The Rogers Cup

This past weekend in Toronto, marked the end of a surprising tennis tournament, where stars like Federer (in the drawing below on the left) and Djokovic, were ousted in the early rounds. Conveniently situated inbetween Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, The Rogers Cup allows Canadians to cheer on their favourite tennis players with tournaments happening in both Toronto and Montreal.


This year I was privileged to attend both the semi-finals and final matches of the men's tournament in Toronto.


The semi-finals match was definitely the most interesting. In previous years, Federer or Nadal were always in the semi's and the finals was the match worth catching. This year, however, the first semi-finals match was between Gilles Simon, a young Frenchman and Nicolas Kiefer, who at the age of 31 has been playing some incredible tennis. The two were well paired to play against each other and the 3.5 hour match couldn't have been any closer. After countless deuce points and tie-breakers, Kiefer ended up victorious, only to lose quickly to Nadal in the finals. No surprise there. Below are some pictures I took of Nadal serving. Check out his form; no wonder he has so much power!






Nadal also beat Murray in two sets in the second semi-final match on Saturday evening. Murray, was the young Brit who beat Djokovic earlier on in the tournament. He is definitely a star on the rise, as the calibre of play between Nadal and Murray was on a much higher level than that of Kiefer and Simon. It was highly entertaining to watch Kiefer and Simon battle it out as they resemble normal athletes. Watching Nadal play, on the other hand, is like watching a superhero trained in tennis. A superhero, however, would not be caught picking his ass before every serve, which Nadal tends to do as the Nike shpants he is paid to wear are pretty tight in the butt.


Nike - please make pants for Nadal that are looser in the butt and more condusive to playing tennis in front of millions of spectators.