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#1 ·
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ATP INSIDER

Players Pay Their Respects to Carter

Roger Federer and Marc Rosset were among the tennis friends who paid their last respects to Peter Carter on Wednesday.

UP FRONT...
PLAYERS PAY THEIR RESPECTS TO CARTER
Swiss players ROGER FEDERER and MARC ROSSET were among the more than 200 tennis friends who paid their last respects to Swiss Davis Cup coach Peter Carter at a funeral in St. Leonhard's Church in Basel on Wednesday. The 37-year-old Australian died in a car accident in South Africa on Aug. 1. The moving ceremony was conducted by the priest who had performed the marriage rites between Carter and his Swiss-born wife Silvia little more than a year ago. Eulogies were given by Silvia, Christine Ungricht, president of the Swiss Tennis Association and a close childhood friend from Australia. Federer, who began playing tennis as an eight-year-old with Carter, was joined at the funeral by Rosset and various players from Young Boys Basel, Carter's Club Team. DARREN CAHILL, a long -time hometown friend of Carter and current coach of ANDRE AGASSI, also was in attendance.
 
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#1,987 ·
Thanks, duong. It again has me wondering: did he give the initial interview in French (in the USA?!), or has it already been translated once? I like the sentence before the ones you quoted: "La vie sur le circuit est intense, mais j’ai la sensation que j’ai encore beaucoup de jeu devant moi." So he at least thinks he's got plenty of play left in those legs yet. I hope he's right.
 
#1,989 ·
No more "Stupid Saturday" as of 2015!! :bigclap:

Federer talks pave way for record $50 million U.S. Open prize fund

(CNN) -- He's enjoyed unprecedented success off the court, now Roger Federer has helped pave the way for some major changes at the U.S Open.
As president of the ATP Player Council, the 17-time grand slam champion, from Switzerland, has helped to negotiated a hike in prize money to $50 million by 2017, nearly double the figure in 2012.
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) confirmed the tournament -- the season's final major -- will also rejig its schedule to ensure the men's semifinals are played on Friday with the final reverting to Sunday by 2015.

It marks the culmination of a year's worth of discussions with the game's top players, led by Federer, but also including world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.

"The [USTA] approached our concerns with a true spirit of partnership, and as president of the ATP Player Council I am personally grateful for their support," five-time U.S. Open winner Roger Federer said in a statement on the tournament's official website.

"The U.S. Open is very special, and we all look forward to great competition at Flushing Meadows later this year, and in the years yet to come."

Under the terms of the five-year deal with the men's ATP Tour and the women's WTA Tour, the tournament will now have a 2013 prize purse of $33.6 million -- a record $8.1 million increase from 2012.
Grass roots tennis will also see a boost in funding and Flushing Meadows in New York, which hosts the competition, will also be revamped, with a new Louis Armstrong Stadium and Grandstand.

"We welcome the commitment the USTA has made concerning player prize money at the U.S. Open through 2017," said Brad Drewett, ATP executive chairman and president.

"These increases are the largest in the history of the sport, representing a significant step forward in truly recognizing the input the players have in the success of the U.S. Open.
"We also welcome the decision from the USTA to adopt a schedule with the men's semifinals completed by Friday and the final on Sunday, from 2015 onwards."

The USTA announced in December 2012 it was moving the women's final back to Sunday and the men's final to Monday to allow the players more rest time.

more at: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/20/sport/tennis/tennis-us-open-federer/index.html
 
#1,990 ·
guys, sorry not sure if this was posted but it's a really interesting article about Fed.


J M Coetzee opens up about his life in letters to Paul Auster

Reclusive South African writer reveals admiration for tennis star Roger Federer

Charlie Cooper
Friday, 22 March 2013

J M Coetzee, the notoriously publicity-shy Nobel Prize-winning author, has made an art of revealing almost nothing about his life.

But now the South African novelist has surprised critics by revealing his profound, almost obsessive respect for an unlikely figure – the Swiss tennis star Roger Federer.

One of literature’s great recluses, the South African writer rarely submits to being interviewed but has granted a glimpse into his daily musings in an exchange of correspondence with the American author Paul Auster, to be published as a book in the UK in May.

Revealing himself as an armchair sports fan, Coetzee describes Federer’s best tennis as “something like the human ideal made visible” and says the experience of watching him play is “very much like my response to masterworks of art”.

