Sports Stars Congratulate Federer on his Record 15 Grand Slam Titles

Immediately after Roger Federer won his record-setting 15th grand slam title at Wimbledon 2009, this amusing Nike commercial ran congratulating him. It features John McEnroe, Serena Williams, Michael Jordan, Pete Sampras, and Tiger Woods.

 

Sorry for the TiVo bloops at the beginning. This is my second YouTube video. I don’t know how to edit videos yet.

Can someone point me to a free video editor that is easy to use and works with Windows 7?

Federer Wins Wimbledon 2009 – Sets All-Time Grand Slam Record

feder holding trophy - wimbledon 2009 In another terrific Wimbledon final, Roger Federer defeated the terrific Andy Roddick (7-5, 6-7, 6-7, 6-3, 14-16) making him the undisputed best tennis player of all time. With 15 slam titles he passed Pete Sampras’ 14 and stands alone. With his French Open victory a few weeks ago, he has won all four grand slams. 

(click images for larger views)

See also: Brooklyn Decker Cheers for Andy Roddick at Wimbledon 2009

wimbledon 2009 - sampras watches federer and roddick in final Sampras travelled to London (his first time back since winning in 2002) to attend the final match where his record 14 grand slam title record was  surpassed. It’s too bad they didn’t have Pete hand the trophy to Roger.

roger federer and andy roddick accept trophy and plate - wimbledon 2009 Nobody could be certain that Roger would win, however. Following on from a fantastic semi-final win over Andy Murray, Andy Roddick played a beautiful final match – perhaps the best of his career.

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Brooklyn Decker Cheers for Andy Roddick at Wimbledon 2009

brooklyn decker 2 - watching andy roddick - wimbledon 2009Since my post about Brooklyn Decker being engaged to Andy Roddick drew such a huge number of visitors to The Daleisphere, I snapped these pictures of Brooklyn cheering her new husband, Andy Roddick, on at Wimbledon 2009.

As always, click the images for larger views.

 

Brooklyn During Semi Final Against Andy Murray

brooklyn decker 4 - watching andy roddick - fixing hair 2 - wimbledon 2009 brooklyn decker 1 - watching andy roddick - wimbledon 2009 brooklyn decker 3 - watching andy roddick - fixing hair 1 - wimbledon 2009 

 

Andy Relieved After Tough Set in Andy Murray Semi Final

andy roddick relieved after tough andy murray semi-final set 2   andy roddick relieved after tough andy murray semi-final set 1

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Wimbledon Roof Closes for First Time During Match

 

On Monday June 29, 2009, during a fourth-round match between Amelie Mauresmo and Dinara Safina, at 6-4, 1-4. the new Wimbledon Centre Court roof was closed for the first time during a match. (Safina won) The subsequent match between Andy Murray and Stanislas Wawrinka was the first full Wimbledon match to be played under the new roof (Murray won).

The video above was shot by me off broadcast TV while I watched the match.

Click the roof-closing images below for larger views.

wimbledon 2009 - closing centre court roof - first time 1 - pulling tarp over court wimbledon 2009 - closing centre court roof - first time 2 - tarp across and ready to close the roof

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Wimbledon 2009 Live Streaming – Bootleg Version

wimbledon live logo Last year (see my 2008 post), both live and downloadable versions of most Wimbledon matches were available to all over the Internet through the Wimbledon Live service for a flat fee of $24.99.

Unfortunately, Wimbledon’s 2009 licensing regime makes it so that honest viewers from many countries, including Canada and the U.S. (see complete list below) can no longer access the service for any fee.

Amercian’s can watch online through NBCSports or ESPN360.com. Unfortunately NBCSports must be using the same proxy-shield blocking technology as hulu because Hotspot Shield users can’t access the site outside of the U.S.

Below, I include links to several bootleg services offering 2009 Wimbledon matches live streamed. Some are fantastic. Some less so. When I clicked around I could usually find the match I wanted to watch in English.

Of course, these only work when Wimbledon matches are underway. To schedule your viewing, the play schedule is here.

