Archive for the 'Roger Federer' Category

The International Tennis Federation chose Swiss superstar Roger Federer and Belgian ace Justine Henin-Hardenne as their 2006 World Champions. This is Roger’s third consecutive year winning this honor; Justine won it previously in 2003. Both Federer and Henin-Hardenne finished the tennis season as number one in the world, competing in all four of the Grand Slam finals. Ironically, Federer’s only Grand Slam loss came at the French Open, which was Henin-Hardenne’s only Grand Slam win in 2006.

Bob and Mike Bryan, American twins, are the International Tennis Federation’s men’s double world champions; Lisa Raymond (US) and Samantha Stosur (Australia) are the ITF women’s double world champions. Thiemo de Bakker of Holland is the boy’s world champion and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia is the girl’s world champion. The ITF Awards ceremony will take place in Paris at the French Open on June 5, 2007.

Though Henin-Hardenne led the WTA Tour this year with six titles, Mauresmo beat H-H in both the Australian Open and Wimbledon finals. Henin-Hardenne also lost to Mauresmo in total number of votes for the International Tennis Writers’ Association’s Player of the Year Award. The ITWA chose Roger Federer and Amelie Mauresmo as Player of the Year, voting them the sport’s best ambassadors. This is Roger’s third successive year selected; it is Amelie’s first such honor. Mauresmo won this year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon, as well as the hearts of fans and journalists.

Not only does he look stylish and play a picture-perfect game of tennis, Roger Federer cares as well. At the Masters Cup in Shanghai recently, his image was used to sell more than 2,300 Feder-bear Beanie Babies (r) as part of a charity effort to raise money for ACE (Assisting Children Everywhere) – a partnership between the ATP and UNICEF. Through ACE, the two organizations work to use tennis’ popularity to help secure resources such as education, protection, and health for vulnerable children.

The Feder-bear is an official Ty Beanie Baby (r) produced exclusively for ATP by Ty. Proceeds from the sale of each $8 bear will benefit the ACE program. The warm and fuzzy version of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Federer is available for purchase worldwide this holiday season. Best of all, Feder-bear writes a tennis blog!

World #1 Roger Federer finished his season perfectly by capturing his third Tennis Masters Cup title in four years. The Swiss star concluded 2006 by garnering 12 titles, over $8 million in prizes, and a 92-5 match record.

As if all these career bests are not stunning enough, Roger will also take
time off from his training to appear in the December issue of Vogue. A slick, six-page spread features Roger in a number of glamorous outfits from Gucci to Yves Saint Laurent. Monsieur Federer admits that he enjoys experimenting with his style, and that he feels a sort of fashion responsibility as a worldwide ambassador for the game of tennis.