06-10-2006, 10:43 PM
Konnichiwa
Last night we went to dinner at a nice French restaurant in the hotel, but I only had a little white wine, no Sake. Mirka and I had the tasting menu which was excellent, it was good to change the food up a little bit, but I am definitely going Japanese again tonight.
As many of you know, in Japan they call their currency YEN. Maybe I was a bit tired last night but when the waiter brought the check after dinner and it said 17,000 I freaked for a second. I thought how was it possible that my dinner cost $17,000....did I order the most expensive glass of wine in the world? Did I eat some rare delicacy in the tasting menu? Then I realized the price was in Yen and I relaxed.
I had to get up early again this morning as I was scheduled third match from 9am. Many of you might know that I am not an early riser. If I had my way, I could definitely sleep all day.
Because of the rain yesterday the tournament had to move some matches to this morning, which meant that play started at 9am. Last night the last match finished at 3.24am, which is an all-time record for lateness for a singles match, and to be honest I was very happy to be into my third hour of sleep at that point.
We left the hotel and drove over to the tennis centre in pouring rain and strong winds because we have this typhoon hanging over Tokyo at the moment. So there was obviously no chance to play outside, which meant that there was no chance to warm up on the outside courts, this makes it a bit tricky to prepare for a match. That's why we had a longer warm up before the game today, normally we get five minutes to warm-up, but today we had 10 minutes which we both agreed on before the match started.
The match itself was played at a very high-standard, the serving from both sides I thought was amazing. I think I got a little bit lucky in the second set to get the break to take it 7-5 and then take it to the third. Having to play a tie-break in the final set was an obvious result because of our great serving [and poor returning
].
Every day it seems to get more special playing inside the Ariake Colosseum. It was more obvious playing today against a Japanese player but the fans remained very fair, which I always think is great and I am looking forward to tomorrow's match after today's hard fought battle.
Thanks to everyone for being worried about my leg. It's still swollen and there is a little cut, but you know tough guys don't cry. Yesterday I told you I thought I had the dream because of the Sake bomber, but I seriously doubt it was the Sake bomber, I am pretty sure now after reconsidering that it was because of Mirka keeping me on my toes trying to seek her revenge on Captain Wasabi. I have heard rumblings of many players (and fans) giving Mirka ideas of how to pay me back. I realize that no matter what happens in the remaining matches, I will be leaving Japan soon, so Captain Wasabi has put his defences on high alert and I will now pay more attention to what I eat. One of the fans tipped me off that perhaps she was going to try and mix a lot of wasabi into a scoop of green tea ice cream...I will now make her taste it first if we order it for dessert.
Apparently there was a famous Japanese samurai called Benke who killed a lot of warriors during his battles. They say that his downfall was a weakness in his shin. Hopefully, my shin will continue to get better and not pose a problem for the remainder of the event. Since I have been in Tokyo, I have been looking to buy a rare Samurai sword to take home with me as I really think they are cool and I have always been intrigued by the Samurais. But I don't think that they will let me carry it on to the plane. Actually I am not even sure they will let me through customs with it so I will probably wait until another trip.
Today I scared Sanji Arisawa, the tournament director, for the second time. Not only did I win 7-6 in the third in almost losing to Suzuki, after my match while I was getting stretched in the training room, Sanji came in and just as he walked in, I yelled out "ouch my back" and he said "good try you cant scare me twice in one day".
As you probably noticed, I am playing again with a collared-shirt, which I am happy about, as it's nice to change it up once in a while. I had been wearing t-shirts for some time but now but both Nike and I thought we should change it up a bit. I have had many fans write me about a t-shirt I wore during practice the other day. It was blue t-shirt Nike made for the US Open and they borrowed the theme of James Bond and instead of the "Man with the Golden Gun", they wrote that "Roger Federer is the Man with the Golden Racquet." You can see my shadow and the text in the shirt. Nike made it in different colours and I think it looks really great. I have always been a James Bond junkie....tell me how cool that guy is????
I am very psyched as next Friday I will be flying to Barcelona before the Madrid tournament to film a Nike commercial. Like a true James Bond mission, I can't tell you the theme of the commercial as it is top secret, but it will feature a few Nike athletes in a campaign that will be exclusive to the Asia-Pacific region, so all my fans in Japan and throughout Asia should get a chance to see it at the beginning of 2007.
Tomorrow I am playing my semi-final and I will write again after my match.
Sayonara
RF
Last night we went to dinner at a nice French restaurant in the hotel, but I only had a little white wine, no Sake. Mirka and I had the tasting menu which was excellent, it was good to change the food up a little bit, but I am definitely going Japanese again tonight.
As many of you know, in Japan they call their currency YEN. Maybe I was a bit tired last night but when the waiter brought the check after dinner and it said 17,000 I freaked for a second. I thought how was it possible that my dinner cost $17,000....did I order the most expensive glass of wine in the world? Did I eat some rare delicacy in the tasting menu? Then I realized the price was in Yen and I relaxed.