Channelsurfing.net

channelsurfing.net bootleg wimbledon live streamingAs far as I know there is no legal way for me to watch streamed Wimbledon matches in Canada. Fortunately there is at least one bootleg service available where Canadians, and anyone else, can view live matches – Channelsurfing.net.

Once on Channelsurfing.net scroll down to the Wimbledon logos and click on one of the several available streams – available in different languages. As I’m watching now (June 24, 2009 at 3:00 pm Eastern) there are 7 available live streams. I am watching the ESPN stream on both my iMac and PC and both are working fine.  [Update: The ESPN stream cut out midway through a Roddick match and hasn’t returned as 11:30.am Eastern June 25]

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Wimbledon 2008 – Nadal and Venus Win Championship

2008 Wimbldeon - Rafael Nadal Bites the Men's Singles Trophy

Official Wimbledon Site | Men’s Draw | Ladies’ Draw | wikipedia icon
Wow! John McEnroe opined that the 2008 Wimbledon men’s final was the best match he’d ever seen. At 4 hours and 48 minutes it was certainly the longest (the previous record was the 1982 Connors v. McEnroe final at 4 hours, 16 minutes). I loved it, stomach twisting and turning all the way.

2008 Wimbldeon - Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer Hold TrophiesIn the end Rafael Nadal won the a gut-wrenching five set  6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7 match that spanned two rain delays and threatened to go into Monday. Nadal had two championship points in the 3rd and 4th sets that Roger Federer managed to stave off. But Nadal was just too good. As hard as it is for me to say it, Nadal deserved that win. Point for point he chased down everything Federer threw at him.

2008 Wimbldeon - Rafael Nadal Collapses after winning men's singles championship
(Nadal collapses after his hard-fought win)

2008 Wimbldeon - Rafael Nadal Hugs the Men's Singles Trophy   2008 Wimbldeon - Federer Contemplates Loss to Rafael Nadal 
(Nadal hugs trophy – Federer contemplates defeat)

Continue reading “Wimbledon 2008 – Nadal and Venus Win Championship”

Roger Federer’s Designer Tennis Shoes

Since I wrote about Rafael Nadal’s designer tennis shoes at the 2008 French Open, it is only fitting to post pictures the designer shoes worn by Federer at Wimbledon 2008.

2008 Wimbldeon - Roger Federer's Left Designer Tennis Shoe 2008 Wimbldeon - Roger Federer's Right Designer Tennis Shoe

As you can see, he wear’s custom Nike, Zoom Air, Fit Frame tennis shoes. On the left heal, his RF trademark is displayed. On the right heal, the Wimbledon gold trophy is emblazoned with the number 5 – signifying his 5 prior Wimbledon singles championships.

2008 Wimbldeon - Roger Federer's Designer Tennis Shoes (both)

[June 6, 2008 Update: Having lost to Nadal in the finals, it appears that the insignia on the right heal won’t be changing any time soon 🙁 ]

A Week of Wimbledon in HD

2008 Wimbldeon - in HD on NBC

Ah …. Finally …. Wimbledon in HD!

I’m happy to report that NBC lived up to its promise to provide high def coverage of Wimbledon for the first time this weekend. And, surprisingly, they’ll be broadcasting all of the second week at Wimbledon in HD too.

With the U.S. Feb 17, 2009 digital cut over deadline looming, my bet is that the 2009 Australian Open will be carried in HD too, making all four grand slams available in HD in North America for the first time.

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Wimbledon 2008 – First Week

2008 Wimbldeon - Two Wimbledon Fathers Shake Hands - Richard Williams and Mr. KeothavongOfficial Wimbledon Site | Men’s Draw | Ladies’ Draw | wikipedia icon
The first week of a grand slam usually offers terrific tennis. This week was no exception. There were some major upsets and terrific matches.  See my "Wimbledon 2008 Begins" post for my Monday observations.

