Federer adds sweet 16th to collection

Federer adds sweet 16th to trophy collection

There are very few things that I have 16 of. I have well over 16 books, and over 16 photographs displayed in my room. I have 16 playbills on my wall of shows I’ve seen in my four years at Columbia. All of that pales in comparison to Roger Federer, who just won his 16th Grand Slam title in Melbourne on Sunday morning.

I’m strictly a Rafael “Rafa” Nadal fan. I jeer at Federer’s custom-made shoes for Wimbledon and the winner’s jacket he wears out onto the court following his match, even though you know he’s got to be sweaty. I felt satisfied when Rafa slaughtered him in the French Open in 2008. I told him to keep it together when he started bawling after losing the Australian last January to Rafa.

But there are some things you just can’t deny. One of those is that Trix cereal was infinitely better in the shape of fruit rather than spheres. Another is that Federer might just be the greatest tennis player to play the game.

He broke Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam titles just two years after Sampras and doesn’t look to be stopping with 16. He’s 28 and still dominating a sport filled with 21-year-olds.
So when Rafa retired due to knee problems at the Australian Open, my first thought was, ‘Well, add another notch to Federer’s belt.’ The Spaniard is my favorite tennis player—I have a picture with him on display in my room—but his game takes a serious toll on his body. And so the only person with an all-time winning streak against Federer slipped quietly out of the Open.

Sixteen. Somewhere in his house in Switzerland, Federer has on display 15 Grand Slam trophies, and when he returns from “Down Under,” he’ll add the 16th. Can you imagine the reaction of house guests?

Federer: Oh, those, yeah, you know...work. They keep giving me Employee of the Year awards. At first it was nice. Now it’s damn annoying.

The thing that makes Federer so amazing is that he’s dominated the sport for so long. He won his first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2003 and he sat atop the ranks as No.1 for four straight years before Rafa dethroned him in the middle of 2008. The guy was in ten consecutive Grand Slam finals. It got rather repetitive, to be honest.

That’s one of the reasons I became such a fan of Rafa. Finally someone who could figure out Federer. Someone Federer was afraid of (Federer flew a left-handed player from the Stanford tennis team to Dubai so that he could practice against him to prepare for Rafa).

And I could not have been happier when Rafa put Federer away at Wimbledon in 2008—ending Federer’s five-year winning streak there—in a five-set thriller that John McEnroe dubbed “the greatest match of all time.”

It’s not that I want Federer to fail. It’s just boring when he wins. The guy hits shots no person should be able to hit and does it with grace. He scoffs at the Hawk-Eye line system to eliminate mistaken line calls. Federer doesn’t make mistakes like that. He has been one of the world’s greatest athletes for seven years and his biceps look more like an eighteen-year-old’s.

So when I watched Andy Roddick get eliminated last week, I lost a little more hope that the final would be something interesting. Roddick pushed Federer to a five-set tiebreaker at Wimbledon last summer. After holding serve for over three hours, the one time Roddick allows a break he loses the whole thing.

Novak Djokovic lost, too. The young Serb stole the Australian from Federer in 2008, surprising nearly everyone who hadn’t watched the young man handle Federer in another, smaller tournament in 2007.

All that was left for Federer was Scotsman Andy Murray, playing in his second Grand Slam final. Though he’s improved greatly over the last two years, Murray went down easy, losing 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (11).

Another boring title. Another boring presentation ceremony with Federer assuring us, “No, this one is really special. It’s going to be front and center until I win my next one in a couple months. Swear.”

But now, one thing has to be on Federer’s mind, the last thing he has to accomplish in the sport that should be called “Federer’s Day Off”: Grand Slam. The elusive, almost mythic calendar-year Grand Slam. Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open. Hasn’t been done since 1969.

Rafa held him off for four years, winning at least one of those and sometimes two. But after an injury-plagued year, it looks like the last line of defense is weak.

Can you imagine having 19 Grand Slam trophies to display? He’d need to add a room onto his house for those things.

Golden ice dancers banish Canadian blues

A young pair of ice dancers lifted the host country out of its Winter Olympic gloom with a golden performance Monday just as Canadians were questioning their team's medal-winning capability.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who began skating together as children, brought home Canada's first Olympic gold in ice dancing to lift a host nation struggling to cope with a demoralizing ice hockey defeat and diminishing medal hopes.