I had to get up early again this morning as I was scheduled third match from 9am. Many of you might know that I am not an early riser. If I had my way, I could definitely sleep all day.
Because of the rain yesterday the tournament had to move some matches to this morning, which meant that play started at 9am. Last night the last match finished at 3.24am, which is an all-time record for lateness for a singles match, and to be honest I was very happy to be into my third hour of sleep at that point.
We left the hotel and drove over to the tennis centre in pouring rain and strong winds because we have this typhoon hanging over Tokyo at the moment. So there was obviously no chance to play outside, which meant that there was no chance to warm up on the outside courts, this makes it a bit tricky to prepare for a match. That's why we had a longer warm up before the game today, normally we get five minutes to warm-up, but today we had 10 minutes which we both agreed on before the match started.
The match itself was played at a very high-standard, the serving from both sides I thought was amazing. I think I got a little bit lucky in the second set to get the break to take it 7-5 and then take it to the third. Having to play a tie-break in the final set was an obvious result because of our great serving [and poor returning
].Every day it seems to get more special playing inside the Ariake Colosseum. It was more obvious playing today against a Japanese player but the fans remained very fair, which I always think is great and I am looking forward to tomorrow's match after today's hard fought battle.
Thanks to everyone for being worried about my leg. It's still swollen and there is a little cut, but you know tough guys don't cry. Yesterday I told you I thought I had the dream because of the Sake bomber, but I seriously doubt it was the Sake bomber, I am pretty sure now after reconsidering that it was because of Mirka keeping me on my toes trying to seek her revenge on Captain Wasabi. I have heard rumblings of many players (and fans) giving Mirka ideas of how to pay me back. I realize that no matter what happens in the remaining matches, I will be leaving Japan soon, so Captain Wasabi has put his defences on high alert and I will now pay more attention to what I eat. One of the fans tipped me off that perhaps she was going to try and mix a lot of wasabi into a scoop of green tea ice cream...I will now make her taste it first if we order it for dessert.
Apparently there was a famous Japanese samurai called Benke who killed a lot of warriors during his battles. They say that his downfall was a weakness in his shin. Hopefully, my shin will continue to get better and not pose a problem for the remainder of the event. Since I have been in Tokyo, I have been looking to buy a rare Samurai sword to take home with me as I really think they are cool and I have always been intrigued by the Samurais. But I don't think that they will let me carry it on to the plane. Actually I am not even sure they will let me through customs with it so I will probably wait until another trip.
Today I scared Sanji Arisawa, the tournament director, for the second time. Not only did I win 7-6 in the third in almost losing to Suzuki, after my match while I was getting stretched in the training room, Sanji came in and just as he walked in, I yelled out "ouch my back" and he said "good try you cant scare me twice in one day".
As you probably noticed, I am playing again with a collared-shirt, which I am happy about, as it's nice to change it up once in a while. I had been wearing t-shirts for some time but now but both Nike and I thought we should change it up a bit. I have had many fans write me about a t-shirt I wore during practice the other day. It was blue t-shirt Nike made for the US Open and they borrowed the theme of James Bond and instead of the "Man with the Golden Gun", they wrote that "Roger Federer is the Man with the Golden Racquet." You can see my shadow and the text in the shirt. Nike made it in different colours and I think it looks really great. I have always been a James Bond junkie....tell me how cool that guy is????
I am very psyched as next Friday I will be flying to Barcelona before the Madrid tournament to film a Nike commercial. Like a true James Bond mission, I can't tell you the theme of the commercial as it is top secret, but it will feature a few Nike athletes in a campaign that will be exclusive to the Asia-Pacific region, so all my fans in Japan and throughout Asia should get a chance to see it at the beginning of 2007.
Tomorrow I am playing my semi-final and I will write again after my match.
Sayonara
RF
"Hij heeft misschien nog weinig tegenstand, maar dat is wat anders. En ook niet waar trouwens".
Mooi van Isner, maar nu wel erg jammer dat Russell niet mee doet. Maar wel gunstig voor Querrey. Jammer dat Anderson niet doordrukte, maar dat kan Zeballos mooi doen.
Stunt Wawrinka zou leuk zijn, maar niet als ie vervolgens verliest van Djokovic. Maar als die dan weer verliest van Berdych, maakt het niet uit. Dus vannacht is inderdaad cruciaal.
Mooi van Isner, maar nu wel erg jammer dat Russell niet mee doet. Maar wel gunstig voor Querrey. Jammer dat Anderson niet doordrukte, maar dat kan Zeballos mooi doen.
Stunt Wawrinka zou leuk zijn, maar niet als ie vervolgens verliest van Djokovic. Maar als die dan weer verliest van Berdych, maakt het niet uit. Dus vannacht is inderdaad cruciaal.