Thursday, November 22, 2007 So: ‘Federer Forever’ By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
I DON'T play tennis but I watch the semis and the finals of the grand slams on ESPN or Star Sports. I stay up for those matches and call friends who play tennis at 1:30 a.m. to shriek in their ears.
But tonight, I am going to watch a tennis match in a stadium. It’s just an exhibition game between the greatest tennis players the world has produced: Roger Federer and Pete Sampras.
The KL match is the second of three Asian exhibition matches between Federer and Sampras. Federer beat Sampras, 6-4, 6-3, in a little over an hour in Seoul last Tuesday. I am crossing my fingers it will be a repeat outcome tonight in Kuala Lumpur and again in Macau on Saturday. I didn’t come to KL to see Federer lose to Sampras.
I have prepared for this trip of singular purpose. I bought the game tickets online on Oct. 3 and used my bonus to buy the plane tickets. My companion to this madcap trip, Chinggay Utzurrum, took care of our hotel stay. Had she left it to me, I would have had us pitching a tent outside the Melawati stadium.
Federer would have been billeted in our hotel but Shangri-La was fully booked for the entire of this week. When we learned of this, Chinggay and I almost choked on our lunch food. In the plane, we were talking about the probability of Federer staying in Shangri-La. Well, he almost stayed here. Just the same, Chinggay and I have been keeping our eyes peeled in case Federer would be in the Shangri-La lobby.
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel has offered Federer free accommodation, we were told. The Ritz is not far from our hotel. I get the feeling that Chinggay is going to sneak out of our hotel room in the middle of the night and hang around the Ritz.
John Pages, a Sun.Star Cebu sports columnist who’s also here in Kuala Lumpur with his wife and friends for the same reason Chinggay and I are here, told me that he got a last-minute invitation to join Federer’s group for cocktails at Starhill Gallery. He said apologetically that he couldn’t bring anyone else. He had saved himself from the problem of who to bring with him, me or Chinggay, if Jasmin wasn’t going.
Cocktails with Federer proved to be expensive for John. He had to buy a pair of presentable leather shoes and a shirt for the occasion. Had I been invited to the cocktails, I would have panicked over what to wear and would have ended up buying a batik sarong and uttering, “Selamat datang, Roger” at every chance I was near him. Love strikes us dumb sometimes.
But tonight, there’ll be no need for words. My love for this tennis great will overflow and he will know it from the banner Chinggay and I will be waving from our seats. If he looks up to the west zone of the stadium, he won’t miss the 2”x5” banner. Designed by Greg Fernandez, it has his picture, the Swiss flag and the simple text of “Federer Forever.”
A little problem: If Federer autographs the banner, who gets to keep it? Chinggay and I have avoided the question so far.
A Malaysian, when he knew that I work for a newspaper and was here for the match, asked if I cover the tennis circuit and how many times have I covered Federer matches. I said, “Only this.”
P.S. I tried several times to write about a political commentary, about Lando and his swimming techniques, about what’s happening in other parts of the country, but I couldn’t. All I’ve been thinking about is Federer. And the guy doesn’t even know me.