The win capped a day on which Germany clinched gold in the women's cross country team sprint to go level with the high-flying Americans on seven gold medals apiece in 10 days of Olympic competition.

Norway, a country with a far smaller population which usually punches above its weight at Winter Games, moved to outright third by winning a six gold medals in the men's cross country team sprint.

Canada are now right behind Norway with five golds and Virtue and Moir are set to become the sweethearts of the Games.

Wearing classic white and skating to Mahler's Symphony No. 5, Virtue and Moir concluded their mesmerizing routine with him on his knees and her face in his hands -- bringing the home crowd to its feet to the chant of "Canada, Canada, Canada."

"This is for Canada and Canada is with us," said Virtue, aged 20 to Moir's 22.

Their American training partners Meryl Davis and Charlie White took silver and relegated the Russian favorites Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin to bronze. It was the first time in 34 years that Europeans did not win the ice dance gold medal.

That was not the only novelty, though. British siblings Sinead and John Kerr mixed things up a little as the sister lifted the brother in a rare case of ice dance role reversal.

Lindsey Vonn overcomes injuries

Almost a year before Lindsey Vonn became the first American woman to win an Olympic downhill gold medal, she passed through New York for a victory lap after winning her second overall World Cup title.

There were interviews, photo shoots and some sight-seeing. And there was a sit-down chat at Rockefeller Plaza with Dick Ebersol, the sports czar of NBC, who had found the face of the 2010 Winter Games.

If Ebersol didn't realize then that Vonn could be the star of the 2010 Winter Games, he certainly does now. The telegenic Vonn's commanding victory in the women's downhill yesterday sets her up for four more Alpine events, and she's gunning for gold in at least two of them.

"It's everything that I've worked my whole life for," said the 25-year-old from Minnesota, who happens to have posed in a bikini for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

Four years ago, Vonn's Olympic story was that of a talented young racer who crashed violently in a training run on the downhill course at the 2006 Winter Games, destroying her chances at a medal. In the four years since, she has collected some of the most prestigious trophies in her sport. But more than anything, she built up extraordinary confidence.

"To win in downhill, you have to push yourself right to the limit, then still look for more speed," says 1964 Olympic silver medalist Billy Kidd. "That's very difficult to do, psychologically, especially if you've gotten hurt. That's what makes Lindsey Vonn so amazing. She knows the pain. She knows what it's like to get hurt, and she's able to go fast anyway."

Vonn says she would be happy to go home with the one medal she collected Wednesday, but of course she is a potential winner in two more events - today's super combined and Saturday's super G. But she can never be winter's answer to Michael Phelps, the ratings-driving medal machine of the 2008 Games in Beijing.

There are just too many variables for that to happen, says Kidd.

"Michael Phelps, he deals with constants," Kidd said. "The pool is the same length, the waves are the same height, the water is the same temperature. In ski racing, the only constant is the color of the snow. Everything else is a variable. There's the course length, visibility, the surface, where the gates are, it can all change."

Before yesterday, Vonn looked like she might be teetering on the edge. The swimsuit issue hit stands the day before she arrived in Vancouver, and just when it seemed sexual politics would be the first controversy of the Games, Vonn revealed that she hadn't skied for a week because she had been nursing a debilitating injury to her shin.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/winter_olympics_2010/2010/02/18/2010-02-18_shes_the_vonn.html#ixzz0ftgytPSL

Saints have a Lombardi

Joe Lombardi wants to uphold the values of his famous grandfather.

He also wants to uphold his grandfather's trophy.

Lombardi, 38, is quarterbacks coach for the New Orleans Saints, who play the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday in Super Bowl XLIV. He's also a grandson of legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi, for whom the championship trophy is named.

The two never met, as Joe was born a year after his grandfather's death in 1970. But the younger Lombardi has attracted a lot of attention this week, even though his role with the Saints is a fairly low-profile one.

"Some of the coaches were teasing me because of all this attention I'm getting because of my grandfather," he said.

It's not a subject he broaches much in his everyday life. Proud as he is of the connection, Lombardi can say with conviction that he has paid his dues in the business.

