Federer and Nadal Broke My Heart

Rafael Nadal did it again. He dethroned Roger Federer once again, this time in the Australian Open last weekend. I cringe whenever I recall the match. Federer made a lot of mistakes and they contributed a lot to Nadal's victory. On the last set, with Nadal leading at 5-2, I was seriously hoping that Federer would turn the tables and catch up to become the champion. But alas, Nadal was persistent and Federer crumbled.

I felt like crying together with Federer. I have nothing against Rafa. He's another one of my favorite players in lawn tennis, and I'm glad that it was he who took over the World Number 1 title (instead of some egoistic bigmouth like Andy Murray). But in choosing between him and Federer, I'm all for Roger Federer!

They broke my heart, especially when Federer cried in the end. To the greatest player of all time: It's killing me, too!

It's Not All About the Money.. Kaka Stays at AC Milan!

After suffering through unimportant news of Cristiano Ronaldo and his wild ways, news about my favorite European football player finally surfaced. As expected, it was nothing like C. Ronaldo's circulatory updates like his current car and his current girl. As expected, Kaka's made more noise in the world of soccer.

Kaka was in a deal with Manchester City, with Man City offering a record-breaking sum of 100 million pounds for the Brazilian to transfer to them. It raised a lot of eyebrows how they could offer a player that much. I read an article where there was a comment that even C. Ronaldo isn't worth that much (Personally, with his thick skin and big head, he scores lower than Kaka.. yeah, I don't like him at all).

Thankfully, Kaka declined the offer, deciding to stay at AC Milan. I breathed a sigh of relief and almost clapped for joy! Somehow, I like Kaka and AC Milan together. Kaka would still be my favorite player even if he switched to another team, but he's become such a big part of AC Milan that I can't see him in another team.

Majority of the people believed that Kaka would turn down the offer, even if that was such a very huge amount. Most players would have already accepted the offer, I bet, especially with how European football works today. The gist of it is that it all comes down to the money and how much they're going to get by playing for a team. This fact is really disheartening.

But Kaka didn't disappoint. It was not all about the money for him. He's already the highest paid player in AC Milan. I believe he's more than contented with his salary, even if he's not the highest paid athlete in the field. Kaka is as he is. He'll go for a club or a team with a competitive status and a big goal to become champions. That is what AC Milan is, and what Manchester City has yet to become (though it seems it'll them a long time).

In the midst of all this riot over the sum of money involved, I felt the world become lighter because there are still some people who think of their principles in life rather than be swayed with money.

Gotta Love the Monk

I'm going through Jason Statham's movies right now, and one of his movies that I really love is the Mean Machine. Not that it's his movie; he just made a sort of special appearance as the most feared convict in prison. Legend has it among the cons that Monk (Jason Statham) killed 23 men with his bare hands... and that was before he learned karate. He was placed in a separate cell from the other inmates, and he is closely guarded because of his insane desire to crack bones in a person's body.

Mean Machine is a movie that pitches inmates versus the prison guards in a game of football. Monk is the goalie... who likes to be a sweeper now and then and do flying kicks at the opponent when the ref isn't looking. He's insane, but you just gotta love him here.

Lawn Tennis: Warming Up

I hit the tennis courts early Monday morning in an effort to get my body back into shape after feeling my body bogging down a bit. It was a perfect morning for the exercise --- not too hot, not too cold.. The kind of temperature where you feel like working your body out is a comfortable thing to do. It kind of feels like stretching your body when you wake up in the morning to get out of a relaxing sleep and get into gear.

I hadn't played in quite a long time. I think it might have been more than a year already before I went out to the courts that Monday morning. I had to go to work that evening, so it was imperative to me that I don't tire my body out with the exercise.

Sadly, I was too excited in holding a tennis ball and racket again that I pounded on the wall with some shots immediately. I failed to do the proper thing: warm up before going into the game or practice. And now, two days later, my body is still stiff and aching. My right arm feels like it's carrying steel, and I walk like a board.

So get this and get this right: warm up before playing!

Warming Up

There are only three steps in warming up your body before playing. The main purpose is to get your body charged slowly for the game or practice. The warm-up is all about conditioning your body for the heavy physical activity ahead.

1. Walking, light jogging, and moving your arms and legs a bit... You can move your arms around in a circular motion, or shake them a little, as you walk around the court. Your legs will be slowly conditioned when you start walking. Then you pace it up a little by some light jogging. Then if you want, then you can do some side-jumping.

What I do is walk a little for a while, then start jogging after two or three rounds of walking around the tennis court. Then after two rounds of jogging, I would include some side jumps in my next two rounds of light jogging. I do the side jumps whenever I reach the serving areas of the court.

2. Stretching... after the walking and the jogging, it's time to stretch your muscles. The general order of stretching is to start from rotating your head to stretching your legs. But I would usually start from my legs because I feel like moving it a little bit more after the jog.

When stretching, don't push your body so hard. One of the mistakes I made when stretching before games is to stretch my muscles hard enough to feel some pain. But this isn't the real way to go. Stretching your muscles is all about getting them to be flexible with your movements later on. This means that comfort should be present. We can say that the purpose of stretching is to relax your muscles and get used to your body enduring the whacks in the game later on.

3. Doing some lawn tennis moves... Of course, this is imperative. You should also have your body familiarize itself with specific movements in the game. What I do in lawn tennis is to practice my forehand and backhand shots (without the ball). This includes fixing my pose, with one feet in front, the body in position, and getting that forehand and backhand curve right.

