pretty well to describe what happened with Roger’s game in the last six months.

In the past few years, one of the most recurring topic in tennis world was Federer’s aggression on court and – let’s say it – the issue was often approached rather superficially: every now and then, everyone liked to drop sentences like “Federer should be more aggressive”, “he should come to the net more”, like it was some sort of magical solution to every problem. Truth is that things are a lot more complicated than that. In contemporary tennis, aggression is often a dangerous path. It must be a very “well thinked” and “reasonable” aggression, otherwise it can turn into humiliation. Federer’s possibility and capacity of aggression depend first of all on his physical condition and, mentally, from his confidence in his game. For long periods, both of those were just gone, together with Roger’s ability to take the ball early, which is the core of aggression in his game. In the second part of 2010, he rebuilt this type of play, grounding it on those elements and changing many things, especially on the two strokes that start the point: the serve (see point 5 of this list) and the return (raise your hand if you’re loving the aggressive backhand return finally hit with topspin! *raises her hand*).

Obviously, we can’t really say what’s the actual part of Paul Annacone in all this process, but I’ll just say I’m happy he is there.

3) Sunday the 7^th of November, 2010

It was a day just like any other, then this happened:

(so much for not caring about the non-Slam tournaments)

and this, too:

Federfans all over the world were holding back tears.

4) Backhand lovefests

The two most important victories of 2010 have something in common: they both featured an incredible display of perfect backhands. In the last acts of the Australian Open and of the WTF, Federer faced Murray and Nadal: the two players who, among all the ATP pros, can trouble him more on the left diagonal. But not this time. In both matches, Roger’s backhand was rock solid, and not only he didn’t get in trouble when the rallies were mainly on that side of the court, but – on the contrary – he often turned the situation to his advantage.

In Australia, he outplayed Murray at the Scot’s favourite game, the tactics. I lost count of how many times he executed flawlessly the “crosscourt backhand followed by a down-the-line backhand” combination (minute 1:35)

In London, Federer’s usual struggles with his one-handed bh on Nadal supervamostopspin forehands looked like a vague memory, when we saw him jumping on those kind of balls and hitting shots like this.


5) Saint Serve

Everyone knows how important is it for Federer (and how it will get more and more important with the years) to hold his serve easily e to get some “free” points directly with this shot. Conscious of this, and finally free from the back problems of the last couple of years, Roger worked a lot on his serve: he modified a bit his movement, he took more risks with his second serve and he improved his wide serve from the deuce court, which was absolutely lethal during the indoor season.

When he serves that well, the world suddenly seems a better place.

6) Pink, it was love at first sight

In a year during which we witnessed every kind of fashion horrors (Nadal and Venus, plus the “usual suspects” Stepanek and Rezai, just to name a few), one can only appreciate Nike’s efforts to try something new and more original, though still classic, for Roger. Personally, I loved all of them: the pink, the lilac and the orange. Judging by the previews of the AO outfit, it looks like we will get more of these in 2011.

7) Hit 4 Haiti (not the awkward one)

In many ways, it was the best promotional image for tennis: the best players all on one court, being silly and not taking themselves seriously + charity + a great crowd. It was good fun to watch. Oh, did I mention that the whole thing was born from an idea of Roger “the great humanitarian” Federer? Pity that in Indian Wells things didn’t turn out as pretty as in Australia.

Now, happy after recalling all the nice memories, let’s go down the “scary” part. I’m sorry, but we have to do it, we have to exorcise these demons and…oh, whatever, I just need to rant about a few things and take them out of my system!

1) Just win this ONE f***ing point!

Roger, I love you, but FOUR matches in a year lost after having match point? Seriously? I would even quote JMac and his famous “you cannot be serious”, if it wasn’t the most overused line in tennis.

I’ll just say three words: MAKE. IT. STOP. *evil glare* And when I say evil glare I mean Maria Sharapova-like evil glare. (btw, I have no idea of who made this gif, but full credit to him/her, and thanks! It's awesome!).

2) Forehand dropshot

Maybe it’s just me, but several times during this year I found myself shouting at the TV because of this new mania of Roger: when he has a nice and “easy” ball in his half court, which is just waiting for him to hammer it with his “kaboom” forehand (usually down the line) from that position, he chooses instead to use some sort of forehand dropshot. Although I was delighted when in 2009 Roger finally discovered the existence of the dropshot, well…I would appreciate a more – let’s say – sparing use of this particular kind of it.

Probably I was not very clear, so here there are a few exhibits of what I’m talking about
A) beginning of the year (jump to minute 4:02). Yes, it was a fraking Grand Slam C’ship point.
B) half way trough the year (minute 8:30) 
C) final part of the year (minute 13:30). I love the commentator’s reaction, by the way. I’m sure a very similar sound came out of my mouth, too. (Together with a lot of swear words, of course.)

3) And the Award goes to…

Ok, maybe this one is not really about Federer, but rather about WHO won the award in his place.

I’m talking about the Stefan Edberg Sportmanship Award. ‘Nuff said.

4) Trophy lifting

No, I’m not talking about this year’s ratio between finals played and victories (although that might have deserved a place in this list too), but about Roger’s actual technique in lifting trophies. One thinks that, after having done it 66 times, he should be pretty good at it, but already since last year I noticed some flaws in this particular art:

I thought maybe it was just because it was a first time with that particular trophy, but then it happened again this year:

(lifting the trophy and the koala at the same time??? LOL!)

(take it from the bottom, Roger, from the bottom!).

Let’s hope next year he will have a lot more occasions to improve his technique.

5) Don’t win the game don’t win the game…Alejandro…

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe: attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, ALEJANDRO FALLA SERVING FOR THE MATCH AGAINST FEDERER IN WIMBLEDON.

Geez, that was creepy and disturbing and shocking and heart-stopping (not in a pleasant way), beyond any imagination. Months later, thinking back to that match you can still feel that kind of “end of the world” feeling.

6) Breathe in breathe out.

This is what I often keep telling to myself during particularly tense moments of a match, but in this case I’m referring to Federer’s lung infection in February. Obviously that wasn’t the only reason of his poor performances in the spring, but it surely affected him, messing up with his preparation and stopping him from carrying on the momentum from the Australian Open.

The mono in 2008, the back problems in 2009 and this in 2010: it looks like that period of the year has become pretty unlucky for Roger. When February 2011 comes, please cross your fingers and say your prayers.

7) Ahahahahahahahahah, with Montanes? Really? Ahahahahahahah, funny....NOT.

Seriously, that was painful to watch, even if it was just a 250 event.  

HAPPY 2011 TO EVERYONE!!!