After playing football at the Air Force Academy and serving his five-year military commitment, he coached at Dayton, Virginia Military Institute, for the New Jersey Hitmen of the XFL, Bucknell and Mercyhurst College. His first NFL break came when he got a job breaking down film for Jim Mora with the Atlanta Falcons, then parlayed that into a position with the Saints.

"I'm sure it hasn't hurt me," he said of his name. "It hasn't fast-tracked me, but I'm sure if there are five resumes there, at least they're going to remember, 'Hey, this guy applied for this job.' But this is a results-oriented business. If you don't do your job well, you're not going to keep it."

Lombardi isn't a dead ringer for his grandfather, although he does have a similar square jaw and hairline. Hanging on the wall in his office is a framed, handwritten "call sheet" of plays that Vince Lombardi used as offensive coordinator of the New York Giants, before he became coach of the Green Bay Packers. The keepsake is dated Sept. 30, 1956.

Joe's father, also named Vince, has all of his dad's championship rings, and a replica of the Lombardi trophy that Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis had made for the coach's widow.

"It was in our den of our living room when I was growing up," Joe said. "One of those rooms you don't really go into when you're a kid."

He said he's proud of the success his grandfather had as a coach, of course, but also of principles for which he stood.

Wade gets MVP trophy

The Heat's signature star added to his Lone Star State legend with a dazzling aerial performance Sunday night worthy of the largest basketball crowd in the history of civilization. If only D-Wade would have put those hops to use Saturday night.

Wade led all the All-Stars with 28 points as the Eastern Conference held on for a 141-139 triumph before a record 108,713 fans packing Cowboys Stadium to its retractable roof. For only the second time in his career, Wade left the Dallas area victorious.

How's this for efficiency? The 2006 Finals MVP clinched Miami's lone title with a 36-point effort to close out the Mavericks in Game 6 at American Airlines Center. And then there was Sunday.

"I've had a little luck in Dallas," Wade quipped. "Of course 2006 is very, very memorable. Something that I dreamed of doing for a long time -- winning the NBA championship -- and I was lucky enough and blessed enough to win the MVP award there.

"To come and do it again is special."

Wade slashed and gashed through the West defense, shooting just one 3-pointer along the way. He missed just four of 16 shots, while finding time and teammates to hand out a team-best 11 assists. There were also six rebounds and a game-high five steals in the 31-minute outing.

Wade picked up nine of the 12 possible MVP votes, outdistancing teammates LeBron James (two) and Chris Bosh (one). And in the same vein as Mark Cuban shooting for more when attendance estimates were inching near 100,000 in recent days, Wade hoped for a little more on his stat line.

"I want to do a little bit of everything, kind of what I do," he said. "Wish I could have got a couple more rebounds; made it real special."

West forward Dirk Nowitzki has tried his best to block out the D-Wade Experience from four years ago. The two both went to the line in the final 13 seconds, drawing a faint flash bask to that wild series. What the Mavericks' franchise player, or anyone else, can't forget is Wade's exhausting drive.

"They deserved it back then and so hopefully I get another shot," Nowitzki said, "but he's an incredible player and he's fun to watch."

After a pair of injury-plagued seasons following the title, and a trip to the lottery, Wade and the Heat have rebounded over the last two seasons. He's regained his stature as one of the three or four best players in the league. He's also the first from the Heat franchise to win the All-Star MVP.

"I'm just happy for Dwyane Wade," East teammate Dwight Howard said. "All the things he's been through in his career, for him to come out on top tonight and get the MVP, I'm happy for him."

As spectacular as Wade was, Cuban good-naturedly lobbied for a co-MVP. How about the crowd and the experience?

"Wow, wow. All you can say is that it's amazing," gushed the Mavericks owner, the co-brainchild behind this All-Star game with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. "What do you think? Kinda makes that thing in Miami look like ... I shouldn't say that."

Cuban took another good-natured jab at the Super Bowl: "I'm booking The Who to play at my son's bar mitzvah." The Grammy-laden musical lineup of Alicia Keys, Shakira and Usher shared the spotlight Sunday, but no one shined brighter than Wade.

"It's a historical event," Wade said. "It's going to be in our minds and our hearts and thoughts for a long time, Dallas and the MVP Trophies . Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban really put on a fabulous event and to be able to perform in front of a crowd like that, I know that I can do it.

"I've done it before."