man love

frodo and sam, move aside! you've been upstaged big time by these two!

front backwards

roger raises the wimbledon trophy for the fifth time, facing photographershowever, something is not quite "right" in this photo... can you tell me what it is? i await your astute observations...

5 & 4

young uns, wait another year, 2007 isn't auspicious enough for your break through. this year it is all about multiple slam winners, only in their mid twenties, to take the headlines at wimbledon.

roger: fifth straight (2003-2007), tying borg's impressive feat (1976-1980). 9th grand slam final appearance in a row since the US open 2005, winner in 8 (i will give you one guess for that elusive grand slam he will never win hahaha). total: 11 grand slam titles. and he's only 25. if he wins the US open this fall, it will be his fourth consecutive year of winning the wimbledon and the USO back to back. beat a 21-yr old spanish prince from mallorca.

venus: fourth wimbledon title. lowest seed to ever win it. and she's only 27. beat a 22-year old country lass from france.

goose pimple murray

what a fabulous wimbledon men's final. this, of course, followed a fantastic women's final between the two lowest seeded players to ever contest the prize (venus williams, ranked 31 in the world, was seeded 23rd at the championships and marion bartoli, ranked 20 in the world, was seeded 18th).

as if anything could top that on the emotional richter scale. of course intercourse, as chuchi would say.

the coup de grace, icing on an already wonderful cake, was jamie murray and jelena jankovic coming from nowhere to win the mixed doubles crown in dramatic style: with a deciding third set. i would give more credit to how jelena handled the back court and troubled opponents with her sizzling returns, especially off her forehand wing. but stretch murray was just as fabulous with his lightning quick reflex volleys at the net, and this surefire combination won them their first wimbledon title.

so why my rippled skin and heaving emotions? because while the press were bent all over themselves focussing on andy murray to buoy british hopes in their home slam, it was the dimpled, shyer, overshadowed older brother who would do britain proud by hoisting aloft the mixed doubles trophy. never mind that he got bonked on the cheek by jelena's trophy while they posed for photographs, the fact is he, by dint of being british (scottish would be more the thing i believe), gave wimbledon a touch of being owned by them brits.

why am i mum about the men's final? am currently in grief over how rafa came so close to winning. as roddick said in his presser, "i can't begin to explain to you how it feels in the pit of my stomach." i can't say more on this except kudos to roger federer for a well-played final. he is truly one of the greats in tennis, now that he has equalled the legendary borg's five consecutive wimbledon titles. can he do a sampras and gun for titles six and seven? i would like to think that rafa, novak, richard, marcos, and yes, andy, will be looming large next year, definitely standing in his way down that path.

for now, wimbledon has come to an end and i hope my feverish excitement of the past two weeks will melt into tiny rivulets of productivity of the mundane kind. as sue barker says at bbc, "until next year, bye bye."

nike & adidas @ wimby

the things i notice, sometimes even i shake my head at myself.in the wimbledon men's quarterfinals, i saw the cutest things (and this apart from the delicious men just showing off their booty on court 1 and centre court):

• marcos vs djoko: adidas boys battling it out in the same style of shirt. the only difference was that novak had HYPO sewed onto his shirt sleeve. this is the credit card line he endorses in serbia. how did i know? i saw the ad on you tube! LOL

• rafa vs tomas: nike boys! the swishes were in complete harmony, from their cap (berdych)/headband (rafa) down to their shirts (both boys had similar designs; only difference was that rafa had a cut-off sleeves to tomas' regular tee), shorts/piratas (guess who wore what?), wrist bands, socks, and shoes! pretty cool sight to behold.

personally, i enjoyed looking at marcos and novak more than i did rafa and tomas. you could say that the marcos-novak match was more explosive and dramatic than the straightforward affair between tomas and rafa. or we could uphold the truth, which is that there the HOTTness factor was simply higher in court 1 (marcos' winsome smile and novak's simply drool-inducing bod) than on centre (rafa's bulging everything versus tomas' sullen leanness).


but like i said in my previous entry, the men's final belongs to nike, as roger and rafa are nike boys through and through. vamos rafael!

happening london

apart from today being the birthday of my best buddy in high school (happy happy to you bee bear!), london has got to be the place to be if you're a sports addict like me. check these out:
tour de france: kicks off this year in the millenium wheel city.

british grand prix: with lewis hamilton, the local wunderkind of formula 1 racing circa 2007 in pole position, it will either be the day he stamps with authority his commanding lead in the driver's championship standings, further boost mclaren's constructor points, and rub it hard in alonso's face that perhaps HE (hamilton) should be the first driver OR kimi raikkonen and felipe massa of ferrari do a tag team act and steal the thunder from lewis in his home grand prix to make the ferrari-mclaren rivalry even more exciting. you all know i'm rooting for kimi, no? yes! but if lewis gets this one, well-deserved and simply capital.

wimbledon: save the best for last. The greatest tennis player of all time will be gunning for his fifth consecutive wimbledon singles title in the presence of the august bjorn borg (who is back at wimbledon after sooo many years of not being around) OR the king of clay for the past three years will attempt to become the first man since the august bjorn borg to win the french open and wimbledon titles back to back. either way, today is going to be a historic day, and i am about to pee in my pants at the prospect. come on my rafa boy, give it to roger and make a dang go of the title! can you smell it? i would love to see you at that champion's ball, dancing with venus. just this one time around! then come 2008, you have just got to give the french open to roger, then we'll all be happy, no?

i'm faint with excitement... nike has scored another coup in the finals! :)