Salam Aidilfitri!

To all tennis crazians, selamat menyambut Aidilfitri. Maaf, zahir dan batin. Bertemu semula kita di gelanggang selepas habis makan lemang.

Federer vs. Sampras!!

Federer is playing Sampras right here in KL. I'm definitely in! In fact got my tickets already together with fellow chaplesses Kapten Zafreni, Aidil and Reeza. Who else is in? It will be at Stadium Melawati Shah Alam on 22 November 2007. Which reminds me, to take leave for the day, need to be there early since my ticket is a free seater ticket!!!

Ramadan Al-Mubarak

Selamat menyambut Ramadan Al-Mubarak kepada semua chaplesses!

Jangan pulak doa waktu malam Lailatul Qadar (sekiranya terketemu) nak menang President Cup Oakleaf Park, ha ha ha.

Stringing like champions!

Everybody wants to be able to hit groundstroke, backhand, spin, slice and serve like professional players such as Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Well, now perhaps you can with the way they string their racquets.

However, on the skills to hit the ball, haaa yang tu tak dapek den nak ngajar.

So guys, check this out!

Roger Federer uses a hybrid of Wilson Natural Gut 16 string in the mains and Luxilon Big Banger ALU Power Rough 16 L String in the crosses.

Rafael Nadal is using Babolat Pro Hurricane Tour 16 string.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic uses Tecnifibre X-One Biphase 17 String.

Finally, Andy Roddick also a hybrid user as well with Babolat Pro Hurricane Tour 16 String (as Nadal) in the mains and Babolat VS Natural 16 Touch Half Set String in the cross strings.

Happy stringing!

From Wilson to Babolat ...

Truthfully, I have never imagined myself switching allegiance from Wilson to Babolat. I have been using Wilson racquets since I can remember. Anyway, I don’t think brand loyalty is top of my agenda at the moment, so as long as other products can offer equally good service or if not better, I will not think twice to change. So, that was the case with my racquet.

Initially I thought of buying the Federer’s racquet, but after some thinking plus consultations from fellow chaplesses, probably it is not such a good idea to buy that Wilson K Factor KSix-One Tour 90 because the racquet is too demanding from a somewhat chapless player like me. Probably, it was the right decision since the review on the racquet mentioned that this racquet is good for 5+ player (which I don’t really know where am I based on the rating, and how they do the rating anyway). Well, 320 grams is a pretty heavy racquet anyway.

So, I ended buying Babolat AeroPro Drive Cortex Racquets which is beautiful in design and a pretty compromise weight for me (300 grams). On the performance wise, I do believe this racquet is the best racquet I have ever used. It offers more solid feel of contact from the baseline and the perasan feeling of getting better at hitting the ball was there, so what the heck!

Head Size :100 sq. in./645 sq. cm
Length : 27 inches/69 cm
Strung Weight : 320 gram
Balance : 5 pts head light
Swing weight : 324
Composition : High Modulus Graphite
String Pattern : 16 Mains/19 Crosses
String Tension : 55 - 65

President Cup of Oakleaf Park

The eagerly-awaited tournament is just around the corner, isk isk, another two months to go (not really around the corner). Last year inaugural tournament won by the dynamic duo of Chief Azman and Syedfaizal. They won without dropping a single set. (Memang le sebab main sapa dapat sembilan dulu). Anyway, after one year plus in rehabilitation and vigorous training by other fellow chaplesses, the defending champion face a daunting task to defend the trophy.

Following are the partnership of the tournament. Election was done last Sunday, 090907 witnessed by 10 chaplesses to ensure transparency, efficiency, justice for all and other cy cy.

Group A

1. Azman/Syedfaizal (Defending Champion)

2. Zafreni/Chandran

3. Rezza Lim/Anwar

4. Adi Bagasi Putra/Sani Wilson

Group B

1. Rosli/Aidil Ljubicic

2. Haibi Cafe/Azman Freelancer

3. Rashdan/Harun Al-Rashid

4. Azam Waja/Suhairul Abai

5. Chef Idris/Badlishah

A total of 36 matches to be played all together. Memang tennis crazy! Thus, weekdays/nights for Oakleaf residents need to be played. Then, dedicated saturday and sunday (17 and 18 November 2007) where most of the matches will take place which include semi-finals and final.

Until then selamat berlatih!

Federer won his 4th US Open ... consecutively!!

What a game! Especially if you are a Federer's fan. In the first set, he saved 5 set points to went and win the game. In the second set, the same scenario, two set points to save and that's what he did! The way he managed to up the tempo of his game when needed really amazing. Tak menyesal bangun pukul 4 pagi to watch the game.

Some facts I extracted from AP Tennis writer about this win:

Federer is the first man since Bill Tilden in the 1920s to win the American Grand Slam four years running. He's won the last five Wimbledon titles, too, along with three overall at the Australian Open. So on Sunday, still only 26 years old, Federer moved ahead of a couple of guys named Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver on the career Slam list and tied Roy Emerson for second place, two away from Sampras' 14.

From 1970 to 2005, no man -- not a single one! -- reached all four Grand Slam finals in a calendar year. Now Federer has turned that trick two years in a row. Actually, his streak stretches back to 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals, and he's won eight. And if it weren't for a certain indefatigable Mallorcan who goes by the name of Rafael Nadal - and beat him in the last two French Open finals - Federer might have won all 10.

Tennis chapless at work

To all my tennis crazy gang at Oakleaf, I created this blog mainly for the purpose for me/us to share tennis related information or news or any other news for that matter. It is a forum for me to address issues pertaning to our nightly game, friendly matches as well as our tournament. I hope I have the time and ideas to write regularly in this blog and I hope all of you will enjoy the posting. Go Oakleaf Tennis Chaplesses!