Larry Brown Sports

Last week we shared a clip from an SI article that suggested Tiger Woods and Roger Federer were no longer close friends. The article inferred the relationship between the two became strained after Tiger’s wife-cheating ways were revealed. However, when asked about his relationship with Roger this week, Tiger indicated it’s still strong.

“Fed and I, we text all the time, still — he’s been a great friend over the years, and we’re always needling each other all the time. I think he’s in Montreal this week playing. We’ve been trying to keep up with each other.”

Who knows if that’s Tiger just playing the P.R. game or if it’s real, but we’ll take his word for now. It’s possible for them to text without feeling as close as they did before. Who really knows how their relationship is? What we do know is that these are two men who used to be at the pinnacle of their sports. Now they’re fading from the spotlight as age takes its course. Looks like they’ll have just as much in common in the future as they did in the past.

It wasn’t that long ago when Tiger Woods and Roger Federer were dominating their respective sports. Remember this great commercial? That was a Nike ad from 2007 when Tiger had 12 majors and Roger had 10. Now the scoreboard reads 16-14 in favor of Federer.

Roger has fallen to No. 3 in the world behind Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. He’s getting older, somewhat mentally weaker, and truthfully, Djokovic he’s been surpassed by Djokovic. Tiger has fallen off the map because of physical and mental problems. He hasn’t won a major since 2009 and now he’s switching caddies.

Not only are they no longer Nike’s dream team, they also are no longer friends. That’s what L. Jon Wertheim writes in a Sports Illustrated article.

“As the trajectories of their careers have changed, so it seems—sadly for fans—has the Federer-Woods friendship. When Federer speaks about Woods, he is, characteristically, benign, but it recalls Barack Obama’s distancing himself from Jeremiah Wright before the association affects his approval ratings. (That Federer and Mirka have socialized with Woods’s ex-wife, well, that says plenty.) On the rare occasion Woods talks about something other than golf these days, it’s not to mention the texts and needling his tennis-playing buddy.”

The news really isn’t all that surprising. As Chris Chase says at Busted Racquet, Federer comes across as a dedicated family man while Tiger turned out to be a womanizer. It really seems like Tiger is more of a match with Michael Jordan, whose gambling and partying is pretty well known. At least those two can socialize while still endorsing the same products. Roger seems to have moved on.

There is no debating the fact that Wayne Rooney is an international superstar.  Even if he does ride a pink jet ski every now and then, the guy is still a major celebrity.  Rooney is also known for being extremely arrogant and self-centered, which is why it is surprising to hear the Manchester United striker admit that he admires a person — especially another international icon.  What is even stranger than that is hearing the reason Rooney admires said icon.

According to the Daily Mail, Rooney is in awe of Roger Federer.  Ironically, the soccer star said he idolizes Federer for the way he is able to keep his emotions in check, something that Rooney has seemingly had problems with throughout his young career.

“I’d like to meet Federer,” Rooney revealed. “When he first started playing, he had anger issues. You look at him now on the court and how many titles he’s won and it’s incredible. The discipline he’s had to (stop) the emotions running over is incredible.”

Perhaps this is Wayne’s way of saying he’s trying to turn over a new leaf after recently being handed a two-game suspension for cussing at the camera when registering a hat trick.  This is also the same Rooney who viciously threatened a fan on Twitter who was heckling him.  Everyone needs a hero, right?  Might as well make it a 16-time Grand Slam champion.

Roger Federer is no stranger to making spectacular shots. We saw him hit this amazing between-the-legs passing shot at the ’09 U.S. Open, then do it again the next year, and reproduce it at Shanghai in October. But his trick shots aren’t limited to the court in live action — he’s been filmed doing them off the court too. The thing is, most of those videos are advertisements for a product that are intended to go viral. Take for instance this video of Roger “pranking his coach” with tennis balls in a car. Tell me this isn’t an ad for Mercedes Benz.

As The Daily Record points out, Federer signed with Mercedes a year ago. Any coincidence this has come out or that it was uploaded by “mbusa”? Of course not, but even in exposing the video for what it is — an advertisement — Mercedes still gets a plug, so I guess it was worth it.

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have met 19 times in their careers and Federer holds the head-to-head lead 13-6. Fed has won the past three matches between the two, but Novak got him when it mattered most — the semifinals of the U.S. Open. Djokovic won that match in five sets last year but wound up losing to Rafael Nadal in the finals. Both Novak and Roger agreed that a matter of a few shots determined who won or lost, but Roger offered up another potential reason for his defeat in September.

“Maybe I just felt like I have to get out of this match as quick as I could to save energy to play Rafa the next day,” Federer said prior to his semifinal match against Djokovic at the Australian Open. It’s a plausible explanation, considering how feared Nadal is as an opponent, and the issue that Federer would not have had a day off between the semis and finals.

Ironically enough, the finals ended up being postponed a day because of rain and Nadal won the tournament on Monday. Though looking ahead may have cost Federer at the U.S. Open, it may have taught him a valuable lesson he can apply for the future: always go all out to ensure you win your current match otherwise there won’t be a next match. We also call that the Lou Piniella Rule.

Recently we got upset with Nike for using holidays — especially sacred ones like MLK Day — for profit. They released new shoes on Christmas and MLK Day, capitalizing on the mass audience for attention. That wasn’t cool. But was is cool is customizing gear for its biggest superstars based on their accomplishments. That’s just what they’ve done with Roger Federer, who is one of 16 players left in the Australian Open. Fed, who faces Tommy Robredo in the fourth round, is looking for his 5th Aussie Open title and 17th Grand Slam. He’s been wearing specific shoes all tournament that commemorate his four titles in Melbourne signified by the four mini-Swiss flags. Check these bad boys out (click twice to enlarge):

He’s got his sweet RF logo on the back along with the mini-Swiss flags, looking all spiffy. Roger’s four Aussie Opens are behind his five U.S. Open titles, and the six championships he’s won at Wimbledon. If all goes well, he’ll be doing some catching up by the end of the tournament.

If you see it once, you can feel free to call it lucky.  When you see it for a second time, you’d have to be a real skeptic to think Roger Federer hasn’t practiced and perfected the between-the-legs shot.  Federer pulled off a between-the-legs shot at the U.S. Open this summer and in case you thought that was a one time thing, he went with it again on Wednesday at the Shanghai Masters.  Here’s another Roger Federer between the legs shot video, courtesy of SI Hot Clicks:

I love how he completely took the guy by surprise.  Did you not watch the film?  Maybe the next opponent will expect this to happen when he sees Federer chasing down a ball.

Video Credit: YouTube user RFmeastro