There was a touching moment (depicted in the picture above – click for larger view) this week when Richard Williams went over and shook the hand of Mr. Keothavong after Richard’s daughter Venus beat his daughter Anne 7-6, 6-2 in the 2nd round. Mr. Keothavong was clearly impressed.

Tuesday – Davenport Injury

It was difficult to watch my all-time favourite woman’s player, Davenport’s,  struggle with an ‘aggravated’ knee (an MRI after the match revealed inflammation behind the knee cap – not a permanent injury). Davenport’s career is near and end. It was sad to see her bow out on Thursday. But in an interview on Thursday she said she’ll be ready for the Beijing Olympics in a few weeks.

Wednesday’s Matches

Two of Wednesday’s matches are prime examples of why watching early round grand slam matches can be so fulfilling:

  • Nathalie Dechy and Ana Ivanovic played three nail-biting sets. As much as I like Ivanovic I was cheering for Dechy all the way. What terrific play. But for an Ivanovic shot that barely dribbled over the net on match point in the 2nd, 97th ranked Dechy would have won the match against the current world’s number 1.  Below Ana is kissing the part of the net where the ball hit the net chord.

2008 Wimbldeon - Ivanovic kisses the net chord 1    2008 Wimbldeon - Ivanovic kisses the net chord   2008 Wimbldeon - Ivanovic kisses the net chord 2

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Wimbledon 2008 Begins

2008 Wimbldeon - Federer and Hrbaty share a laugh

Official Wimbledon Site | Wimbledon Live | Men’s Draw | Ladies’ Draw | wikipedia icon 

With the exception of Nalbandian (7), all the major seeds advanced to the second round including: Federer (1), Djokovic (3), Hewitt (20), Safin, Gonzalez (15), Baghdatis (10), Ivanovic (1), Kuznetsova (4),  S. Williams (6) and Mauresmo (20).

Tomorrow

Tomorrow we’ll see the first round matches of: Nadal (2), Davydenko (4), Roddick (6), Blake (9), Murray (12), Fish, Tipsarevic, Jankovic (2),  Sharapova (3), Dementieva (5), V. Williams (7), Safina (9) and, my favourite, Davenport (25).

The Canadians

Canadian Frank Dancevic made it through to the second round. Stephanie Dubois lost in the first. Aleksandra Wozniak plays her first match tomorrow.

Can Roger Win It?

Ever since Nadal wiped the floor with Federer in the French, the press has been a-buzz with talk about whether Roger can win Wimbledon again.  I say, of course he can. He’s won 5 straight Wimbledons. Why not another? Every great player goes through lean times. He had no problem knocking out his buddy Hrbaty in straight sets today. My money is still on Federer to take a 6th straight victory.

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Wimbledon Live – Stream or Download Wimbledon 2008 Matches

Wimbledon Live Streaming Demo - Federer v Roddick 2005

Wimbledon 2008 starts this Monday June 23 and runs to July 6.  I just discovered (ironically through an adsense ad on The Daleisphere) that Wimbledon provides a two week ‘Wimbledon Live‘ service where, for a flat fee of $24.99 (approx.  £12.65) you can stream live matches to your PC or download up to 250 matches in .wmv format after the match is complete.

2008 matches will be available until May 1, 2009. Day passes are will be available but so far I have not found pricing details.

As usual, my TiVos are queued to record as many matches as TSN and NBC air. But, all too often,  matches that I want to watch are not broadcast. Or, too frequently, certain channels have exclusive rights to particular high profile matches with the result that they are not shown on the channels that my cable provider, Rogers, makes available to me!

Formats and Quality

All video is in 384 x 288 format with a 4:3 aspect ratio.  I took a quick look at the free streaming demo of the 2005 Federer vs. Roddick Wimbledon Final.  The quality wasn’t great (see pic above) but it wasn’t bad either. Because the service works with Windows Media Player only, the service is not available to Apple users and, presumably, not available through AppleTV.

Note: In addition to the free streaming demo, I tried downloading the free downloadable version but it would not play without my having to first sign up and give them my credit card. This kind-of defeats the “free” part of the ‘Download (FREE)’ offer :).

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