The two authors, who met in February 2008 and decided to embark on an epistolary friendship to “strike sparks off each other”, corresponded via post and fax for three years, covering topics as diverse as philosophy, friendship, the financial crisis and their shared love for the “guilty pleasure” of watching sport.

In one letter, dated 19 March 2009, Coetzee writes: “Like you, I think that watching sport on television is mostly a waste of time. But there are moments that are not a waste of time, as would, for example, crop up now and again in the glory days of Roger Federer.

“I scrutinise such moments, revisiting them in memory – Federer playing a crosscourt backhand volley, for instance.”

Explaining that he would go through three phases of thought when watching Federer play, Coetzee writes: “One starts by envying Federer, one moves from there to admiring him and one ends up neither envying him or admiring him but exalted at the revelation of what a human being – a being like oneself – can do.” Coetzee, the author of Dusklands and Disgrace, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003 and has twice won the Booker Prize. He failed to collect either of his Bookers and is a jealous guardian of his private life – making the details revealed in the new book Here and Now: Letters 2008-2011, all the more tantalising for critics.

Few, however, would have expected Coetzee – described by one fellow writer as having laughed only once in a decade of acquaintance – to have displayed such powerful feelings for a tennis player.

His correspondence with Auster, the author of the absurdist novel The Book of Illusions, also reveals an admiration for cricket. “I was absorbed, I was emotionally involved, I tore myself away only reluctantly,” he writes of a five-day game between Australia and South Africa. But Coetzee, who now lives in Adelaide, Australia, is also affected by pangs of guilt at watching sport: “Why waste my time slumped in front of the television screen watching young men at play? For, I concede, it is a waste of time. I have an experience... but it does me no good that I can detect. I learn nothing. I come away with nothing.”

He suggests to Auster that the appeal of sport has to do with a human “need for heroes”.

The two authors had been reading each other’s works for years but only met in February 2008, when Coetzee suggested the letter-writing exercise. Although outwardly different in their writing – Auster is known for his dark, philosophical texts and enthusiastic embrace of public life, while Coetzee has been described as a “sceptic… and uncompromising moralist” – the pair found common ground on many topics. On Federer, especially, they are in perfect alignment. “I am in total accord with you,” Auster writes of the seven-time Wimbledon champion. “Awe at the fact that a fellow human being is accomplishing such things.”
 
#1,994 ·
guys, sorry not sure if this was posted but it's a really interesting article about Fed.


J M Coetzee opens up about his life in letters to Paul Auster

Reclusive South African writer reveals admiration for tennis star Roger Federer

Charlie Cooper
Friday, 22 March 2013

J M Coetzee, the notoriously publicity-shy Nobel Prize-winning author, has made an art of revealing almost nothing about his life.
Thanks for sharing the article here, Alex! I read one of his books a couple years ago for highschool. Had no idea he was such a big Fedfan :D.
 
#1,991 ·
Fed said it himself - he needs the rest that he's getting now to gear up for the spring and summer. I think he's been burned out since the US Open and not to say that he was just going through the motions, but it seemed like the inner fire wasn't there as it was in the first half of 2012. The only time I saw that fire was at the AO against Tsonga and Murray where he scratched and clawed all the way to the end.

Fed can still play amazing tennis, and I fully expect him to come back in a better form than we have seen the last 6 months.
 
#1,998 ·
Coming back rested doesn't mean much for health, no, but it does mean that he'll be more capable of being sharper deeper in tournaments, which is obviously the aim in any event and especially Grand Slams.
 
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#2,004 ·
Here's an article :

http://www.visitmonaco.com/it/AllNews/I-Monte-Carlo-Rolex-Masters-dall-11-al-23-aprile-2013


"Although the Swiss Roger Federer (2) has not been registered so far, the organizers are confident that he'll play. "

I know the TD says that they always leave a WC for Rog in case he decides last minute. They are just getting our hopes up.


here he is in Zurich. Yesterday? Today? IDK.


It's only been like 15 days since he last played and we have to wait almost 40 more to see him :sad:
 
#2,005 ·
I want Fed to play Basel, Paris, and WTF. I am almost certain that if he played Paris last year he would have won it.
 
#2,013 ·
Please Roger - change or shoes or these black socks :mad:

BTW - very happy to see him back (in some way)
 
#2,018 ·
There was an interview with Roger in Swiss media today and I thought to translate it:

„I’m playing in Basel, even without agreements”

by René Stauffer

Roger Federer ends the speculations and declares that he is going to play at the 2013 Swiss Indoors. Under new signs.



