The Matrix Unbound
Edsa, Makati, Thursday afternoon.
NYT foreign editor Roger Cohen succumbs to Federer love.
People develop Federer obsessions the way teenagers have crushes. They can’t get the guy out of their heads. The late novelist David Foster Wallace, a devotee, said of one Federer forehand against Andre Agassi that, “It was impossible. It was like something out of ‘The Matrix.’â€
I think that gets us close to the heart of the matter. Let me put this bluntly: Is Roger Federer part of a Matrix-like artificial reality or is he flesh and blood?
During the final, I couldn’t help focusing on three things. The first was the button on Federer’s Nike shirt. Through more than four hours of punishing tennis, sun-baked by British standards, it remained buttoned up. I mean, come on!
Think back to the upstart Andy Murray, the latest Brit who couldn’t quite, in his losing semifinal to Roddick. The Murray shirt was unbuttoned, of course, and somewhat disheveled, like his game on the day, and there was absolutely no question about the young man’s appurtenance to the human race, a rather surly branch of it at that.
The second was the absence from Federer’s face of even a bead of sweat as droplets poured from Roddick’s forehead and slid from the underside of his endlessly adjusted cap — further evidence for The Matrix theory.
The third was the fact that Federer wore a belt — a belt — in his stylish shorts, as if he was ambling through a Calvin Klein ad rather than serving 50 nonchalant aces and putting on a record-breaking athletic display. . .
Roger’s 14th at the French. A clever man knows that if he’s hoisting a very big trophy he can wear his most torn-up jeans.
As longtime obsessions go, this is our least disappointing. Now For The Gloating, in Emotional Weather Report, today in the Star.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
July 10th, 2009 at 09:03
i thought this was about shawn marion’s move to dallas, lol.
July 10th, 2009 at 12:31
Oh he’s human alright. Saw him cry like a baby back in Melbourne when he lost out to Nadal.
July 10th, 2009 at 15:44
While reading your column, I couldn’t help but feel a lump in my throat forming. For true Federer fans, the past year was a very challenging year– to say the least. Just thinking about Roger’s crushing defeat and break down at the Australian Open breaks my heart even now. But like a really good hero movie, there’s that one defeat that’ll drive the bida to win.
Thank you for just putting it out there for all them critics and doubters to read. There’s a part of me that wants to grab every single one of them by the collar and ask: “Ano ulit sinabi mo?! Di na mananalo?? Ano ka ngayon?!” Then I realized your article pretty much have the same effect–magandang ingles lang nga.
To all those who doubted : gggrrrrrrrrrrrr.
July 10th, 2009 at 19:42
of course federer is like neo (keanue reeves.) notice he has no pores and has great hair.
July 15th, 2009 at 14:58
I love this guy and I love his games – win or lose. He is just his best element. Always!