Federer Plays On... and On...
Given his back pain at the ATP Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai last week it would seem that playing more tennis this week would be the last thing on Roger Federer’s agenda. Nonetheless, Federer honored a commitment he made to play in exhibition matches in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Macao this week. Despite feeling as if “he could sleep for a month,” Federer still fulfilled his responsibilities in the first exhibition match in Malaysia where he beat James Blake in a tie-breaker and then teamed with Bjorn Borg and lost to Blake and John McEnroe. Not surprisingly, Federer has already said that he plans to trim
his exhibition schedule in 2009 to allow for more breaks although he has agreed to start the year at a new winner take all tennis exhibition in Abu Dhabi starting January 1, 2009. It was also recently announced that four top women, i.e. Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, will compete in March, 2009, for the Billie Jean King Cup at Madison Square Garden. In March, 2008, Federer played Pete Sampras in an exhibition at MSG which signaled the return of top-flight tennis to “the Garden.” Federer certainly pocketed a LOT of “spare change” for his recent Asian exhibition efforts, but one would have to think that given how much Federer earns these days through endorsements and prize money each year that he doesn’t need the (extra) money. A little extra sleep can go a long way towards recharging the body’s batteries… especially if one is pursuing Pete Sampras’ Grand Slam singles record of 14 titles…
|