Do this step as many times as you like, until you get the movements in your system. Eventually, your body and muscles will be well-charged for the practice ahead.

Federer Is Being Beaten Down Too Much

Is it just me or does it feel like the media is biting his head off with the loss?

I mean, yes, Federer lost, and he and Rafa gave the longest and greatest Wimbledon battle ever that Rafa winning made the Spaniard a godlike player. But does the press have to shove it to Federer's face? It's obvious he's going to feel bad about it, but they're like sharks circling for any ungraceful reaction from the Swiss champion.

From Mail Online:

Federer was dignified on the court and apparently desolate when he got off it and his longer-term reaction to the events of Sunday night will be fascinating to observe.

The keyword here is "fascinating." They're sharks. Sharks!

It also feels like they're shoving Federer harder than necessary. It's like one loss is greater than his five wins.

Nadal Beats Federer in Wimbledon 2008!

Nadal wins Wimbledon! Wow! And after winning the French Open, too. This guy's on a roll, winning the French Open and Wimbledon back to back.

World no. 2 finally put an end to Roger Federer's reign. Federer was set on winning Wimbledon for the sixth time. The Spaniard was at the top of his game, though, and Federer made one too many errors.

It was the longest Wimbledon mens final ever, and I honestly didn't care who would win. Both are great and respected champions, and just to see them at the finals battling it out is enough for me.

From Wimbledon.org:

Wimbledon has a new king. Rafael Nadal dethroned Roger Federer after a five-year reign by winning the longest-ever Wimbledon men's final.

The consistently heartstopping 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (8-10), 9-7 classic began at 2.35pm and thanks to a couple of breaks for rain (surely necessary for the spectators to catch their breath), it ended at 9.15pm with the 22-year-old from Mallorca dropping to the ground with his arms outstretched in celebration.

Watching the four hours and 48 minutes on-court action, from the vantage point of the royal box, was Centre Court legend Bjorn Borg. Nadal had matched the Swede's fantastic feat of winning the Grand Slams of Roland Garros and Wimbledon back-to-back and had also prevented Federer surpassing the five titles in a row he collected between 1976 and 1980.

Kaka's Luca Celico Leite Is Born!

He's so cute (as are all babies, I know!) and by looking at his parents, he's bound to be a handsome one when he grows up. Ricardo "Kaka" Leite and wife Caroline celebrated the birth of their son Luca Celico Leite just this Tuesday, June 10! Mother and child are doing great and the whole family is obviously excited and very happy.



I'm a little late on the post, but, what the heck, I'm still a fan! So.. Congratulations to the family!

European Football's All About the Money Now

Fame and money can really turn people to greed and arrogance. This is what I see with all too clearly as Ronaldo finally stated his stance on his not-too-unpredictable move to Spanish team Real Madrid.

Despite Manchester United constantly telling everybody that striker Cristiano Ronaldo will stay with Old Trafford, the Portuguese star player goes on to tell the world:

"I would like to play for Real Madrid but only if it is true they are ready to pay what Manchester United ask of them."

Cute. Real cute. It was like he was just playing hard-to-get these past few days, trying to get the highest bid on him to set place.

Ronaldo's not the only one at fault for European football starting to look like a money-grabbing sport. A lot of players are being bought and sold among the European teams. The managers are starting to look like hungry wolves to me, and the players becoming their pups drooling after the money.

Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who is reported to have agreed to join AC Milan despite previously insisting that he would stay with Arsenal, admitted to stating how money makes the world of soccer go round. Here's a clip from the dailymail UK article.

The 24-year-old returned to his country this week to receive the BBC African player of the year award where he insisted moves abroad were fuelled solely by cash.

He said: "If you move, it is about money. When we were young we played because we love the game and we were passionate about it. But now, when you reach this stage you are thinking about the Champions League and big things like that.

"Whenever I come back to my country people love me. If I didn't go to Europe for money, what else would it be for?"

He also said something that made me cringe a little at the people who should be inspiring football/soccer lovers like me:

"If you gave me the option of playing beautiful football and winning nothing, or playing ugly and winning then obviously it would be the latter.

"You are judged on what you win. We play in a great team with a great manager, but we don't want to play beautiful football just to put smiles on the faces of the fans."

That's another player on my football/soccer hate list.

Kaka On Time 100

I certainly didn't expect Kaka to be included in Time's 100 Most Influential People of the World for 2008, but I salute them! Lining up with Oprah Winfrey, Brangelina, Andre Agassi and others in the most influential Heroes and Pioneers, Kaka's presence in the list caused great joy to his fans... yet also confusion to those who think he doesn't deserve it.

I'm a fan of Kaka, and I was glad he got a spot in the Time 100. He certainly deserves it as he is not only one of the most successful world-class footballers, but also a U.N. ambassador and devout Christian. He is also one of the most humble players in a sport where fame and money can easily turn you into a party animal when you're not careful (yes, I'm talking about C.Ronaldo).

The article written by Kasey Keller was short and wasn't really that informative or detailed. But it was as direct as it can be of the efforts that Kaka has put on for the sport and for the world. He is a great model for the youngsters who wish to become footballers themselves.

Some critics ask, why put him, a soccer player, on the list? Bear in mind that the list is about influential people. In the world of sports, and especially of football/soccer, everyone knows the name of Kaka and everyone regards him as one of the best players in the sport. He has received many honours and awards as proof of that.

Kaka's fame as a successful soccer player, while still clinging on to his morals and principles, is influential enough for people like me who have read about many players gone wild and distracted.