This was a scene that I took during the Thailand Open 2007. I was lucky to be able to secure free tickets to the games almost for the entire duration of the tournament. I hope that despite of the ongoing Beijing Games and the fast-approaching U.S. Open 2008, it would still be business as usual for the Thailand Open 2008. This year’s tennis isn’t really historically remarkable for the legendary Roger Federer. After losing a tough match to Nadal in the French Open, he again duplicated his loss to the same competitor in the Wimbledon. Let the ball remain round as it is — with the more classic and graceful ways of Federer topping matches from one to another — comes a more challenging episode of the mascular challengers, hence, the mascular prevailed! It doesn’t really matter — I’m still the traditional and conventional type who cherishes old-fashioned classical music and the more graceful ways of swaying to the grooves of waltz and ballroom dancing tunes. If I have to re-live life and envision myself artistically and athletically, I think I would still adore grace and precision in style and action rather than indulging in an intensive workout for the heavy weights. I’m not going for boxing, kick boxing, or sumo, anyway.

Sharing with you a little bit of my passion in the game. Below are some of the tennis rackets that I use in my practice games. I previously used Prince and Yonnex, ‘though quite heavy but they’re good ones. My Wilson rackets are for keeps and I use them once in a while but my new-found favorite is now the classy Babolat — same as Andy Roddick’s. The feel is just so good and it gives me more confidence in hitting my style (it’s a hit strong-hit hard-hit out style I know! don’t tease me, hehe!). You’ll get very well controlled hits and it just feels good — I’m loving it! What racket model could be the next top brand to conquer the tennis market in the near future? I wonder in excitement. Back to business, this year’s remarkable Beijing Olympics has been a nice battleground for the Bryan Brothers and the Federer-Wawrinka duo where the latter pair successfully defended their challenger’s crown dethroning the more popular and top-ranked tennis doubles champions, the Bryans. I’m a big fan of both pairs anyway that it doesn’t really matter who won or lost. Federer did not get the Olympic gold for the singles but he did in the doubles. Still something to celebrate — hurray! The final grand slam of the year, the U.S. Open, is just around the corner. Could this be the turning point of Federer’s career? Could he set one more mark towards beating Sampras’ world record of grand slam wins? I bet he will…