Recently retired Roger Federer had a quality possessed by the 17th century Cavalier poets.
Tag Archives: Rafael Nadal
What Made Roger Federer Special
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Adam's Curse", "Requiem for Sonora", "Song", "To Lucasta Going to War", If, John Suckling, Mark Kingwell, Peter Bodo, Richard Lovelace, Richard Shelton, Roger Federer, Rudyard Kipling, sprezzatura, To Althea from Prison, W. B. Yeats Comments closed
One Equal Temper of Heroic Hearts
Federer and Nadal resumed their legendary rivalry in the Australian Open finals and played a match for the ages. They are both old in tennis terms and by all rights should have been surpassed by the next generation. Therefore Tennyson’s “Ulysses” seems the proper poem to acknowledge them.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alfred Lord Tennyson, Australian Open, Roger Federer, Sports, tennis, Ulysses Comments closed
Fed’s Little Cat Feet, Rafa’s Bullish Force
The Federer and Nadal era may be over. Here they are described in Flaubert, James Patterson, and Carl Sandburg terms.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Fog", Carl Sandburg, Gustave Flaubert, James Patterson, Madame Bovary, Roger Federer, Sports, tennis Comments closed
Portal Fantasies – Nadal Loses, Italy Wins
Judging by the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision and the defeats of Rafael Nadal and the German soccer team, the world passed through a strange portal this past Thursday.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 1Q84, Alices through the Looking-Glass, English Soccer, German Soccer, Haruki Murakami, Importance of Being Earnest, Italian Soccer, Jud, Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde, Roger Fedderer, Sports Comments closed
Fed, Rafa, Djoker–A Sibling Drama
Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic are like the brothers in a Dostoevsky novel or a Grimm Brothers fairy tale: the two older brothers focus on each other and then the unassuming younger brother comes in and takes over.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Grimm Brothers, Invisible Man, Novak Djokovic, Ralph Ellison, Roger Federer, Sports, tennis Comments closed
Spain’s Tiger Burning Less Bright
Did the god that made the elegant strokes of Roger Federer also make the bruising style of Nadal? Like William Blake gazing at the lamb and the tiger in “Tyger, Tyger,” we can only shake our heads bemused.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Tyger, Homer, Novak Djokovic, Odyssey, Sports, tennis, William Blake, Wimbledon Comments closed
The Prizefighter vs. the Yokel
Sports Saturday So my tennis idol, Roger Federer, is out of the French Open. Before the semi-finals. Federer’s astounding streak of 23 straight appearances in Grand Slam semi-final matches is one of the great streaks in sports and will never be approached. (To get a sense of its magnitude, consider that Rod Laver and Ivan […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison, Roger Federer, Sports, tennis Comments closed
