True Champ

Tennis ace Roger Federer did it again, for the 4th time at the US Open. Yes, he is the undisputed world number one tennis player. And heavens, he's got so much grace and class in his game!

I haven't really been updating myself with the latest bits in professional tennis but I used to be huge fan. My then favourite was Sweden's Stefan Edberg, another classy tennis great. He was a gentleman on and off court. You never read about him shouting obsenities at the umpire or throwing his racquet in a tantrum fit. And off court, you never read about him getting involved in scandals and whatnot. His record was so clean that a renowned sports journalist once said that "the only dirt you could dig out from Edberg was his dirty laundry!".

After Edberg retired from professional tennis, I lost interest in the game. The new generation of players that started to emerge were mostly bad-tempered, egoistic and insolent punks. Not worth my time at all.

Then came Roger Federer, who won his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2003 by defeating Mark Philippoussis (the dude in that stupid reality show Age Of Love), and he's been winning Grand Slam titles quite consistently since. His latest Grand Slam title is his 12th and he's barely 26!

Well, at the rate he's going, he will probably end up being the greatest tennis player in history. Already, some people have tagged him as the best ever tennis player. But what makes him truly remarkable is that like Edberg, Federer is always cool, calm and collected on court. Apparently he threw many tantrums on court when he was a boy. But somehow, he's become mature enough to leave that nasty habit behind.

And he never bad-mouths his rivals, a trait that is so rare these days. You keep hearing one ace bitching about another all the time. It's good to know there are still a handful who subscribe to the belief that if you have nothing good to say, don't say it at all.

I look forward to seeing Federer win more championships. After all, this is one bloke young kids should look up to. God knows we lack good role models for young people these days!