Roger Federer is in the middle of a 7 weeks tournamentfree building phase which he spends for most of the time in Switzerland at the Lake Zurich. Yesterday the 31year old #3 in the ranking and record Grand Slam winner made a standpoint and made clear that he is going to play the Swiss Indoors in Basel in autumn, which he has won 5 times already, despite his contract with the tournament has expired.

You are in the middle of a nearly 2 months rest of competition. What are you doing during this time?

First I recovered from the tournaments in Rotterdam, Dubai and Indian Wells. I had a short holiday but already after 9 days I started to work again. I didn’t want to do nothing for 3 weeks. I’m in Switzerland now for a while and do fitness training, I also started to play tennis again.

Despite the bad weather? Doesn’t this delay your build-up so short before the clay season?

As I mainly worked on my fitness the weather wasn’t a big problem for me. I played indoors on clay and 2 times on HC. I’m happy that the weather gets warmer at the weekend because then I can start to practice hard outside. Within the next weeks the practice is going to get more intense. It would be important that I get good practice conditions 2 weeks before the tournament in Madrid. It would be nice if the weather keeps up.

How is your back which bothered you a lot in Indian Wells, especially in the QF against Rafael Nadal?

I’m satisfied and can do everything again. But it took longer as I thought. I’m happy that I can practice again now and play tennis. In Indian Wells everything took place in quick succession. I couldn’t recover enough from the match against Wawrinka and against a player like Nadal you can’t win in such a condition. I don’t know to how many % fit I was. I just wanted to try it. The rest came at the right time.

Do you stay in Switzerland until the start of the clay season and will let sparringspartners fly in just like in the last years?

Exactly. Severin (Lüthi) is in contact with several players who could come. I’m pleased that I can have this preparation in Switzerland. Later on Paul (Annacone) will be here as well, at the stage in which I’m going to play tennis for 4, 5 hours a day and don’t work on the fitness anymore.

You haven’t been in Switzerland for that many weeks for a very long time. Do you enjoy this?

Absolutely. I missed Switzerland in the last years. It is great to play in the nature with the little ones and to be here with friends and family and to work on things. I could come down a bit from the stressful daily routine on the tour and to find back to normality. 2012 was extremely stressful due to the Olympic Games. I really enjoyed the last weeks even though the weather was bad.

On Wednesday the next Davis Cup opponent of Switzerland will be known. Will it depend on that if you are going to play in September?

We have to take who we get. I don’t know if I’m going to play. There’s still enough time.

Another open question is if you are going to play in Basel in autumn after your contract has run out.

For me it was always sure: I’m also going to play the Swiss Indoors in 2013. I haven’t commentated on it yet but now the moment has arrived. I have always played in Basel during all those years when I wasn’t injured. Everyone knows how much the tournament means to me and that is still the case. I was a ballboy there, played once in the qualification and got to play as a junior against Andre Agassi. I experienced many unforgettable moments in this unique atmosphere with the great fans and I’m extremely happy that I can experience it again this year.

So there has been made an agreement in the meantime between the Swiss Indoors and you?

No, but it wasn’t necessary. I can play in Basel without any contracts or agreements when I want to and that’s want I want. It is always very special to play in front of a home crowd when you are on the tour the whole year. I don’t want to miss this chance.

There were many discussions about the negotiations between you and tournament director Roger Brennwald. Rumours and speculations and there was the talk of many money. And now you just play?

I don’t really want to say anything more to it because it could be mistaken again. I have never said that I won’t play in Basel. Now I just try to simplifiy this complicated issue.

Does it mean that you are going to skip Paris-Bercy again then?

I have often missed tournaments due to the Swiss Indoors, so it’s nothing new. I love to to to Asia or Paris but you have to set priorities and Basel has always been one of my priorities.

In the year ranking you are an unfamiliar #8. Have you considered to play tournaments earlier on due to this?

I have indeed thought about it for a moment. But I have always said that this year the practice and the recovery will be in the centre and I want to continue this way. What I can save today as energy I can invest later on. In the time when you don’t play you fill your reserve tank and I noticed this over the years. Beside this I find that I haven’t played that badly. I was good in Australia. Rotterdam (loss against Benneteau) was disappointing, in Dubai I should have never lost in the SF (against Berdych) and who knows what would have happened then. It’s not worth it to overanalyze this stage. Now I’m preparing myself that I can do better in the next months.

Original Swiss source: http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sport/tennis/Ich-spiele-in-Basel-auch-ohne-Abmachung/story/17293661
 
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